Father of Parkland shooting victim says Biden’s new gun proposal brings ‘tremendous hope’

The father of a victim of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman-Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. in 2018 praised the Biden administration for its recent announcement of a proposed new rule on firearms Friday.

“My initial reaction is what a tremendous hope,” Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the shooting, said on MSNBC. “President Biden keeps leading to do something about gun violence.”

The administration’s proposed new rule aims to clarify the definition of being “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms and thus who is required to be licensed. It would also implement new requirements for background checks and outlines what criteria people would have to meet —such as selling any number of firearms or repetitively offering for sale multiple firearms of the same mark or model, or firearms that are in their original packaging. 

If people have a gun they no longer need and want to sell it to a family member, they don’t need a license to sell it, according to the rule. If someone buys and sells relics or “collectible” personal firearms as a hobby, they also do not need a license. 

The clarification comes after an executive order by Biden in March directed Attorney General Merrick Garland to ensure gun sellers “who do not realize they are required to run background checks under existing law, or who are willfully violating existing law,” become compliant with background check requirements.

Biden called on Republican lawmakers in July to “come to the table” on gun reforms after a string of shootings leading up to Independence Day. 

“Today, Jill and I grieve for those who have lost their lives and, as our nation celebrates Independence Day, we pray for the day when our communities will be free from gun violence,” Biden wrote in a statement.

The president’s recent proposal also comes in the wake of two prominent acts of gun violence in the last week, one shooting by a racist gunman that killed three in Jacksonville, Fla. and another that left a professor dead on the campus of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.