Reacting to the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling striking down an executive ban on bump stocks, MSNBC’s Joy Reid welcomed Fred Guttenberg, daughter of Parkland victim Jamie Guttenberg, to The ReidOut. While Guttenberg naturally blasted the Court’s decision, he also opined on matters that have nothing to do with gun control, such as claiming Justice Clarence Thomas hates America and that the decision will possibly lead to pre-election violence from MAGA.
Reid simply opened the floor up to Guttenberg, “Fred, I hate that I call upon you and only see you in these circumstances. But I just want to let you respond to what the Court did today.”
Guttenberg claimed that Friday was also the day that “demolition crews started tearing down the building that my daughter was killed in, my daughter and 16 others” and asserted that “because of today’s decision, we won’t be talking about 15 killed or 20 killed. We’ll be talking about 100 killed or 200 killed.”
He would then turn his attention to Thomas and add, “More people are going to die. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s signature will be on their death certificate.”
People like Reid invite people like Guttenberg on their shows because they think his tragic story gives them the moral authority to say things that they would be less likely to get away with. However, Guttenberg left the realm of gun control activism and entered the realm of progressive activism more generally when he added, “For whatever reason, that man hates everything that makes America great, and this is going to be so deadly.”
Also wandering away from any debate over the case’s specific question of what the definition of machine gun is, Guttenberg claimed the Court green-lit potential pre-election violence:
So I just want to say one more thing. There’s a really simple solution. Every single person watching this show today needs to check your voter registration. Go online right now and do it. Check your voter registration, make sure you vote in November. Actually, make sure you vote early if you can because what this Supreme Court did is give MAGA the tools to potentially turn that time leading into the election into one where they’re going to threaten this kind of violence. Vote early, vote absentee if you can, check your voter registration today.
The idea that there are a bunch of Trump supporters who are now going to possibly shoot up a polling place because of this ruling is wildly irresponsible and Joy Reid should not be allowed to get away with it by simply citing Guttenberg’s tragic biography.
Here is a transcript for the June 14 show:
MSNBC The ReidOut
6/14/2024
7:25 PM ET
JOY REID: Fred, I hate that I call upon you and only see you in these circumstances. But I just want to let you respond to what the Court did today.
FRED GUTTENBERG: So today, demolition crews started tearing down the building that my daughter was killed in, my daughter and 16 others. Today was the day they started tearing it down, and I keep thinking about that building, Sandy Hook, you know, Uvalde, all these instances of gun violence that because of today’s decision we won’t be talking about 15 killed or 20 killed. We’ll be talking about 100 killed or 200 killed.
Now, Joy, let me be very clear about what the Supreme Court is doing. Twenty years ago when my daughter was born, AR-15 sales were maybe 2 percent of all guns sold. In 2008, the Heller decision defined a phrase called common use. The industry went on a manufacturing binge to put these weapons into common use. That’s 16 years ago.
Following that, they developed this technology to turn them into machine guns and today the Supreme Court said “have at it.” More people are going to die. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s signature will be on their death certificate. For whatever reason, that man hates everything that makes America great, and this is going to be so deadly.
So I just want to say one more thing. There’s a really simple solution. Every single person watching this show today needs to check your voter registration. Go online right now and do it. Check your voter registration, make sure you vote in November. Actually, make sure you vote early if you can because what this Supreme Court did is give MAGA the tools to potentially turn that time leading into the election into one where they’re going to threaten this kind of violence. Vote early, vote absentee if you can, check your voter registration today.