Chabot spokesman responds to criticism from Parkland victim grandmother saying she "doesn't even live in our congressional district."

Ethel Guttenberg pleaded Thursday for Rep. Steve Chabot and Congress to act so no one suffers the same fate as her 14-year-old granddaughter, Jamie.

Two weeks earlier, a gunman shot and killed her granddaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

"Jamie was running down the hallway and was shot in the back," Ethel Guttenberg said at a press conference. "She probably didn't feel any pain, but I'm sure she felt an awful lot of fear. Nobody should ever feel that kind of fear."

Chabot's campaign spokesman responded that Guttenberg is a Democratic activist who doesn't live in his district.

The Amberley Village resident stood in the playroom of New Horizons Preschool in Walnut Hills with teachers and mothers advocating gun control.

Guttenberg remembered her granddaughter as someone who loved to dance and probably had danced her way into school on the day she died.

"The hole in my heart is very deep," Guttenberg said, her voice wavering with emotion as she thought of Jamie Guttenberg. "I won't get to see my granddaughter celebrate her Sweet 16...All of those things we see our grandchildren do, we won't get to see that with Jamie."

Guttenberg, flanked by Julie Sellers, the head of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers and Michele Mueller with Mom's Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, called for a ban on AR-15 rifles. Guttenberg labeled the rifles as "weapons of war."

They also slammed proposals to arm teachers.

The event took aim at Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Westwood, and his opposition to gun control measures.

Chabot a day earlier on his blog wrote that arming teachers was "worthy of discussion." He also said he's working on legislation to allow schools to hire retired police officers for security.

Guttenberg and others at the press conference Thursday called on Chabot to cut ties with the National Rifle Association.

"Steve Chabot is one of the people who refuses to do anything about this," Guttenberg said. "The bottom line is, it is these weapons that are causing this type of damage, these kinds of bullets that no hunter would ever use that is causing this kind of damage."

Amid the construction paper artwork of the children on the wall at New Horizons Preschool hung a novelty check from the National Rifle Association to Chabot for $113,689. It parodied the contributions the NRA has made to Chabot over the years.

The Center for Responsive Politics reports the NRA has given $70,950 to Chabot's re-election efforts over the years.

Chabot is locked in a tough re-election campaign against Democratic challenger Aftab Pureval for Ohio's 1st Congressional District, which covers Cincinnati's West Side, western Hamilton County, and all of Warren County. Pureval had campaign staff on hand at the event.

Chabot's campaign responded by expressing sympathy to Guttenberg and victims of the Parkland shooting, then criticizing Pureval for exploiting the tragedy.

In a statement, campaign spokesman Cody Rizzuto questioned why Guttenberg was there.

"Like Congressman Chabot's opponent, Ms. Guttenberg doesn't even live in our congressional district, and the head of the Ohio Democratic Party has called her a Democratic activist," Rizzuto said in a statement.

Chabot, who taught elementary school for one year in the 1970s, understands the need to make schools safer, Rizzuto said in that statement.

"As a former school teacher himself, Congressman Chabot recognizes the importance of making our schools safer and more secure," Rizzuto said. "That's why he's been working with Cincinnati FOP President Dan Hils and is introducing legislation to provide funding to hire highly trained retired police officers to provide security in our schools."