Fred Guttenberg, the parent of a teen shot to death at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla., is furious that two local sheriffs have appeared on NRATV to promote the arming of school teachers.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri appeared on NRA talk shows, even though they both sit on the commission charged with investigating the Parkland shooting.

The commission recently issued a lengthy report that details failures at the school that led to the shooting, but more controversially, it recommended arming teachers with guns and training them to defend their school in case of an attack by a gunman.

Guttenberg said the commission heard no public testimony that supported the idea. Gualtieri and Judd both went on NRATV to promote arming teachers, even appearing on programs before the report was complete.


As Guttenberg pointed out, this represents a conflict of interest: the NRA exists to promote the sale of guns, not gun safety. “NRATV is the online propaganda arm of a gun lobby group whose goal is to support gun manufacturers and sell more guns,” Guttenberg said.

What is it with the Florida Sheriff's who served on the MSD Commission and fight for arming teachers going o NRATV to push this? https://t.co/qiDCVunKVi via @nratv — Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) January 5, 2019

Teachers, parents, and school administrators largely oppose arming teachers or putting more guns in classrooms, but the NRA has endorsed the idea.

Judd told viewers on the NRA program that he wanted school administrators to be able to violently confront a potential assailant. “Shoot them so much you can read a newspaper through them,” he said. “We want them graveyard dead before they can shoot our children.”