South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Activist joins transition team for Nikki Fried
The father of one of the victims of the Stoneman Douglas school massacre will serve on the transition team for Nikki Fried as she prepares to become Florida’s next Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Fred Guttenberg is the father of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg, who was shot in the back on the third floor of the 1200 building at Stoneman Douglas. He has become a gun-control activist who has traveled to a handful of states to talk to governors about guns, and will be on Fried’s team.
The team will “help build a department that will respect the priority issues of the people and work hard to deliver results,” Fried said in a statement Friday. “Our transition team reflects the values of all Floridians.”
The team also includes Palm Beach County’s State Attorney Dave Aronberg, as well as the mayor of Orange County and current and former Congressmen.
Guttenberg said he “will play an active role in the gun side of things.”
He will help “ensure this department is able to do what it’s supposed to do, to ensure every single Floridian who wants a gun goes through an appropriate background check before they get a permit. That’s the way it was supposed to work and it didn’t.”
Currently, the Agriculture Department handles concealed weapons permits. Now that Fried, a Democrat, has been elected, the National Rifle Association wants to move gun permitting to the chief financial officer’s department instead.
Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, a Republican, was reelected to the job.
Guttenberg campaigned for Fried, who was the only Democrat to win a seat in a statewide race in this year’s election.
“I saw her election as the most important one in the state as it relates to guns,” Guttenberg said. “It’s unique that the commissioner of agriculture oversees background checks and gun per-
mits. So they really at the end of the day, this is who decides who does and does not get weapons. It’s a pretty unique role in Florida.”
State Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D - Coral Springs, is a Douglas graduate, and his district includes many of the students and families affected by the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 students and staff, and left 17 others wounded.
He said he’s evaluating whether it would be better to put concealed carry permits under the Florida Department of Law Enforcement but he was skeptical of the plan offered by the NRA’s influential lobbyist, Marion Hammer.
“I do find it concerning that before the first committee day Marion is already out
there saying give it to the CFO. She is not even whispering it. She has a foghorn telling everyone what her grand plan is,” Moskowitz said.
Guttenberg said he’s doing this for his daughter.
“Jaime would expect this of me,” he said. “Jaime looked at life where she completely understood right and wrong. And understood how to push for what was right. She was never afraid, as a little girl she wasn’t afraid to take on bullies if she saw someone bullying someone.
“She would expect this of me, so this doesn’t happen to someone else. Unfortunately it has since Jaime [died]. Not enough has been done.”
Staff writer Skyler Swisher contributed to this report.