In an open letter addressed "Dear America," the aunt of a 14-year-old killed in a Florida school shooting calls for action — not prayers — to put an end to gun violence.
Abbie Youkilis describes niece Jaime Guttenberg as intelligent and feisty with the world's best smile. She says she danced with beauty and grace, and "probably had been kind to the student who shot her."
Her emotional letter released Thursday labels politicians who fail to restrict access to guns as complicit, saying they and the National Rifle Association enabled Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old charged with killing Jaime and 16 others at a Parkland, Florida, high school Wednesday.
This undated photo provided by Abbie Youkilis shows her niece, Jaime Guttenberg. Guttenberg was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and was killed when former student Nikolas Cruz opened fire at the school Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (Abbie Youkilis via AP)
"My family does not want your hopes and prayers. We want your action. Join us in fighting the NRA. Join us in deposing any politician who cares more about campaign contributions than my beautiful Jaime. Join us in supporting leaders who will bravely fight for our children's lives," Youkilis writes.
Gun rights advocates have distorted the Second Amendment right to bear arms beyond rational interpretation, she says.
"Why is your hunting hobby more important than my niece's life?" Youkilis writes. "Why should my niece have been sacrificed at the altar of your 'freedoms?'"
Youkilis describes Jaime's parents as loving and overprotective. Fred Guttenberg said in a Facebook post that he is "trying to figure out how my family gets through this."
And Youkilis says she intends to politicize the issue, as ninth-grader Jaime would have wanted her to do.
"This is political and now this is personal. If not now, when? If not us, who? If we don't finally ACT, the sickness of gun violence will kill us all," she writes.
Florida's Republican-dominated Legislature likely won't do much, if anything, to limit access to guns. After the Pulse nightclub shooting that left 49 dead, Republicans filed bills to allow guns at state university campuses and airports. Republicans refused to hear Democrats' bills that would restrict gun access, including a ban on assault rifles.
The focus of Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Republican legislators after Wednesday's shootings was on keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and boosting school security, but not restricting gun access.
"You don't take cars off the road because someone got drunk, used one and killed someone," Rep. Jose Oliva, who is in line to be the next Florida House speaker, told reporters Wednesday evening.
Kate Tile leads Moms Demand Action's efforts in the Florida Capitol. The group fights legislation to expand gun rights and pushes for laws to reduce gun violence. She said she's frustrated that the Republican response to mass shootings is allowing guns in more places.
"Clearly we have a problem, and if your only solution is to put more guns on the streets and in schools and courthouses and airports, I shudder to think what our future will look like," she said. "Ultimately, what's going to be the tipping point is the change that comes at the ballot box."
BALTIMORE (AP) — A wooden cross is laden with Miguel Luna’s personal belongings — his construction uniform and work boots, a family photo, the flag of his native El Salvador — but his body remains missing after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
More than a month has passed since six members of a roadwork crew plunged to their deaths when a container ship lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns. Four bodies have been recovered, but Luna and another worker, Jose Mynor Lopez, have not been found.
They were all Latino immigrants who came to the United States from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. They were fathers and husbands, brothers and grandfathers. They shared a common dream and a determination to achieve it.
In an effort to honor their lives and their work, Baltimore County’s close-knit Latino community has constructed an elaborate memorial near the south end of the bridge. It includes decorated wooden crosses, a painted canvas backdrop, bunches of flowers, candles and a giant modified American flag with six stars — one for each of the men.
A group of mourners gathered at the memorial Friday evening to offer support for the victims’ loved ones and remind the public that even as cleanup efforts proceed on schedule and maritime traffic resumes through the Port of Baltimore, two families have yet to be made whole.
“It is one month, and there’s still two bodies under the water,” said Fernando Sajche, who knew Luna and helped construct the memorial. “We really need some answers.”
Sajche, who immigrated from Guatemala 16 years ago and works in construction himself, said it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that the victims died on the job.
“They’re the people who do the hard work in this country,” Sajche said.
The men were filling potholes on the bridge in the early hours of March 26 when the ship veered off course. A last-minute mayday call from the ship’s pilot allowed police officers to stop traffic to the bridge moments before the collapse, but they didn’t have enough time to alert the workers.
One of the officers who helped block traffic stopped by the vigil Friday and visited briefly with some of Luna’s relatives. He admired the memorial and praised the community’s warm response to an unthinkable tragedy.
Organizers used two cranes to hoist Salvadoran and Guatemalan flags high into the air in honor of Luna and Mynor Lopez.
Marcoin Mendoza, who worked with Luna several years ago as a welder, said Luna came to the U.S. to build a better life for himself and his family, like so many other immigrants.
“Same dream as everybody else,” Mendoza said. “To work hard.”
Luna was especially well-known in his community because his wife has a local food truck specializing in pupusas and other Salvadoran staples. He would often spend his days helping at the food truck and his nights working construction.
As the sun set Friday evening, mourners listened to mariachi music and passed out bowls of soup and beans. They lit candles and prayed together.
Bernardo Vargas, who helped construct the memorial, said he appreciates being able to do something for the victims’ families.
“I’ll be here every day until they find those two people,” he said.
Standing in front of the memorial’s elaborate painted backdrop, he pointed to a cluster of red handprints made by Luna’s relatives. They stood out among abstract depictions of the bridge collapse and salvage efforts as well as a violent scene from the U.S. southern border that showed a row of armored officers fighting back desperate migrants.
Loved ones left messages in English and Spanish.
“Here is where everything ends, all your aspirations and all your work. Now rest until the day when the trumpets sound,” someone had written in Spanish. “You will live on in the hearts of your loving family.”
A vessel, center right, moves past the stranded container ship Dali, through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Workers remove wreckage of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A vessel, center right, moves past the stranded container ship Dali, through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Roberto Marquez, an artist from Dallas, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at a memorial site to honor the construction workers who lost their lives in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
