One moment from the first day of Senate hearings for Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the US Supreme Court gained outsize attention: when Kavanaugh seemingly refused to shake the hand of the father of a mass shooting victim.
Based on the video from C-SPAN, Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter died in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, approached Kavanaugh and extended his hand, and Kavanaugh turned his back to the man and walked away.
“I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence,” Guttenberg later tweeted, recalling the encounter.
We don’t know everything that happened. Kavanaugh may not have known who Guttenberg was. We don’t know what the two men said to each other, or what they were thinking. It all could have been a misunderstanding, an awkward social situation easily misinterpreted from far away.
But given Guttenberg’s advocacy for gun control, the moment has nonetheless put a spotlight on Kavanaugh’s views on the Second Amendment and guns. And guns were the first issue raised by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on Wednesday, during the second day of hearings.
Based on the video from C-SPAN, Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter died in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, approached Kavanaugh and extended his hand, and Kavanaugh turned his back to the man and walked away.
“I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence,” Guttenberg later tweeted, recalling the encounter.
We don’t know everything that happened. Kavanaugh may not have known who Guttenberg was. We don’t know what the two men said to each other, or what they were thinking. It all could have been a misunderstanding, an awkward social situation easily misinterpreted from far away.
But given Guttenberg’s advocacy for gun control, the moment has nonetheless put a spotlight on Kavanaugh’s views on the Second Amendment and guns. And guns were the first issue raised by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on Wednesday, during the second day of hearings.
Comments