Former Attorney General Merrick Garland toured “The Faces of Gun Violence” exhibit with former ATF Director Steve Dettelbach at the brueau’s DC headquarters last year.<\/span>Anna Moneymaker\/Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jaime Guttenberg\u2019s family<\/span> should have been celebrating her college graduation this weekend. <\/p>\n Her family has known that would not be happening ever since Feb. 14, 2018, when 14-year-old Jaime was one of the 17 people killed<\/a> in the horrific mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. But what was always going to be a difficult weekend for the Guttenbergs became even harder when they discovered the Trump administration was reportedly<\/a> eliminating a memorial to victims of gun violence.<\/p>\n Jaime\u2019s father, Fred Guttenberg, an advocate for gun control, worked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in Washington, DC to help create the memorial, which was unveiled<\/a> last year. On a phone call Tuesday morning, he told me that the news of the elimination of the memorial, first reported<\/a> by the Washington Post<\/em> on Sunday, is more proof that the Trump administration \u201cdoesn\u2019t actually care about violence in America.\u201d<\/p>\n The memorial consisted of about 120 rotating photographs of victims of school shootings, domestic violence homicides, police officers killed on duty, and other victims of gun violence. An accompanying digital kiosk also told the stories of the victims. Jaime and a few other Parkland students were among the initial group of victims memorialized. <\/p>\n Jaime\u2019s portrait on the wall showed her smiling in a white top, and her accompanying biography on the digital kiosk noted that she was a competitive dancer who loved dogs, stood up to bullies, and would be remembered by her family for her smile and laugh. \u201cThe intent wasn\u2019t to be anti-gun, it was to tell the stories of those who unfortunately have been victims of gun violence,\u201d Guttenberg told me of the memorial.<\/p>\n I am so angry and upset about this. I was one of the people who worked with the ATF to create this memorial wall. Jaime, & some others from Parkland were on this memorial wall. Where is Jaime’s picture now? In the trash? If you are someone who voted for Trump, you voted for\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/MYzX2W7c73<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) May 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Gun control advocates called the news insulting to victims of gun violence and their families.<\/p>\n Newton Action Alliance, an organization started by parents whose children died in the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, wrote<\/a> in a Bluesky post that the news suggests \u201cthe Trump Administration has no desire to honor the gun violence victims with action.\u201d Sandy Hook victims were also among those memorialized on the wall, according to the Post<\/em>. The pictures were slated to change annually in order to continue honoring more victims of gun violence, according to<\/a> the Justice Department\u2019s announcement last year.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a slap in the face to victims and survivors everywhere,\u201d wrote<\/a> Giffords, the gun violence advocacy organization, in a post on X. <\/p>\n The advocacy organization Everytown for Gun Safety wrote<\/a> on Bluesky that the Trump administration \u201ccontinues to go out of its way to insult victims and survivors of gun violence.\u201d <\/p>\n Spokespeople for the ATF did not respond to questions from Mother Jones<\/em>. A spokesperson for the Justice Department, which the ATF is part of, told the Post<\/em> that the agency is considering other ways to honor victims and that the removal of the memorial was not political.<\/p>\n The news is part of a pattern for the Trump administration of bolstering gun rights while undermining support for victims of gun violence. As I reported<\/a> last month, the DOJ canceled hundreds of grants that supported victims of gun violence, addiction, and domestic violence. That coverage led the DOJ to subsequently reverse<\/a> two of the canceled grants. Since resuming office, Trump shut down the Office of Gun Violence Prevention\u00a0and set the stage to undo years of progress on reducing gun violence,\u00a0as my colleague Mark Follman wrote<\/a>. Trump then directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to \u201cexamine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies\u201d from Biden\u2019s term to assess whether they \u201cinfringe on the Second Amendment rights\u201d of Americans.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In response, Bondi announced<\/a> the creation of a task force \u201cto use litigation and policy to advance, protect, and promote compliance with the Second Amendment.\u201d Also in March, Bondi also reportedly restored<\/a> gun rights to ten people with criminal convictions, including actor Mel Gibson, who had a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction. Trump\u2019s budget proposal seeks<\/a> to cut nearly $500 million in funding to the ATF, which enforces federal gun laws and helps investigate violent crimes, alleging<\/a> that the Biden administration \u201cused the ATF to attack gun-owning Americans and undermine the Second Amendment.\u201d <\/p>\n For Guttenberg, having Jaime\u2019s picture on the wall was part of a promise he made to make sure her murder was not in vain. \u201cWhen my daughter was killed, I set out on a mission to make sure nobody ever forgets her, to make sure her voice will always be a voice in the fight to reduce gun violence in America,\u201d he told me. \u201cHaving her picture there and her story there is a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was perfectly appropriate that this memorial existed there,\u201d he added, \u201cand it is horribly sad that it doesn\u2019t anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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