And i want to welcome all of you tonight to books and books. For those of you i dont know, im Mitchell Kaplan and im going to be just introducing the person will be introducing you to the evening. As you can see tonight, we have cspan with us as well. So were very excited that theyre here. We thank them for all the good they do, all the good work they do in bringing important books to to the attention of all of us. Im also really, really thankful that that living not living, but but based here in miami, we have one of the great publishing houses, the publisher of this book, american carnage, is mango publishers. And tonight we have its its editor publisher, whatever you whatever youre now calling yourself the janitor and go and thats chris. So we welcome chris and his whole team for making really possible thank for all the good work that you do. Of course we have fred and tom, so lets welcome them before a formal welcome. Welcome. And you know, one of the cosponsors of tonight is moms demand action. And we are very fortunate to have with us tonight a woman whos been very outspoken the way fred has been about the subject of this book, american carnage, and just the incredible harm that we are suffering on a daily basis from gun violence. And thats because she knows about it personally as well. And thats maria jose wright. Mj right . Whos whose son was involved and was was killed in the pulse nightclub shooting. And i want to just warmly welcome her and tell her how how, how happy we are to have her tonight. How unfortunate is that . We have her here tonight with us, but shes going to introduce her two guests. So please welcome mj. Thank you, everyone. Thats here for being here. I think we all are grateful that you care enough to be here. I have the honor of officially introducing fred and tom, but i want to share something with you guys first, since seven years ago today, may 17th, i had a lovely lunch with my son jerry right here at fred leanness by the miracle theater. It was the end of a wonderful days. He had come down to spend my birthday and mothers day with me. Wed seen a musical together. We had had a lot of extended family time. And that lunch i remember we talked a lot about his plans and how excited he was about his job with disney. I drove to the airport, helped him with his bag, gave him a really tight hug, and we exchanged i love years. It was the last time i saw my son. It was the last time i hugged. Less than a month later, the weekend before fathers day and his next visit home, he was shot and killed at the pulse nightclub in orlando, along with 49 other people. I wanted to share this with you because whenever discuss gun violence, it seems like theres a lot of emphasis on the statistics and the policy arguments. And with the ever increasing number of victims, we sometimes its easy to lose sight that every one of those numbers is a person, a person whose life was cut short along with all their hopes and all their dreams. A person who was loved, a person who was the world to someone and whose absence leaves in their families hearts a gaping hole filled with pain, with grief, and with trauma and all of that horror and all that sorrow multiplied by so many of us now is seeping and permeating our entire society. In our Society Today is going to have to decide what were going to do about it. Are we going to let it continue . How it keeps growing and growing and growing. This National Tragedy . Or are we going to make the decision that we love our children, that we care about our loved ones enough to make the changes that need to be made for their safety, to speak to you about both the personal tragedy and the data and the facts and the science we have two experts, fred, whose beautiful 14 year old jamie was shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman douglas in parkland and who from the very beginning has been speaking out to honor his daughter and to talk about how we have to make reforms to our gun laws and make changes thomas gabor is a professor of criminology from ottawa university. He is an International Gun policy consultant. He has written over 200 books, testified in front of parliament in canada and has served as an advisor to the United Nations. He is considered a foremost expert on the issue of gun violence. Together, theyre going to speak to you about their book, carnage american carnage shattering the myths that fueled gun violence. I have the privilege of introducing them to you. I try not to let people make me cry. You almost. Partly because you in york, you understand and. Those of you who have gotten to know me. Im a dad. Thats who i am. Im nothing more than a dad. But im a dad whos children went to school that very 14th, 2018 day of love, valentines day. I send my children to school. It is all that i did on a perfectly normal day. In fact, it was the valentines day that i was going to introduce my children to the roman house of the day for the first time. It was normal day, normal texting between my daughter, my wife and i and my son and my wife and i. Everything is fine. Its just after 2 00 and just after 2 00, my son calls and he says, hey, dad, my son is a jokester. So i didnt know where this was going at first. He said, theres a shooter at my school and i didnt immediately take him seriously because, again, hes a jokester. The chili said, and i cant find you because the thing about my son jesse, he looked after sister like a hawk. And as soon as he said that, i knew it was true. And i said to him, well, where are you . He said, what theyre telling to run as far from the campus as we. But i cant find jena. I got to go back. I said no. You got to run. And im literally arguing with my son to turn around as fast as he can and to run. And hes crying to me that he doesnt want to. When on the phone you hear boo boo boo. And im sorry. Those are the shots on the third floor. My son heard it loud. I heard it through the phone. Those are the shots are killing my daughter. My daughter died on the third floor of that school, second to last to be shot since then, i have spent my lives. Doing everything i can to stop gun violence in america. Many of you may know my story because i wrote a book called find the helpers. Ive been talking about that and mango publishing. Thank you for doing with me and mitch. Thank you. Hosting. But it tells my story. It tells my story of being a part of two american tragedies because four months before my daughter was killed, my brother died of cancer. Related his service in 911. My ran the trials for the world trade soccer and in find the helpers. It is my story of hope because of the people who into my life and how they helped me fall. And i know you understand that concept. So two years ago this guy stepped into my life. Actually, you did it before two years. But in a more formal way. And it was during cold. And tom said to me, im working on a project and. I want to do it with you in. The project he was working on was a book to take on the lies and the myths of the gun lobby. Now listen for those of you who follow me on social media or see me on media, i spend my life taking on each lie and myth as it comes up, but never has there been a book like this that puts it all in one place for everyone to read and for everyone to be, and for everyone to be able to fight back with and, you know, over the past two weeks, over the media tour of book, for those of you who have seen our interviews, youve heard me say a lot, stop listening to the liars it is the liars who put us in the place that were at today, where are we today . Well, 20 years ago, when my daughter was born. We had 200 million weapons in america. Today 20 years later, were just over 200 million plus girls. Over 400 million plus girl scouts was more than doubled. And 20 years ago, our teens were under 2 of all guns sold. Today, 20 years later, theyre 25 of all guns sold. And so the question is, how did we get here . And thats what find the helpers. Im sorry, thats what american carnage. Okay. Tells you. It on all the lies, all the myths and will tell you america is hungry for this because in the past two weeks it has been one of the top books in the country. In fact, it made it up to number 30 for about a week ago in the country. And i dont say that to brag. I say that because its not a novel. Its not a mystery, its not a romance, but a selfhelp. The books that normally sell, its a book about gun violence. But, you know what . That tells time. And i people want to know the truth and they want answers. And so with that top, im going to ask you to come up. I want to thank you for asking me to become a part of this with you. I think its the most work that i will get to do in my lifetime is getting the story out. So with that, the podium is yours. Thank you so much, my friend. So honored to to collaborate with fred guttenberg, who has gone through unimaginable grief, devastating loss. But rather than just keeping it to himself and struggling his way through life, hes harnessed that grief in order to help others so that there wont be one other case. One other issue, and i have been in all spending the last two weeks with in d. C. And new york just trying to keep up with them and his pace. Hes got remarkable energy, remarkable passion and dedication to the cause. So its an absolute honor for me. Well, to team up with fred. And we do bring Different Things the table. But i just like to spend 30 seconds thanking books and books for putting on this wonderful event. And im very grateful to mangle publishers. I written a number of books and this is by far the best experience ever had with a publisher. Your so respectful towards authors, so responsive. And its an absolute delight to work with mangle and the team. Now, as far as im concerned in my background, this friend mentioned, or as mj had mentioned, i was a professor of criminology 30 years at the university of ottawa and canada, received my before that at ohio state, both in criminology and sociology and over the last 30 years. So this is my first book on gun violence. Over the last 30 years, ive been on and off with in the gun policy area and was first invited to do a review of research in the area. And, you know, i had no ax to grind. I had no experience as a survivor, i had no very strong feelings, even as a criminologist tore or antipathy. And we always stressed, by the way, that were not guns. Its worth hoping to make an impact. Gun violence to prevent gun violence, gun violence prevention, gun safety, whatever the terms that are commonly used, were not guns. Were not trying to disarm americans. Were trying to find some Common Ground with gun owners. And many of them today are highly motivated to work with us. Many of you may have seen no less than a fox news poll recently found that over 80 of americans are supportive of many of the basic measures that activists are seeking such as universal background checks. So nobody can get a gun and the private market without some checks. Red flag laws for people who pose a risk to others and are demonstrated to do so. Raising the age for gun purchases. You know, our gun owners, for the most part, are supportive of these measures, as are in our methods. So thats one of the myths, the many myths tackle in this book that the country hopelessly divided 50, 50 gun owners and non owners or people who are trying to prevent gun violence and those who are just interested in gun rights and expanding their rights as gun owners and, that theres an irreconcilable difference between the two because thats what the gun lobby wants us to think. That is futile. Theres no way forward. Were hopelessly divided. And so we may as well pack up and forget about it. But when you look at those polls, you see quite the opposite. You see that most americans are desperate for change and increasingly were finding that in in different polls that have been taken. Just a couple of other things that ive done, i was involved with the first United Nations study on gun regulation. And why is that important . We looked at over 200 countries around the world to see what are they adopting. And thats when, you know, that started to open my eyes. It wasnt just the original reviewing the research and seeing how strong and compelling the research is. That tells us that guns on balance pose far more liability and risks to people than pose a benefit to the population and i also saw what an outlier america is with to gun policies, and that basic measures that are taken in other countries, for example, licensing of gun owners and more careful very thorough vetting of gun owners. Were not even close to achieving this in this country. With the two minute quick background check that we do that misses all kinds of relevant information. Thats sad and tragically, the parkland shooting was exhibit a, where he showed so many disturbing signs, but technically, he didnt have felony conviction on his record. So he was able to buy his ar 15 from legally from a store and this is one of the things that loopholes that we have to close and ive also been involved with the sandy hook that occurred in the uk. So back in 1996 there were 16 children in elementary school, much like sandy hook that were murdered in dunblane, scotland, as well as a teacher, and that in the uk it was very different response because whereas here in america people seem stock up or at least a certain segment of society starts to stock up when we have these horrors and we have 7. 5 million new gun owners. America since the pandemic in other countries such as uk, australia, new zealand, germany tightened up activities for tightened up their gun laws considerably. And im proud to say i was invited to serve as an Expert Witness to submit on behalf of the victims families and experts submission that Lauren Collins inquiry in the uk and ultimately it really tightened the law as far as handguns were concerned. So im hoping well follow their path. But so thats just little snippet of my involvement in this area and think we have a real symbiotic relationship here. Again, i wish as fred is the nicest guy in the world, but i wish id never met him, you know, just like we wish we never met m. J. We could just all live in peace. However, were at the point now, you know, its very overused term inflection, point, but a recent by Kaiser Health found that 52 of americans now have had a personal experience with gun violence. Either they have been intimidated by guns, they have been shot. A family has been shot, or at hands, a shooting. So, you know, the idea that this is something happens all over there and doesnt my community its infiltrated every community and the americans as a whole must deal with it. If not, its at our peril. If we fail to do so. Thank you. Thank you you. So so tom and i are going to have a little bit of a dialog, but then we want to leave time for you all to ask us questions. And so im going to kick us off. And first, just thank you for for providing doing the substance to so much of the work that i do when i harass people and. Im going to start it there. Tom last week, you and i were in d. C. Just so you all know, last week was quite a pace, but we handed out a copy of american carnage to every Single Member of congress, whether they, it or not. And im going to tell one story in a minute. We actually got bring american carnage into the white house and we met with susan rice and the gun policy. This is a book thats going change this country and the conversation on this because it is filled with data and fact. I also know last week, one morning got to address the full Democratic House caucus and which was quite an experience as well so this book has now infiltrate our politics and those who will make decisions because its time to reclaim this Congress Nation from the gun lobby, which owned the platform for far too long. I to give you all. One story and im going to ask tom to, maybe highlight a story that stuck out to him, but this one stuck out to me. And it was in congressman Thomas Massies office. Now, for those of you who dont know, that is hes from kentucky. He is the person who to christmases ago put out a Christmas Card with his entire Family Holding our fifteens and is what i would call one of the liars. And we went into his office and ended up talking. Its interesting the democrats call the people who work on guns, gun violence prevention staff and all the republicans call them Second Amendment staff. So so it was the Second Amendment staffer. And were having a very pleasant conversation. We really are but he lives in a different side of the universe than we do. And he challenged, of course, everything we were trying to talk to him about one thing, but one as far as to say that my daughter could have been killed with a rock. He did so his his theory got put to the test this week. Congressman connollys office his was attacked may have all read about it. Somebody walked in with a bat, hit both the staffers with the bat, broke a lot of stuff but you know what . Both those staffers are alive. They just the person walked in with bat and not a gun. One of the myths we take on the book is the importance of the weapon and both those congressman connolly staffers are alive today. The thing, though, there really stood out for me, which is which is i still laugh at it, but it shows you just how weak they are in their positions. So im talking to the staffer kind of like this. And over theres a big open doorway and i could see the whole time im talking to the staffer. Congressman massie sitting with the staffer, the whole time, never came out and our conversation with the staffer went on exceptionally long about 20 minutes. I at some point the congressman finally he needed to cross through the office to go to his personal office and so he finally goes through the door, head down like this walking through. And i said, congressman, i hope you were listening to that conversation. And he said, i heard every word of it. And i said, i just want to introduce myself. Im fred guttenberg. He goes, i know who you are. And he kept on walking, wouldnt stop to engage us to talk to us about truth, to talk to us about facts. So ill leave it here. Thats who they are, right . We know that. But you know what we . Get to do in 24 vote. We get to and i have news for you in the past three elections weve elected more gun safety candidates than we have in the past. This is the election to get it done. And i do believe that this issue will talked to one or two voting issue this or choice in the next election and its going to drive people to vote. However you all need to vote because the one thing name republican at this point trump to whoever should be the nominee they know their base vote tha