Dear Representative,
I am a constituent in your district, and I write to express
my support for a comprehensive approach to addressing and stemming the increase in gun violence in our
country.
Specifically, I ask you to vote in favor of:
- Restrictions on the sale and access to semi-automatic firearms, automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines of ammunition;
- An outright ban of the sale or purchase of body armor by non-military or non-law-enforcement individuals;
- Access to mental health services for those in need;
- Restrictions on access to violent video games and movies by children under the age of 18, either by requirement of presentation of a valid ID for purchase, or by working with the MPAA, ESRP, and other industry groups to revise rating standards;
- More comprehensive background checks for purchases of guns, regardless whether the purchase is from a retailer or a private individual;
- A nationwide system for tracking the movement of firearms from purchaser to purchaser;
- A lift on the protections afforded gun manufacturers for product liability lawsuits; and
- Additional enforcement authority for federal (and state) law enforcement officials to prosecute gun crimes, including trafficking of weapons.
In addition to being a constituent, I am the mother of a six
year old child who is in first grade. The
massacre at Sandy Hook was incredibly distressing for me, to say the least. As the news of what happened sunk in, many
other things sunk in as well. For
instance, I realized that my son, who would most likely have stayed right by
his teacher’s side, would likely have been murdered in cold blood by Adam Lanza
if he’d been a student at Sandy Hook, as other children who were huddled by
their teachers were. I realized that in
the two first grade classes at my son’s school there are about 30 children; had
that shooting occurred in his school, a full 2/3 of the children would be gone
today. I realized that we can no longer
assume that parents, who are overworked and overstressed and may not have the
capacity or energy to tell their children “no” (or may not be aware), will monitor
and effectively limit access to the games their children play or the movies
they watch, or that the gaming and movie industry will do so voluntarily, either. I realized that we can no longer assume that
the mental health system will identify those in need and provide the necessary
care; there is still too high of a cost (even in Ohio, where insurance coverage
is reasonably accessible for mental health services, the administrative cost
and burden is too high for providers to see a benefit in accepting insurance)
and too much of a stigma attached to seeking therapy. I realized that there is no logical reason
for any person to have body armor unless they intend to do something which will
get them shot at in return… I am relatively confident that deer do not carry
guns, and therefore cannot fire back at hunters, so I question why body armor
can be so readily purchased online or even in specialty stores or trade shows
by non-military or non-law-enforcement individuals. I realized that because of tragedies like
this, there are proposals to turn our teachers – our teachers, who are
underpaid as it is! – into armed militia-men, with the expectation that they
not only calm our children, get them where they need to be according to the
lockdown procedures and try to protect themselves from harm, but also engage in
a “Dirty Harry” style shootout with someone who would undoubtedly be
exponentially better armed than they are likely to be. I realized that proposals to arm teachers or
place armed guards at every door essentially turn our school campuses into mini-prisons. And I realized that many objections to even reasonable
restrictions on the sale or purchase of semi-automatic and automatic firearms,
high capacity clips and body armor stem firstly from an increasingly fringe
percent of our population who want to feel protected in the incredibly unlikely
event that the government tries to “come get our guns”, and also from the gun
industry, which has a vested interest in continuing to make billions of dollars
on weapons that have no reasonable protection under the Second Amendment. (I encourage you to research Antonin Scalia’s
views on whether semi-automatic and automatic firearms or body armor are
constitutionally protected, if you haven’t done so already.)
Twenty first graders. Six faculty and staff. A mother.
And a very, very sick
man. GONE. Let’s not forget the unthinkable horrors
witnessed by the surviving children. To
see children being led outside with their hands over their eyes to shield
themselves from seeing their classmates’ bloodied and brutally murdered bodies
was, as the head of my son’s school put it, unhinging. And the parents… the parents! Can you imagine what it would have been like
to have been one of the parents who rushed to the school, waiting to have their
children brought to them safe and sound, only to be led into a back room to be
informed that their child was one of the dead?
Do you really think that anyone – whether in your Congressional district
or anywhere else in the country – should have to go through that when there are
reasonable steps we can take to mitigate the risk that it would ever happen
again?
Simply put, it is unacceptable that Sandy Hook happened, and
it is equally unacceptable that the Sandy Hook families (and the Newtown
community) are being forced to deal with such a profound loss. It is unacceptable that we – as parents, as
citizens, as constituents, as human beings – have witnessed this abhorrent
crime, and that gun violence is so absurdly common in this day and age, and
even accepted as a form of entertainment.
It is unacceptable to me as a parent that because of this act, I’ve had
to explain (in very general terms, obviously) what happened at Sandy Hook to my
first grader. It is unacceptable that we
have to check up with our children to make sure that they are doing lockdown
drills, and that they understand how important it is that if something happens,
they follow their teacher’s directions immediately and without question because
it might be the difference between life and death. And it is personally unacceptable that my son
should be faced with his own puzzling questions, such as “Mommy, why didn’t the
sick man get help so he wasn’t sick anymore?”, “Did he have an army?”, or “Why
did he have a gun?” Perhaps more
painfully, it is unacceptable that he should be brainstorming solutions to the
problem, including “Maybe they could just put cement up over the windows and
doors in our school so the bad guys can’t get in… then we can all be safe.”
In other words, violence on this scale is unacceptable.
And more to the point, our government’s failure to respond to
this national tragedy with comprehensive action would be wholly, unforgiveably
unacceptable.
Therefore, I ask that you support and vote for any of the
measures or objectives listed in the bullet points above, whether in sub-committee,
committee or on the floor. I ask that
you not participate in any dilatory tactics which would prevent such measures
for coming up for a vote at any level. I
ask that, if you vote against restrictions on the sale or purchase of
semi-automatic firearms or automatic firearms, you provide a detailed
explanation of your rationale, as well as disclose any funds received by you or
any affiliated campaign from the NRA or groups associated with the NRA. I call on you personally not to advocate,
endorse or actually take a fringe or conspiracy theorist’s position on these
critical issues, and as my representative to the Congress, I ask you to behave
professionally, and to treat all members of Congress with full respect, whether
you believe it is due or not.
I intend to follow this issue very closely, and will
absolutely hold each and every one of my representatives to the government,
including you, accountable for their votes on this issue in the next
election.
Thank you for your time,
Kimberly
