Like millions of Americans, I was horrified and saddened to hear the news about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Connecticut. As the father of a school-age child, I cannot begin to imagine the grief that the famillies of the children who were killed must be feeling. I grieve with them. Our nation grieves with them.
In addition to being a father, I am a husband, an attorney, a hunter and gun owner. I have watched, for the past five days, as the mainstream media and gun-control advocates have cried out for harsher restrictions on gun ownwership. Truth be told, such entities have seemed positively gleeful at the tragedy. The Sandy Hook shooting offers the gun-control groups a chance at garnering more political capital than they have had in years.
Emotions on the gun-control front run very high right now, but I would urge you to exercise caution. Please use reason and logic in casting your votes on gun-control bills, which, I feel certain, will cross your desk in the near future. No amount of gun control, no amount of feel-good legislation would have prevented this tragedy. Please remember that the shooting at Columbine, which has become the archetype for school shootings in this country, took place in 1999, when the federal assault weapons had been in place for five years. Remember that Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people, including 19 children still in day care, using a box van, fertilizer and fuel. He used no firearms, to the best of my recollection. There were no calls for bans on box vans. The 9/11 terrorists used box cutters and airplanes to kill thousands. Not one firearm was used. There was no call for a ban on box cutters.
Please remember that restrictions on firearms only restricts those who will abide by the laws. Millions of gun owners killed no one. Millions of gun owners had no part in the Sandy Hook shooting. Millions of gun owners are just as horrified as the rest of the nation at the senseless butchery committed by a madman. Further restrictions on the law-abiding, gun-owning public only punishes those of us who will obey the law. Violent felons and the mentally ill will remain unaffected.
Further the creation of Gun-Free Zones has only served to ensure that killers can always find defenseless targets. At every public shooting, Sandy Hook, Columbine, Jonesboro, Appalachia Law School, Virginia Tech, as well as post offices, and many other public locations, killers have been able to trap their victims, sure in the knowledge that not one person in the target area would have the means to defend themselves. While the idea of a gun-free zone may seem nice at first blush, it has become apparent that a person who is willing to gun down dozens of others is unconcerned about the prohibition on firearms possession in a given area. Rarely, it seems, does such a killer plan on coming out alive. When I think of these Gun Free Zones, I cannot help but think about a phrase we used in the small town in which I grew up: "like shootin' fish in a barrel." The time has come to repeal the gun-free zones laws and allow all Americans the right to effectively defend themselves, their children, and those in their care, whenever and whereever they may be found.
Thank you for your time and attention in this matter.
Cordially,
Senator/Representative/Governor,
My name is Tahunua001(used real name) and I have been an Idaho resident for my entire adult life. I am a four year veteran of the United States Navy and had the great fortune of establishing a limited correspondence with you while on active duty. I have been quite disturbed by the recent bouts of unprecedented violence that this nation has faced over the last several months however I am also disturbed with the responses that they are generating. I am a firm believer in the second amendment and the freedom and responsibility that it bestows on all American citizens. Today I have read several news reports that President Obama and Vice President Biden have already established a plan to increase gun control in our nation in response to these heinous acts with an emphasis on para military style semi automatic rifles and handguns, however I feel compelled to voice my own opinions and concerns in a hope that they are heard by someone, anyone that can make a difference.
The entire nation has been grieving over the events in Newtown Connecticut but seems to have completely ignored that just days prior, another attempted mass shooting in Clackamas Oregon. This event took place in a mall where a man walked into the building and began firing senselessly into the crowds. It was stopped by a man exorcising his right to carry a concealed weapon. Nick Meli never fired a shot and despite 2 tragic deaths prior to his arrival on scene, managed to save the lives of countless others by showing the gunman that these people were not completely helpless by brandishing his weapon and taking cover. This is the message that we need to send to America, we NEED guns in our schools, in teachers hands and teachers willing and able to use them. In Israel, teachers are often armed, it is just a fact of life for them. In the last 10 years Isreal has suffered 8 fatalities in school related shootings. While those losses are tragic and unforgivable they pale in comparison to the 323 senseless school shooting related deaths that the U.S. has seen in the last 10 years.
We need a nation of citizens that is not being stripped of their right to defend themselves, their families and their way of life. The president and his family enjoys the protection of the secret service and their automatic weapons daily yet he sees fit to not even allow the people that placed him in office to use even semi automatic rifles to defend ours. If criminals followed laws then we would not have the epidemic levels of methamphetamine and cocaine users that this nation has. Conversely the strengthening of gun laws would only impede law abiding citizens ability to own a gun while the criminals will still be buying them out of someone's trunk and converting them to fully automatic. How will law abiding citizens defend themselves from that kind of person? Of the major metropolitan areas in the United states there seems to be a strong correlation between the amount of gun control and the heightened crime rates in those areas. Areas like New York City NY, Cook County IL, and Los Angeles CA have the worst crime rates in the nation yet also have the strictest laws against paramilitary pattern semi automatic rifles and concealed weapons.
Lastly, I would like to pose a hypothetical question. Assume for one minute that all personal protection aside, that the second amendment was written with the sole purpose to grant the ability of the citizens of our great nation to help defend against a hostile military force either foreign or domestic. would you expect a group of farmers, accountants, and mechanics equipped with low capacity, hunting rifles to be able to contend with a well trained military force equivalent to Germany or Italy, complete with tanks, air craft, artillery and automatic weaponry? then how would you expect the American people to contend with a larger, better equipped and much more likely threat like China or Russia?
all we ask for is the ability to help level the playing field in the favor of 'We the People'
I thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Tahunua001(used actual name)
Phone calls? You don't actually talk to a real congressman, do you?
I would like to start out by saying like all Americans I was sickened and upset over the recent mass shooting in CT. Mine and my families thoughts and prayers goes out to Newtown and the families of the lost.
In light of what has happened I know that any ban on weapon type and or magazine capacity would not have saved one person nor will it save any in the future. I am sure you know that the AR-15 and other military style firearm sold to civilians Are no worse than any other type sold.
I have heard reporters say they are the same ones our wonderful soldiers us in defending this great country of ours. We know this is not true. Our soldiers use fully auto or select fire weapons and not something that requires you to pull the trigger every time you wish to fire a bullet.
My family and I are hoping and praying that you do everything in your power to stop Obama in his tracks on the issue of gun control. Also I hope you support any measure to place people whether it be teachers, police or volunteers in our schools to be a barrier to those who wish to harm our children. I want to thank you for your stance and for your service .
Dear Senator/Representative/Governor,
In the wake of our most recent national tragedy in Connecticut, I address you as your constituent, to express my concern regarding what is likely to be a wave of proposed firearms legislation in the near future. I strongly urge you to oppose any proposed legislation that would seek to restrict or erode the law abiding citizen’s rights under the second amendment to the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution beyond their current state, including but certainly not limited to: proposed magazine capacity bans, firearms registration, and bans on semi-automatic firearms (the single most common type of firearm not only in America, but in the world).
In recent weeks I have seen throngs of politicians, celebrities, talk show hosts and representatives from special interest groups advocating restrictions or bans on semi-automatic rifles, labeling them as “assault weapons” or “weapons of mass destruction”. Such misnomers are either the result of ignorance regarding the very item that said proponents are campaigning against or, more likely, sensationalist tactics designed to influence the uninformed. I have heard the claim that “these types of guns are designed for no other purpose than to slaughter the maximum number of people possible as quickly as possible”. To this I would reply that there is a reason why every single police department in America uses semi-automatic, magazine fed, intermediate caliber rifles. It is not because the police are regularly in the business of wholesale slaughter, rather it is because such firearms are versatile, and are the single best tool for defensive use. Civilians keep these rifles for the very same reasons. I would further point out that all types of rifles, semi-automatic or otherwise, account for approximately 2.75% of homicides in the U.S. and are exceeded in use by knives (13.11%), blunt objects (4.16%), and hands and feet (5.73%). While our murder rate in the U.S. is around 4.2 per 100,000, rifles account for approximately 0.12 per 100,000 of said murders (Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports: Murder Victims by Weapon 2001 – 2005 and 2006 – 2010).
The Second Amendment was written for the express purpose of ensuring that the American citizen is empowered with the ability to protect himself or herself from threats up to and including that of an oppressive government, and that that right cannot be taken away. It has nothing to do with hunting or target shooting as some would propose. In recent years we have seen Supreme Court rulings in D.C. v. Heller which upheld that the Second Amendment does in fact protect an individual’s right to possess a firearm for lawful purposes, and McDonald v. Chicago which upheld that the Second Amendment extends to the states. We have also see a systematic erosion of civil rights resulting from legislation hastily passed in the wake of national tragedy. I strongly urge you, in a time when emotions are understandably running very high, not to support any legislation that will infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens, Second Amendment or otherwise. I will be watching you and your successors with a very keen interest over the next several months and will surely hold you to account in future elections.
Yours very truly,