Replies

Here is how I would respond if given the opportunity to pen an official response:

Dear Mr. Schumer:

While you claim to be engaging in a “conversation” regarding ways to prevent more senseless violence, and use the Newton school massacre as a backdrop for these “discussions”, the reality is that only one side of the conversation is allowed any voice, specifically the side calling for more restrictive anti-gun legislation. When only one side is allowed a voice, the result is a lecture and not a conversation. Are you willing to engage in a true conversation on the issue? Are you willing to listen to and seriously consider options that involve equipping and training our educators and other responsible adults in schools to protect innocent children from psychotic murderers when every second counts but the police are still minutes away?

You speak of balancing individuals’ rights against the need to protect the most innocent, but at the same time you seek to strip individuals of their right to protect themselves and those around them. Your letter bemoans the fact that citizens, alerted to the current assault on their rights, are purchasing more semi-automatic rifles (that you erroneously categorize as “assault weapons”) and criticizes the swelling grassroots support for a massive exercise of First Amendment rights (freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble) in support of our Second Amendment rights. Your letter specifically states that this activity by citizens is “counterproductive to the open dialogue we have begun”. The problem is: there is no dialogue, only lecture. It is clear that the anti-gun forces are determined to use this incident as a catalyst for restricting gun rights and not as a call for solutions. The “let no crisis go to waste” approach articulated by the President’s former Chief of Staff is clearly on display.

You have asked retailers to withdraw from the market “during this time of grief, reflection, and sadness” but you and your colleagues are attempting to use the emotions of this time of grief to silence your opposition and push legislation through the system that you would not be able to push when there really is a dialogue on the issue. Such attempts to use the deaths of these innocent children and their brave but equally defenseless teachers as cover – like lifeless human shields – for your agenda of banning and confiscating legal guns from law-abiding citizens is offensive and outrageous. I hope that you will set aside your agenda and join in a TRUE conversation – one that would require you to stop talking long enough to actually listen to some ideas that haven’t been previously tried and demonstrated as complete failures. Until then, we will continue to serve our customers and provide them the best equipment and service that we can in our commitment to the security and freedom of our citizens under the Constitution of the United States of America.

Thank you,

A CITIZEN, not a subject

PS: To quote another great citizen, Ted Nugent, KISS MY ASS!