Like most Americans, we are deeply disturbed by the recent mass murder of school children in Newtown, CT. Naturally, we are anguished and in search of answers and solutions. Recently, gun control advocates have seized this tragedy as an opportunity to forward their longstanding agenda, which includes the prohibition of ammunition magazines and semiautomatic firearms.
I respectfully ask that you to resist jumping onto the gun control bandwagon. Even the most credible non-partisan research (eg. National Academy of Science) is unable to identify a correlative, let alone cause-and-effect, relationship between firearms restrictions and violence prevention. As such, hysterical cries for gun control legislation are indeed a knee-jerk “bandwagon” approach.
Personally, I value my right to defense of self and home as guaranteed by our Constitution and recently confirmed by two Supreme Court rulings. I keep a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle and “high capacity” magazines, for the defense of home and family. In public, I bear a semiautomatic handgun, equipped with “high capacity” magazines, for the defense of self and family. I keep and bear these arms conscientiously and in accordance with federal and state law. Millions of our fellow Americans do likewise, day in and day out, year after year. That a troubled, selfish lunatic would violate numerous sensible public safety laws (including those prohibiting murder), and use a firearm (any firearm) to criminally destroy innocent life is a tragedy. Yet millions of Americans responsibly keep semiautomatic firearms in accordance with state and federal law and Constitutional immunity. The laws currently being proposed by perennial gun control advocates would regulate behavior of the very people who have been responsible and law-abiding all their lives. Misguided, inappropriate, and ineffective.
By joining those who blame firearms, and by extension, Americans who support and value our right to arms, you not only misplace blame on millions of Americans, but you lose the opportunity to focus on meaningful issues, such as our identification and treatment of mentally ill people. By making guns and gun owners scapegoats for blame, you risk stigmatizing and alienating millions of law-abiding Americans. We are not only troubled by false accusations, we are offended.
In closing, the issues surrounding this tragic event in Newtown are myriad and complex. People are rightly outraged, and rightly call for something to be done. I respectfully urge you to take care and caution when considering among the possible legislative reactions, and to ensure that proposed solutions further our interest in prevention without misplacing blame and alienating millions of Americans who are blameless for this murderous act. Policy formulated out of emotional response will solve nothing.
Sincerely, __________________
Thanks for the logical reasoning.
Of course we all use logic to dissuade hysteria over guns, but the hysteria is strong this time around.
We must double our efforts to be logical while understanding what makes people hysterical.
I tell ya what brother, the phenomenon of mass hysteria scare the dickens out of me.
Nice letter! Thanks Frog.