February 15, 2018
To All It May Concern:
We must demand our U.S. legislators enact stricter background checks and ban assault weapons, high capacity magazines and bump stocks now! Mass shootings in America will only end if this action is taken. Prayers and inaction are no longer acceptable solutions and legislators who accept contributions from the gun lobby in return are no longer welcome to serve my country.
As a mother of four children who has been personally affected by gun violence I live in fear that statistically it's only a matter of time before my innocent children are victims of gun violence. Like many parents, I kiss my children and send them off to public school hoping tragedy does not affect our lives. Volunteering in my son's unlocked portable classroom today I startled whenever the door opened, prepared to react. Frankly, I'm tired of conversations at the dinner table instructing my children to hide in their school classroom cabinets, run in a zigzag pattern eluding a mass shooter, or God-forbid, hide under a dead body for safety. My teenage daughter is growing numb to the online news highlighting mass shooting incidences as common as teen social media posts. As Americans, we shouldn't be forced to live in fear or have adult conversations with our children regarding mass shootings!
As mentioned in my last plea to Senators and Representatives (Gun Control Legislation), gun crimes involving assault weapons statistically declined following America’s 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. This expired assault weapons ban significantly decreased the frequency of deadly massacres that occurred in our country, while allowing firearms for recreational hunting purposes. Moreover, assault weapons and high capacity magazine cartridges are weapons for destruction and for use by the military in war zones, not hunting; when they are used in a mass shooting, more than twice the number of people are shot and killed, than with handguns.
Australia and the United Kingdom have both enacted strict gun control laws. There has not been a single massacre since the 1996 assault weapons ban in Australia. The United Kingdom passed the Firearms (Amendment) Act in 1997 banning all cartridge ammunition handguns and there has only been one mass shooting since 2010. However, not a day goes by that there isn’t another shooting of innocent American civilians.
Mental health is certainly a component of gun violence (Gun Control Legislation), yet in February 2017 President Donald Trump signed a bill into law revoking gun checks for people with mental illness. Ironically, today he answered cries for tighter gun restrictions by encouraging Americans to report the behavior of "mentally disturbed" people to authorities. For the love of God and American citizens, please reinstitute stricter background checks instead of excuses, prayers and condolences!
I promised my children I would write another letter today to my senators and representatives demanding gun control now, "We must persist as a nation!" I exclaimed. There is no better use of our time as citizens. Inaction is not an option when our safety and that of our children is at risk.
I stand by Gabby Giffords and her petition I signed today. "I promise you that if we cannot make our communities safer from gun violence with the Congress we have now, I will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities' interests ahead of the gun lobby's. I will Vote Courage in November and support candidates who will stand up to the gun lobby and take action to make our communities safer."
I encourage everyone to sound their voice to their legislators, borrow my words, write now (Contact Congress Link) and vote for candidates who enforce stricter background checks and take action to ban assault weapons, high capacity magazines and bump stocks for the safety of all Americans!
In Persistence,
Kristen Downs
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