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Old December 29, 2012, 01:48 AM   #18
Jazzninja
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Join Date: March 8, 2009
Posts: 17
Hello friends. I am a long time reader, but rarely post. I've drafted my letter and would like to submit it to you all for review. If anyone would like to use or borrow from it, by all means fee free. Thank you for your feedback.

Quote:
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,
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