Dear Representative Beutler,

Once again, gun-control advocates are exploiting an unpreventable tragedy to further their agenda of destroying the 2nd Amendment . . .

Senator Dianne Feinstein has always hated firearms and despised those who own them, and she has announced her plan to confiscate those rifles and handguns that she thinks are too scary-looking, despite the fact that they are used in a negligible number of crimes.

Tragedies like these are what Dianne Feinstein literally prays for and now that this evil has occurred, she will use it to her utmost political advantage. This foolish bill will pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, but it cannot become law if House Republicans like you stand firm in support of law-abiding gun owners.

As a gun owner who voted for you, I urge you to oppose these cynical attempts to exploit this tragedy, and to encourage your House colleagues to oppose it as well. You know well that liberties, once lost, are never regained.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter.

Christopher J. Dumm

(Find your own House representative here).

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

68 COMMENTS

  1. People will not be turning in their guns. All this legislature will do is turn otherwise law abiding citizens into criminals though their gun ownership.

    It won’t take people long to realize that if they are considered criminals anyway, just by owning a high capacity magazine, why not buy that full auto gun in the black market.

    Or it will go the other way. Some people will decide to dump their guns in the black market since they can’t own them any more. A drug dealers will pay big money for those “banned guns”. An AR will fetch about 3k in the black market.

    A gun ban will make things worse.

    • Yeah, I feel so bad for the children that I took my guns, cut them up, and then put the unrecognizable parts in the recycling bin, the new car was a gift.

  2. Writing to Louisville’s congressman John Yarmuth is a total waste of ink. He votes with Nancy Pelosi 99% of the time and earns a solid F from the NRA.

    Writing to our senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell is also a waste of time since they will oppose DiFi no matter what she comes up with.

  3. Now is not the time to make excuses!

    I don’t care if your Rep is an F- anti-gun Brady poster child. I similarly could care less if your state or city is more left leaning then the Socialist party of France.

    Take a minute and bust out an Email to your rep in opposition to a renewed assault weapons ban. If even the anti’s inboxes are filled with letters in opposition to a renewed AWB, perhaps cooler heads in DC can prevail. I know one thing for certain-the millions of people who support another Assault Weapons Ban live in every state in America, and will not let geography or a conservative rep stop THEM from sending letters of support. We should be similarly determined.

    That being said, I believe all this post is doing is yelling at a brick wall. Those of us on this website do not represent the majority of armed Americans, for whom a firearm is just a fun accessory or a tool separate from politics. Such people will support another assault weapons ban if only because it will help establish emotional closure to the horrendous scar of 20+ dead elementary school kids and teachers. Its a historical constant that the most horrific government policies and acts take place after national crises such as this one .

    Don’t be surprised if my commenting activity ceases for a while. Ill be working overtime in the months to come , as it seems our 2nd Amendment rights will soon go the way of the cassette tape.

    • +100
      I have already sent letters to my reps, congressmen and senators.
      I hope and pray the families, friends and faculty of Sandy Hook can find closure and peace through God and Faith but I realize it I up to us, the American Citizen to do something about stopping these tragedies!!!
      We have all got to come together and stand as 1 voice to abolish Gun Free Zones everywhere they exist, and to make all politicians and all other citizens realize that we alone are responsible for the safety of our children and our families anywhere and everywhere we may be!!
      AWB’s and Gun Free Zones have never worked and never will.
      Stand Up, Speak Up and help us save our rights and our children!!

  4. I’m very unhappy with the fact that you just made this a partisan issue, I’m not a democrat (i’m independent), but I am VERY liberal, and I completely oppose any sort of gun control. Don’t make this about party affiliations, no one wins.

    • Kyle, it IS a partisan issue. It doesn’t matter if you like guns, the majority of your fellow Democrats and their elected representatives do not. I’m not sure if it’s in the official party platform, but the unofficial party platform for Democrats has included gun control for 50 years.

      If you’re so convinced that it’s not a partisan issue, please show me one anti-gun law proposed by a Republican in the Federal Senate / House in the last half a century.

      • First of all, I’m not a democrat, I was pretty clear about that. Second:

        In the Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 97th Congress, Second Session (February 1982), a bipartisan subcommittee (consisting of 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats) of the United States Senate investigated the Second Amendment and reported its findings. The report stated:

        “The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner.[1]”

        Please notice the part about 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats.

        People in the same political parties generally agree on a lot of things, that’s why they form political parties. My point is that as People of the Gun we have to put arbitrary partisan lines behind us in order to protect our rights.

        Oh, and I have written my representative.

        • You said “I’m not a democrat (i’m independent), but I am VERY liberal,” – that implies that you vote Democrat, even if you call yourself an independent, because they agree with your “VERY liberal” views.

          “Please notice the part about 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats.”

          That means nothing. The overall committee decided that – it doesn’t mean they all agreed, or have you never seen how the SCOTUS works? You also failed to provide any evidence of a Republican introducing anti-gun legislation in the House / Senate. Like I said, it is a partisan issue at the Federal level because the Democratic party is adamantly against gun ownership by anyone that’s not part of the government.

        • The numbers are inescapable. To my liberal and Democrat friends, if the problem discussed is of a political nature (it is), then it almost universally involves liberal democrats. To my ‘Independant’ friends who are liberal (and like guns): You must really hate democrats. To my non liberal democrat friends (and like guns): Is it worth it(your colleagues seem to REALLY like ‘Big Gov’)?
          No second amendment, no first (or any of the others).

  5. It is always important to write your representatives regardless of how you think they will vote. Everyone likes to feel supported and if all the letters they get are pro gun control, if they are on fence, they ,might be swayed too make small (but unacceptable) concessions.

    • Good point. It’s likely that she’ll swing for the fence, hoping for ” compromise” to still result in something completely unacceptable to gun owners.

  6. You have to shake your head and do a face palm when you see Obama voters writing letters to their representative trying to save their rights to buy scary black rifles. In my estimation, a person who really cared about their 2AD rights should have voted republican. Voting for anti-American socialists is not a good way to secure your freedoms.

      • Back of buddy!! I seen him first!!! LOL!!
        I agree that he has hit the nail on the head so to speak!!!
        As much as it pains me to say it my sister is a Dumbocrat and she got a verbal facepalm from me more than once this weekend!!!

        • Really strange. My father is retired career military who served in WW2, and supported the US in Korea and Vietnam. He is pro-gun, pro-Constitution. My mother, was a dependent spouse and still benefits from the sacrifices she made with his repeated deployments and moves, and so much more, and she is anti-gun. My late kid brother was a 1960s anti-war activist who did what he could even as I served, yet he enjoyed teaching martial arts and going to the range with his 1911. My sister is anti-gun though she grew up within a military family, and her only son is career military and has deployed to the Middle East. Our grandfathers were pro-gun. One loved to hunt and possessed a collection of firearms. He served in northern France during WW1. The other was a fan of westerns and collected revolvers.

          You see? It doesn’t matter what party one is affiliated, what their background, etc. Anyone can be pro or anti-gun. The only way to preserve this right which the Founders identified and enumerated, and the government promised to keep their hands off for something like 150 years even against those who disagreed, is to keep letting politicians on both sides of the issue know we are not going away. To that end, I have continued to write/petition/call/email people like Feinstein, Jerry Brown, Obama, Biden, etc.in addition to those who I know are pro-gun. Of course, I continue to get back typical responses. I did finally get a response from Feinstein which didn’t sound like a canned response. She said “we will just have to agree to disagree”. I responded with “no we do not. you are wrong in light of the Constitution and the words of the Founders as well as the words of the co-authors of the 2nd, historical records, and even the writings of enemies of the USA such as Admiral Yamamoto”.

          We can’t give the opposition an inch for they will take it and more, and we know they will never give an inch to us.

    • Because Romney was such a fan of guns, what with signing an AWB and going on the record multiple times to say that scary looking weapons only exist to commit crimes.

      Anyone who actually values their Constitutional rights voted for Johnson.

        • No, he was the equal of two evils. Actually, possibly worse because Republicans in the House / Senate would’ve jumped to back the President’s agenda, no matter what it was, so he could have easily pushed through anti-gun legislation.

          As for the whole “less of two evils” idea, that is why we have such shit laws and politicians – because people have spent the better part of the last century voting for “the lesser of two evils” which is still voting for evil. Try voting for someone who’d actually do a good job and then sit back in shock when (if enough people do it), we actually get someone who’ll do a good job.

        • “No, he was the equal of two evils. Actually, possibly worse because Republicans in the House / Senate would’ve jumped to back the President’s agenda…”

          This. F**king this. As horrible as it is, I honestly believe having Obama in the White House is the best shot we have at rallying the troops and getting people to get off their ass and oppose the Dems on this.

      • A vote for Johnson was the equivalent of two votes for Obummer. Dumb Dumb Dumb. As for Romney, its obviously not possible to predict what he would have done, but I do not think that his actions as a Massachusetts Governor would have much relevance as to what he would have done as President. He had to make a whole different set of promises to a whole new set of political donors. Besides, wasn’t the Massachusetts legislature 85% Dem?

        • Wrong. A vote for Johnson was a vote for Johnson. Obama won by far more votes than Johnson got. Romney’s time as governor was a great predictor of how he’d be as President. He’s a good liberal through and through (but you can’t run a Dem against a Dem, so he runs as a Republican) and has always supported their positions – he didn’t oppose them until he decided to run for President, then his views magically did a 180. As for the legislature? Romney vetoed hundreds of bills as governor. He was pro-gun, he’d have vetoed it and let them push it through anyways.

          A vote for Johnson was a vote for the one candidate that was for following the Constitution, for protecting (and restoring) our gun rights, for ending the endless wars of aggression, for ending the indefinite detention / murder of Americans, etc.

      • Unfortunately, people who voted for Johnson threw their vote away. He and the other minor parties drew enough votes away from the Republican Party to ensure Obummers re-election.

        • That’s incorrect, so please stop with the “threw their vote away” shit. It just sounds bitchy at this point. (And before you say, “Well you’re probably one of them,” no, I didn’t vote third party.)

          Florida is the only state won by Obama where the number of third party votes (88959) exceeded Obama’s margin of victory (74309). (For the record, the next closest was Ohio, where the margin of victory was 166214, and the third party votes totaled 91794.) In every other state that fell to Obama, you could shift all the third party votes cast there to Romney, and he still would not take the state. Obama ended up with 332 electoral votes, Romney with 206. Even if you shifted Florida, the only possible movable state, and its 29 electoral votes to Romney, it would still be 303 to 235 and Obama still wins. (Source)

        • For the record, the vote totals have now been updated to match the official Federal Election Commission results (Source – pdf warning), and what I wrote above is no longer correct. The total third party votes in Florida is now recorded as 72976, and thus is less than the margin of victory of 74309 by 1333 votes.

          With that change, there are now zero states won by Obama where the total number of third party votes exceeded the margin of victory in that state.

  7. It’s a nice idea bit my representative doesnt represent me. I’m just the minority in this district here to be trampled on and mocked by the majority.

    Still, I suppose five minutes of my time just to remind her that I exist couldn’t hurt though I loathe those patronizing prefab replies they send back.

  8. I wrote my rep, but he’s head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Hopefully his views on not taking peoples right away will trump his liberal stances…

  9. Becoming fanatical and claiming that someone “literally prays for” a tragedy like this is over the top, and isn’t going to help the situation. Shame on the author, and TTAG for posting such a ridiculous statement. This just makes you sound just as crazy the worst anti-gun liberal.

    • Right, which is why DiFi and co cackle with glee every time they hear of another mass murder and then rush to push the same damn laws they’ve been pushing for decades.

      If you don’t think every anti-gun person gets excited when they hear about something like the shooting the other day, you’re naive. They love it because it gives them political ammo to push their unpopular agenda.

      • Actually, if you watched her on Meet The Press this morning, she was doing everything in her power not to grin from ear to ear when talking about her preposed bill for the next congress. It was as if God delivered her the massacre and she wet herself with anticipation of what she’s wanted for decades…a complete ban on scary firearms!

        Plus I have already sent my emails to Mccaskill and Obama, Friday and saturday respectfully!

      • Toten, I think you can pull up the whole exchange on the MTP website, and sometimes MSNBC will rerun last Sunday’s show during the week. Seriously, you could see the corners of her mouth fight not to go into a grin!

  10. Done. We need to provide a voice equal to the gun nuts, and we are failing. For example, the White House petitions for more gun control blew up while the petitions for less flailed. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions (filter for firearms) NRA cannot keep gun owners safe. It’s up to the firearm owners to fight for our rights (to party).

    The overwhelming response I get from gun owners to the online petitions is “it’s a bunch of b.s.”. Here’s the thing–it may be b.s. But if gun owners can’t be motivated to take five seconds and click a link, I’m not surprised when they can’t be motivated to do much more–like writing congress regardless of their political leanings. Gun control was a major Dem platform, and is falling out of favor because of their voters. Let’s keep that ball rolling.

  11. I wrote all of my representatives this evening letting them know in no uncertain terms that if they support anything other than getting rid of “gun free zones”, that I will not only NOT VOTE for them but that I will actively work to ensure they don’t get re-elected.

  14. I sent the following to all of my representatives:

    “Once again, opportunistic politicians and the media are seeking to use a national tragedy to push their own agenda. Many of those individuals seeking to restrict or abolish the rights of gun owners due so through misdirection and even outright false information. Despite the hard statistics and logic which show their arguments for the baseless opinions that they are, these opponents of gun rights continue to spout their falsehoods. As an honest, hardworking, law-abiding gun owner, I refuse to let these individuals trample all over the rights and liberties which this country has fought so hard to protect. So I ask you, as a member of the populace you represent, please fight to protect the rights afforded all Americans under the Constitution of the United States. Every liberty lost is a liberty never to be regained.”

  15. If you have a democratic congressperson, writing them is even more important .
    they need to be reminded ( in a very polite way – be adult about this) what happened to democratic control of the house when prez Clinton passed the original AWB.

  16. When Scott Brown was running for re-election in MA, I wrote him a lengthy note in favor of national reciprocity. I received a form email telling me, politely, to eat sh!t and die. He’s now the former Senator from Massachusetts, due in no small part to abandoning his Republican base to appear more “bipartisan.” Remind your elected representatives that their jobs are still subject to the will of the people. What’s popular today may be the end of them tomorrow.

  21. I’m going to do it anyway, but just so we’re clear, the representative for my address is the race-baiting, quite possibly out-of-her-goddamn-mind Rep. Corrine Brown.

  22. People, don’t just write you representative but write your senators too. Explain to them that their personal biases are not supposed to allow then to work to ignore the constitution. I’m on my way home and I will write all three and explain that if they vote against my rights, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure they won’t represent me after the next election. I’m through taking garbage from people who refuse to respect the constitution and you should be too.

  24. Dear Representative Loebsack,

    In the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook, we are seeing renewed calls for gun control across the nation. The argument, well known to all of us, is that gun control will save us.

    Unfortunately, just as the nationwide assault weapons ban did not stop the Columbine massacre of 1999, Connecticut’s assault weapons ban did not stop shooter Adam Lanza from murdering many innocent children. After decades of gun control, our children continue to pay the price for our failure to protect them effectively.

    We would all feel much safer if, for instance, metal detectors and armed, well-trained police officers were given permanent posts within our schools to immediately meet the threats which continue to be visited upon them. I urge you to call for action which will see to our children’s safety with -effective- measures of protection, rather than the paper tiger that is gun control, which- even if further implemented tomorrow- will do absolutely nothing to prevent another massacre from occurring the day after. After all, curtailing our rights nearly always results in those rights never being regained, and doing so prevents me and my constituents from using effective firearms for the purpose God intended them to have: protecting our children from the Adam Lanzas of the world.

    Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

    (name withheld)

  25. Interestingly, my district has a new Representative-elect for the first time in a VERY long time. I know what our outgoing Rep’s vote on this would be (hint: automatic yes on an AWB despite him being ex-military) but I have a glimmer of hope for the new guy.

    Time to send a letter!

  26. I wasted 30mins (because I have to deal with my cranky 2yr old son) of my life writing my gun grabbing democrat state representative this evening. I urged her to respect the spirit of constitution and the rights of all Americans, and to not support any further guns laws with out first acknowledging and recognizing the root of these tragedies that our country has faced for decades, which is violent, depressed and suicidal young men of high school/college age with no avenues to deal with their thoughts and feelings. These mass murders will continue to occur despite her best efforts to rid our country of firearms, until we acknowledge these young men, and their need for effective counsel and treatment. This proposed gun ban is not addressing the real issue of these recent public massacres, and is only a guise for passing a personal political agenda.

    While I know many of you may not appreciate what I said, I honestly do believe that we have a epidemic of depressed young men who live with a sense of hopelessness in this country. While I am certainly no psychologist and I don’t pretend to have the answer, something should be done to help treat them. We need appropriate and accessible health care in the country, not just for the body, but for the mind as well. I don’t want people to think I’m painting the shooters as the victims here, but I think our current medical system doesn’t place enough emphasis on mental health issues with young people, which is exactly the age when most severe mental health issues develop.

  28. Now is not the time to bicker among ourselves. We need to unite (sans Mikefnnumbers and Hummmmmmmmmm) write call demonstrate. It’s 1st and goal on the 1 yard line for the antis. Ignore the trolls and put 1/10 of the effort you used to earn the money to buy your gun into keeping your rights!

  29. “Tragedies like these are what Dianne Feinstein literally prays for and now that this evil has occurred, she will use it to her utmost political advantage.”
    That is an appalling statement to write. And I can tell you the “anti-gun” people thought of the children and the adults first, the politics second.

    I’m a conservative and I believe we need gun control and regulation. And I wrote my congressional representative asking them to stand up to the NRA. I hope the millions of responsible Americans, many of them gun owners, will do the same.

    I would not want to go to a movie theater where everyone was armed and I wouldn’t let my children attend a school where the teachers were armed.

    This country is a third world county when it comes to guns. Grown men and women acting as though they were characters in an old time western.

    Gun control does not mean gun prohibition. It means reasonable, rationale, adult rules to govern the use of guns. And don’t tell me that (fill in the blank) kills more people than guns. Guns were invented for one purpose only – to kill. Cars, e.g., were invented for transportation.

    I’m not an “anti” I’m a “pro responsible gun ownership. ”

    Annie

    • “I would not want to go to a movie theater where everyone was armed and I wouldn’t let my children attend a school where the teachers were armed.”

      Why? In the case of the movie theatre, and they were carrying concealed, how would you know?

    • I agree, the statement about Feinstein is awful.

      But as someone who is “pro responsible gun ownership,” what rational, adult rules to govern the use of guns would you propose that would have prevented the most recent (or any) massacre?

    • Yeah, they probably thought about the victims first, for about one second, and then spent the rest of their week thinking how they can pass through an AWB that will do nothing to prevent the next suicidal and angry young man from spilling blood. These massacres will continue to happen regardless of the gun laws. Even if all guns were removed from this country, these types of individuals will turn to bomb making, knife attacks, vehicular assaults, and what ever tool they can get access to so they can take their misery out on a society they likely blame for all of their problems. You want to prevent these tragedies? Then focus you efforts on the people pulling the trigger…

      These young men who commit these acts of violence obviously need treatment and counseling, and I never heard a politician or a “anti-gun” activist mention this. You just rush to blame the scary gun they used. How about you write your local representative to work for great accessibility to health care, both physical and mental for young adults, and a dialogue that needs to happen (and continue to happen) at every high school and college campus about mental health and the importance for young people to seek help when they feel overwhelmed and possibly suicidal. Mental health professionals also need to make efforts to better treat and diagnose developing mental health issues in young adults. These measures would do way more to prevent a potential mass murder from reoccurring than a AWB alone will. To just blame guns and to ignore obvious historical link between mentally unstable young men/boys with these massacres is setting us up for the next tragedy.

    • While i disagree with many of your points, I posted earlier that I too am disappointed in the staff of TTAG for posting that ridiculous statement.

  30. I’ve written mine several times, and I always get either no reply or (cliff notes version) “Thanks for your input, but guns are bad so fuck off.” I wrote them again over the weekend, along with the L.A. mayoral candidates who all professed undying love for an AWB.

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