If we care, we must take stand. Now.
Many of us are suffering. Suffering from grief over the needless deaths of the innocent---children, loved ones, neighbors,
friends. Over the deaths of those in fire protection and in law enforcement who have given their lives to protect the rest of
us. Suffering from fear as we wonder who will be the next victims of unnecessary violence. Suffering from anxiety
produced by undependable and inadequate public safety generated by political, economic, and social systems that have
broken down.
Above all, we are committed to building and transforming our Nation, so that it embodies this vision we share:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
We are committed to the position that one way to accomplish this end, one way to further promote this vision conceived at
the establishment of our Nation, is the best, reasonable and most effective application of the Second Amendment to our
Constitution in ways that result in "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." We are certain that reasonable, responsible
and effective legislation that accomplishes dependable and adequate public safety is essential to accomplish this end.
We know that many who own guns, including ordinary members of the NRA, share this vision and favor effective legislation
that will ensure safety, security, and protection for themselves, their families and their friends. We all want to curb violence
and enhance public safety. We all want to reduce the unnecessary grief and loss that has resulted from the lack of effective
legislation.
Those few who oppose legislation of any kind claim that guns do not kill people, that people kill people. They are, of course,
correct. However, easy accessibility of weapons for convicts and those suffering from severe mental illness, lack of
background checks in every venue of those who want to own a gun, availability of military weapons and massive
ammunition clips to our civilian population, have resulted in a culture of fear and mayhem. We all live with the fact that,
innocent as we may be, we may be the next victims of random violence and murder.
As a result of the demands of those who control the NRA and some of those who manufacture, distribute and sell guns, and
as a result of their successful lobbying and coercion of our elected representatives, our nation has been forced to go the
way of either inadequate or no legislation. Those who control the NRA create profiles of our elected representatives
("score" them) and use these to attack and remove from office ("primary" them) those representatives who do not kowtow to
NRA blackmail. This results in prevention of legislation that could advance significant improvement in public safety with
regard to handguns and other weapons. As a result, our nation suffers hundreds of times more handgun deaths per year
than our sister nations. Because of the demands of and manipulation by a few, the rest of us have wept as the innocent fell
and bled and died in the course of their daily lives and those who were murdered in mass slayings of ever increasing scale.
Those of us who support the American Dream have had enough. We have talked with those who resist effective legislation,
pleaded with them, argued with them, and listened to them, but they remain opposed to reasonable and responsible
legislation. The facts and the evidence do not support their point of view.
Those of us who truly long for and want "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" for all, demand action, and we demand
it of our elected representatives, now. The time has come to move beyond talking, pleading, arguing and listening.
Perhaps it is time for the rest of us, millions of us who vote, to start doing the scoring, and to campaign for and elect those
who support responsible and effective legislation. Who will not be intimidated or coerced. Who will listen to what the
majority of their constituents want and demand.
If we care, we must take stand. Now.
Ken Chapin at [email protected]
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