Well done. I hadn't sent messages to Senators, only Congress. I have taken pieces of several well written messages to send a message to my Senator from Illinois. It is a bit lengthy, but that's usually how they communicate too.
I am copying the message in the event anyone would like to copy or use parts for their own messages. Let's make sure our voice as Citizens of the United States of America are heard.
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Dear Senator ---,
We are all shocked and saddened by the terrible killings in Newtown, CT. My wife and I are still struggling to cope with it. And as a parent of young children, I can't imagine what those poor children experienced, and what their parents and families are going through now. It is very hard to deal with even now. We still think about it constantly.
But contrary to what we are hearing in the media and by the liberal leadership in our Government, the true root cause of what happened in Newtown was that this young man was very disturbed, and he had evil in his heart. The fact he used guns to carry out his evil act is really not relevant. They were tools, not unlike a knife or any other weapon. If he chose, he could have used a car to harm and kill. The sick man in NY that killed the brave Firemen last week had also killed previously, using a hammer, and should never have been let out of Prison. We must deal with these sick people, not the weapons they choose to use to do their evil deeds. They will always find a way, if we let them, whether it be by gun or by hammer.
Since these tragedies have occurred, Senator Dianne Feinstein has decided to introduce a bill to effectively ban certain gun ownership in our country, and in doing so would violate our Constitutional right to bear arms. In fact, Senator Feinstein and others would like to see the elimination of all weapons. The American people as a whole should not be punished, or stripped of our Constitutional rights, because of a very small percentage of very sick individuals.
While I think there is more that can be done to ensure guns don't get in the wrong hands, no matter what, unfortunate tragedies like the Newtown killings won't be avoided by gun control. Most gun crimes are committed by people who don't own the gun legally. Responsible people who buy guns legally are not the problem. Semi-automatic handguns are not the problem. Hammers are not the problem. Bad people are the problem.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of mentally sick people out there. There always have been and there always will be. And they will find a way to do what they do, with or without tougher gun control. But having said that, nation wide we could do more to keep guns out of the wrong hands, similar to Illinois where we must apply for a FOID card and have a criminal background check completed before we can buy a gun or ammunition.
But we must not infringe on our 2nd Amendment right in response to the small percentage of tragedies committed by really bad people. The city of Chicago is a perfect example of having very strict gun control, and yet there are more gun crimes than any other city. In fact, murder #500 occurred just this week in Chicago. In the UK, after a school massacre in 1998, the country banned handguns. A decade later, handgun crime has doubled. .
I implore you to please influence your peers in the Senate, and other federal government leaders, to focus on the right thing that gets at the root of the problem, and that is how to identify and help those very troubled people before they act. There were signs in each of the two cases above, much like there have been signs with other violent crimes in the past. We need to act on those signs, not the instruments used by those deranged individuals.
I thank you for listening and for the work I hope you will do to ensure we have the right laws and focus' in place, as well as in protecting our 2nd Amendment rights as citizens of the United States of America.
God Bless you for your representation of the people of Illinois. I hope you appreciate what we all have, and may you and your family have a happy and prosperous New Year.
Sincerely,
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