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Dear God what is it going to take to get guns out of EVERYONE’S hands!!!
When can we walk the street and wonder if the person walking near you has a gun on them! Why can’t the entertainment community come up with games that don’t require you to KILL! Have you tried to buy a boys’ gift? It’s all guns and fighting! I refuse to buy my three precious grandsons such things! There is soooo much to learn about in this world! We have to change this NOW! I am so angry!

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Lori, I don’t know how to reach you directly, I hope you can read this.
I support both your unspeakable grief and your demand for political action.
The problem has always been that demanding action from our elected representatives is futile, they are weather vanes in the wind of political opinion, so the biggest blowhards have the most effect.
I have a serious idea about how to change this.
Remember when it was OK, even “manly”, to drink and drive? Remember MADD Mothers Against Drunk Driving? What they did to get effective action was to embark upon a ten or fifteen year effort to stigmatize drunk driving, to make it unacceptable social behavior.
I think that to enact serious gun safety legislation, we need to change the social acceptability of owning murder weapons like hand guns and semi autos w large magazines. We need a, what? “Mothers Against Gun Violence”. But it really needs a catchy acronym, honest. This is sociology. And it will be a ten to fifteen year effort. I haven’t yet studied MADD, but I will, and I suggest you do too.
And it has to be Mothers, because gun violence is such a male thing. As an old white guy, I’m not the banner carrier here. But I am vitally interested I this campaign, and there is definitely an opening this week to make a start. As an idea guy, I would be more than willing to engage in a conversation about this with serious like minded people.

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Susan Reply:
December 18th, 2012 at 10:28 am

@Serge Scherbatskoy, Serge, I feel the same way. I want to join a movement of people who are just way beyond fed up with this. Now is the time, but I am concerned by the lack of organization. I really like your ideas. Very good idea to look into MADD, and very good point that it simply needs to become socially unacceptable to own these kinds of weapons.

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I grieve with the parents of Connecticut in their incomprehensible loss. Right now a neighbor is practicing shooting his semi-automatic weapon. I will no longer be passive in my opposition to the assertion that we have the right to own guns, any kind, with only minimal regulation. No one needs assault weapons. No one needs semi-automatic hand guns. Enough debate. Enough of the muddle-headed intellectualizing that the pro-gun bloggers engage in. I won’t be blogging after today. I’ll be taking action.

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Anonymous Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 4:06 pm

@Catherine, so you’re going to push for gun control and regulation, resulting in more people getting killed or hurt. That’s like saying that in order to stop people from running red lights, we need to eliminate stop lights.

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Anonymous Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 5:40 pm

@, actually, this reply makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. It is this kind of thinking that keeps us in the dark ages on gun control. Have your guns, HUNTING GUNS. No one outside of law enforcement has a need for a semi-automatic weapon. Period. What? So you can look at it and practice shooting it at a range or on your land??? So to give you that right, we are supposed to keep putting up with this kind of massacre over and over???? You MAKE NO SENSE. If you have an intelligent argument, please make it….I would LOVE to hear it.

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Catherine Reply:
December 17th, 2012 at 12:05 am

@, anonymous, thank you for your reply. You have made my point beautifully.

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You can’t legislate or regulate evil from the world. No amount of laws, gun bans, or mental health screening will stop or even reduce this kind of thing. Contrary to popular belief, we are actually still on average in terms of mass shootings. In fact, there has been no increase or decrease in mass shootings over the past 50 years, despite a huge array of gun laws or no gun laws over that period of time. There is no such thing as a “common sense” gun regulation, because criminals don’t follow laws. Murder is already illegal, and yet it happened. Guns aren’t the problem. Places that have banned guns such as England, Canada, Australia, have all had an INCREASE in gun crimes, violent crimes, and murder since their gun bans! Meanwhile, here in the US, despite an explosion in gun ownership, a repeal of gun regulations, and more states allowing more CCW, our crime rate, violent crime rate, gun death rate, gun violence rates are all nearing record lows.

The reality is that bad people will do bad things, and you can’t stop them with laws, vigils, regulations, or feel-good “no guns allowed” signs. All you can do is take responsibility to protect yourself. In fact, you may have heard about that shooting at a mall in Portland last week, right? What you didn’t hear is that it was stopped after only 2 murders by a CCW holder drawing his gun, and the bad guy turned and shot himself as soon as he was faced with force/threat.

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Anonymous Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 2:36 pm

@Jon, you are the problem, all of you who will not support a ban on assault weapons! They are only made to kill people, many and quickly! And now innocent children have been slaughtered because of your ignorance and arrogance. Your Second Amendment Rights never covered assault weapons, and it is obscene to think gun rights are more sacred than our children!

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Jon Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:04 pm

To start, assault weapons are already banned. The weapons you call assault weapons are not really assault weapons. Besides that, banning them does nothing. You must not have read any of my first post. When Clinton had an assault weapons ban, guess what happened. Gun deaths went up, and crimes committed using the banned weapons also went up. The second amendment covers ALL firearms. And allowing gun rights causes children to be safer, not less safe. Only those like you who push gun control are actually putting my children at greater risk.

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This is what I sent to my state and national representatives today. Can we make this a campaign for action?

…

[Senator/Representative],

I am a mom and concerned citizen in Seattle. I expect to see you, my representatives, take action on mental health care and gun control THIS WEEK. I expect you to speak out with ideas to protect Washington’s children from random acts of mass gun violence.

- increased mental health support for red-flag diagnoses
- mental health screening for gun purchases in Washington
- ban assault rifles, semi-automatic weapons, and high-capacity magazines in Washington

We can have both a 2nd amendment and gun safety. Together we can make a difference.

Thank you,
Nicole Oliver

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Catherine Reply:
December 16th, 2012 at 3:31 pm

@Nicole, thank you for this template. I will use it.

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Susan Reply:
December 18th, 2012 at 10:31 am

@Nicole,
Everyone, call your representatives too. All you have to do is say “I want my congresswo/man to know I want all semi-automatic weapons banned” and they will take a message for your rep.

Here is how you find the number

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

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What can I do to help?

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Where do I sign?

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