Letter: ‘If we as a civilized society cannot regulate guns…why even bother with democracy at all?’

All I can think is that we’re heading in the wrong direction when it comes to gun violence. The tragedy in Parkland, Fla. is just another in a long series of mass shootings to which we have built an immunity, much like the common cold – we feel it for 24 hours and then everything is back to normal. But it’s not back to normal. Families are shattered. Futures are destroyed. An unending and unimaginable lifetime of pain settles in on those who have lost a loved one.

I feel their pain because I have lost a family member to gun violence. That’s why I know we’re going in the wrong direction when it comes to guns.

I think it’s important to start any conversation with the one, immutable and not-so-popular fact about guns: they’re not going away. There’s a constitutional amendment that says you have the right to own guns. And seeing that state legislatures can’t even pass the Equal Rights Amendment despite being given 40+ years, I don’t think any effort to repeal the Second Amendment has a snowball’s chance in hell. So, let’s be adults and take the unrealistic idea of banning guns altogether off the table and talk about the real “who” and “what”.

I want to start by talking about the “who”.

The congressman who currently represents the 1st District of Virginia, Rob Wittman, has received $15,000 from the NRA political action committee in cash contributions. This amount doesn’t take into account how much money he’s received from individuals at the behest of the NRA nor does it take into account how much independent expenditure money has been spent on Wittman’s behalf. None of this is shocking since he’s more than happy to carry their water legislatively.

In fact, Rob Wittman is one of the few in the House who is willing to co-sponsor something called the SHARE Act (HR 3668). The acronym for this legislation sounds all warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it? What it stands for is the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act. Again, that doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Well, titles can be deceiving. It legalizes concealed weapons on federal lands, removes restrictions on the use of silencers and flash suppressors and, worst of all, it prevents the ATF from classifying ammunition as being “armor piercing”.

Rob Wittman, the self-proclaimed friend of law enforcement, wants more cop-killer bullets out on the streets. What part of Rob Wittman’s mind says, “how can we increase the damage these bullets do when people get shot?” Rob Wittman isn’t just wrong, he’s part of the problem.

Now let’s talk about the “how.”

As I mentioned before, people absolutely have a constitutional right to own a gun. However, I think it has become crystal clear that we need to place common sense regulations on aspects of gun ownership. Right away I can hear people all over the 1st District (including my own relatives) saying, “how dare you talk about regulating my right to own a gun!”