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Congressman Hastings;

I contacted you recently concerning the Newtown, Connecticut, mass shooting that killed 20 young children and six adults. I asked you to consider strengthened measures to reduce the prevalence of mass shootings in America. In your response, you said, no -- you didn't see the need.

None of the weapons Adam Lanza carried into the Sandy Hook Elementary School were for hunting. They were for killing people -- quickly, massively. The Bushmaster, Glock and Sig Sauer are military and police weapons intended to take down human beings. They use ammunition that destroys tissue and internal organs – ammo that is expressly made to drop people in their tracks. Repeatedly firing these bullets into human flesh will literally macerate and tear apart the human body. They are particularly effectively on small, soft 6 to 7 year-old bodies. Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver, described the wounds that killed the children and teachers at Newtown as a “very devastating set of injuries.”

For this reason, and because these sorts of weapons are far too easy to obtain, your response to my plea for tightening gun controls was unacceptable.

Please think again over the Holidays. Enjoy your time with loved ones and imagine how you'd feel if they were suddenly and senselessly taken from you by a deranged person with a military-style assault weapon --  a weapon you and other members of Congress might have banned.

Thank you,

Richard Badalamente