An Open Letter to those US Senators who voted against Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013 (S.649)

April 26, 2013

Dear Senator:

Lamar Alexander (TN); Kelly Ayotte (NH); John Barrasso (WY); Roy Blunt (MO); John Boozman (AR); Richard M. Burr (NC); Saxby Chambliss (GA); Daniel Coats (IN); Tom Coburn (OK); Thad Cochran (MS); Bob Corker (TN); John Cornyn (TX); Michael Crapo (ID); Ted Cruz (TX); Michael B. Enzi (WY); Deb Fischer (NE); Jeff Flake (AZ); Lindsey Graham (SC); Chuck Grassley (IA); Orrin G. Hatch (UT); Dean Heller (NV); John Hoeven (ND); James M. Inhofe (OK); Johnny Isakson (GA); Mike Johanns (NE); Ron Johnson (WI); Mike Lee (UT); Mitch McConnell (KY); Jerry Moran (KS); Lisa Murkowski (AK); Rand Paul (KY); Rob Portman (OH); Jim Risch (ID); Pat Roberts (KS); Marco Rubio (FL); Tim Scott (SC); Jeff Sessions (AL); Richard Shelby (AL); John Thune (SD); David Vitter (LA); Roger Wicker (MS); Max Baucus (MT); Mark Begich (AK); Heidi Heitkamp (ND); Mark Pryor (AR).

Subject: SAFE COMMUNITIES, SAFE SCHOOLS ACT OF 2013 (S.649)

Please reconsider your opposition to gun control. Surely reasonable people can agree on gun control measures that will reduce the appalling prevalence of gun violence in America. Are we so divided that as honorable persons we cannot devise measures that will reduce the eye-blink destruction of innocent lives in mass shootings, reduce the tragedy of young lives lost in senseless violence, and address the unfathomable grief of parents and loved ones?

I’m sure you’re familiar with all the myriad arguments against gun control and it is not my purpose to examine that sad litany of paranoia, faulty logic, and myth, nor the reasons, admittedly emotional as well as rational, supporting gun control. I simply wish to say that refusing to take up the matter in a reasonable debate on the floor of the Senate, refusing to bring the matter to a vote, is not just ignoring the will of the vast majority of the American people, it is an assault on the bedrock principle of democracy and representative government, “the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for redress of grievances.”

Noah Pozner, 2006 - 2012

Senator, we the people grieve. We grieve for Noah Pozner, shot to death three weeks after his sixth birthday, and his nineteen classmates, who died with him, and the six people who tried to protect these children, and the thousands of Americans shot to death just since Newtown. We grieve for them senator, and we petition you for a redress of our grievances. Senator, please reconsider your opposition to gun control.

Sincerely,

RVBadalamente

Richard V Badalamente, LtCol, USAF (Ret.)

3302 W 42nd Pl

Kennewick WA 99337-2794

The United States of America