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Gun control debate: Background checks
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- Posted January 15, 2013 by
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An Open Letter to Congress
January 15, 2013
An Open Letter to Congress
As an elected representative, it is your duty to represent the interests of your voters, and to defend the Constitution.
Earlier today, the Vice President gave a report citing 19 possible executive orders containing firearm regulations and restrictions that his task force has developed. We are told that the President and the special task force are meeting tonight to discuss the options, and that the President will announce something tomorrow morning at 11:45.
What options are on the table? The American public won’t know until the President makes his announcement tomorrow morning. We the People have had no say.
Each one of the 19 proposed executive orders is another example of a growing number of issues decided entirely by Washington, without any input from the voting public. The ink of the executive order pen is a slap in the face to every American citizen who believes our government to be what it claims— a constitutional republic where the individual has the right to speak out, and proper representation to be heard.
I understand that there are at least two sides to this ‘debate,’ and in the end, that’s what we, as voters, deserve. When the President signs an executive order, he leaves no room for debate. We the People deserve a debate, and we deserve representation- regardless of which side of the ‘gun issue’ we find ourselves.
Our Founders thought the right to bear arms was ‘necessary to the security of a free state.’ They said so- “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”
We the People want security. We the People want a free state. The proposals I have seen so far concerning the regulation of the sale and possession of particular firearms, firearm clips, or ammunition, have not convinced me that I will be any freer, or any safer than I am now if they are adopted.
Further federal regulation and restriction of the Second Amendment is an affront to the Constitution of the United States.
Whether we chose to exercise our Second Amendment rights and bear arms or not, we are all Americans. We are responsible for the course of action this country takes.
If the President chooses to proceed with an executive order, or any additional restriction on private ownership of firearms, I urge you to support legislation in your state like that proposed in Wyoming recently, which in part reads “any federal law which attempts to ban a semi-automatic firearm or to limit the size of a magazine of a firearm or other limitation on firearms in this state shall be unenforceable in Wyoming.” (The full text of the proposed bill can be found at this site: http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2013/Introduced/HB0104.pdf.)
“Shall not be infringed.” The language is simple. No exceptions were included. It is my belief that any new restrictions the federal government seeks to place on the sale and ‘legal’ ownership of firearms by law-abiding, otherwise qualified American citizens, is a direct violation of the Second Amendment to our Constitution, the same Constitution that you swore to defend when you took your oath of office.
As a concerned citizen, and one that you represent, I beg of you— uphold the oath you took when you entered into office. You took ‘the obligation freely, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion.’ You swore to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.’
Failing to defend the Constitution would be a failure of your term in office.
I don’t know what the President and the Vice President and the special task force are discussing tonight. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but what I do know is that the President’s autopen won’t magically remove evil from the world, nor will it deter evil people from seeking weapons with which to cause others harm.
Please, don’t make it harder for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from those that may not be deterred by an executive order alone.
We the People deserve better. We deserve a debate. We deserve a voice. And we deserve to be heard. Represent us.
Please tell the President and the Vice President that the American people, your electorate, want a REAL debate. Executive orders are unacceptable, and further erosion of the Second Amendment will not be tolerated.
In Liberty,
Greta Langhenry Alspaugh
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