The Brady Campaign to Prevent Violence published the following at enoughletter.com. Make the jump to check out the list of 100 celebrity signatories.
Dear Mr. President:
Thank you. Thank you for having the courage and leadership to take Executive Action on preventing more unnecessary gun violence in this country. We are deeply thankful for the actions you took
this week. Countless lives will be saved as a result . . .
Like you, and like most Americans, we have had ENOUGH. We have had enough of seeing unthinkable tragedies happen and nothing being done. Two masked people walk into a center for the disabled and murder 14 co-workers celebrating the holidays. A group of churchgoers are slaughtered during a prayer service even as they welcome the young man full of hate to their group. And the horrific day when 20 first graders and six educators were massacred in their classroom. In each case, the guns used were far too easily available to people intent on doing harm.
This level of depravity should rattle anyone with a conscience. We have seen how it has visibly rattled you.
Roughly 33,000 people die from gun violence every year in this country. Every day, we lose 89 more. Since Sandy Hook, 160 schools have experienced shootings. The homicide rate in the United States is 20 times higher than 22 countries like us in wealth and population – combined.
No one is challenging the right of law abiding citizens to responsibly own a firearm. But like you, we believe that guns should be kept away from criminals, terrorists, domestic abusers, the dangerously mentally ill, and children. Your Executive Action will do exactly that – extending Brady background checks to gun shows and online sales.
Thank you for protecting our rights. The right to be safe. The right not to be afraid when you go into a public place. The right not to have a generation of scared kids raised on lockdown drills on what to do if a shooter enters their school. The right of our government to do what the overwhelming majority of people want.
We love this country. And one key reason we love it is that it was built on the principle that its people could change it. Thank you for doing so. We hope Members of Congress who have failed to act on the gun violence epidemic will support the will of most Americans and will take similar action to correct what has been a shameful period in our nation’s history. We deserve better than this.
Thank you for beginning to end this national disgrace and show your fellow citizens and the rest of the world that the United States of America does indeed stand for the principles on which it was founded.
Sincerely,
January 8th, 2016
