Dear Mr. President and the Legislative Body of the United States,
And so it goes. On Saturday, June 12th, 2016, we had another mass shooting. The fact that we have to continue to say, "we had ANOTHER mass shooting" is disgusting. As an American I am saddened and exacerbated by the fact that my government is not doing its job to protect its people. As a citizen I am infuriated that the Constitution and Bill of Rights has been manipulated to create such a mess, that I have to say to my children, "Yes, we had ANOTHER mass shooting."
I am not a legislative genius. I am a mom. I have three children who it is my sole job to keep safe. Every day I turn on the news, or read about ANOTHER shooting. I worry about being in crowded places with my kids. I am afraid that some mentally unstable person will walk in and shoot everyone in sight, claiming it is for their religious purposes, or sadly because our government did not offer them proper mental health care. I worry that I will get a call that my children's school is on lock down. I worry that someone I love will be at a theme park or movie theater and I will get a call that yes, it has happened again. I am worried that at some point, my children's names will be on that list. A list that no parent wants their children to ever be a part of.
Saturday, 49 people died. 49 people who were someone's children. 49 people who were sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, best friends. All were human beings. The job of our government is protect its citizens. It is the core purpose of our government. It is the reason the American Revolution occurred. British citizens who had colonized in North America wanted rights and freedoms that were being taken away by the British government. They wanted a government that was created to protect its people and ensure that they could enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Bill of Rights was created to ensure that the people had very specific inalienable rights. The Bill of Rights is a beautiful thing. However, the 2nd amendment has been manipulated and contorted into a vessel for creating billions of dollars for gun manufactures and legislators.
The second amendment was created to give militias the right to bear arms to defend themselves and their property against internal and external threats. To my knowledge, none of the shooters from any of our recent mass shootings were part of any militias. These were people with hatred in their hearts and the ability to gain access to military grade weapons. They took these weapons and killed people in mere seconds. They ended lives with weapons that only the military should have access to.
Since I am just a mom, I need some help. I need someone from the government to explain to me and all of the mass shooting victims and their families why we can't regulate the sale of assault rifles? I need someone to explain why citizens need assault rifles. What purpose could any citizen have to own an assault rifle? You don't hunt with them. You don't need them to keep your home safe from intruders. We have more guns in the United Stated than we do people.
I am not saying that people shouldn't be allowed to own guns. I am saying that we need to regulate gun laws and ban the sale of assault rifles. They serve no purpose in the general public, other than giving some mass murderer the right tools to kill innocent people. Mr. President, please ban the sale of assault rifles. Please buy back these guns from the public and work with legislators to put an end to ANOTHER shooting. We need to interpret the Second Amendment for its original purpose and stop this miscarriage of justice. We need to stop gift wrapping weapons for murderers and start protecting our citizens. Mr. President and the legislative body of the United States, please take a stand and ban assault rifles and regulate gun laws. Put an end to the tears that are cried at each funeral caused from the misinterpretation of the second amendment.
Meredith is a work-from-home mother of three who writes about the inappropriate side of marriage and motherhood on her blog at That's Inappropriate. Follow her on Facebook YouTube and Twitter.