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‘Protecting Our Kids Act’Īt the same time Biden spoke at the White House, the U.S. “It must end.”įirearm related injuries are now the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in the United States, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. “The gun industry special protections are outrageous,” Biden said. He also expressed his support for laws that would safely store guns in homes where children live, and for an end to the liability shield that prevents civil lawsuits from being brought against gun manufacturers. And if Congress could not agree to ban them, Biden said the age to purchase an assault weapon should be raised from 18 to 21. The time has come to make gun laws that promote the general welfare, not the welfare of gun makers.Biden said Congress should ban assault weapons, like the ones used in the recent mass shootings. The time has come to ask the gun lobby to stand down while we re-calibrate our understanding of the right to bear arms and the right to life and liberty. The time has come to balance the reality of gun use with the need for general welfare. Going forward, when you are approached by the gun lobby, please ask yourself this question: If I do as they ask, will I be promoting domestic tranquility and general welfare? Or will I be adding to the burden of gun violence on our society? Will I be saving lives or enriching gun makers? Am I promoting all of the principles in the Constitution or am I overlooking some? They are evidence of an epidemic of gun violence that you, and only you, have the power to stop. Those 108,000 gun deaths and wounds are not evidence of domestic tranquility or general welfare. That’s 108,000 Americans who are victims of guns violence every single year. Eleven thousand people are murdered by guns annually, 19,000 commit suicide with guns annually, and 78,000 people are injured by guns annually.
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We are now a nation where on average 87 people die of gun injuries each day. However, I think that we have reached the limit of the gun lobby’s interpretation of Second Amendment as promoting the general welfare and supporting domestic tranquility. Gun sales are steady, new kinds of guns can come to market without limit, and the Second Amendment seems to support them at every turn. The gun lobby has worked tirelessly to make sure all of this is possible, and it has profited mightily. It is a testament to our national commitment to commerce and defense that we have allowed the gun industry to create weapons so advanced that the majority of our citizens can acquire a weapon that can shoot dozens of bullets in a matter of seconds. Moreover, access to many of those technologies is just as breathtakingly vast. There has been an ebb and flow in relation to gun control policy in this country, and we are at a moment in our history where the technology of firearms is breathtakingly vast. The gun lobby, in its stringent defense of the principles in the Second Amendment, has overstepped the principles of the Preamble and fostered a legislative environment that is destructive to domestic tranquility and general welfare. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. The basics of that duty are laid out in the Preamble: Constitution, which is an unwieldy and sometimes contradictory document that is designed to give the best opportunity for competing interests to coexist peacefully in our society. You all have the difficult job of upholding the U.S. My husband is a lobbyist, I have been a registered lobbyist at times, and I fully support the rights of professional lobbyists and citizen advocates to work with lawmakers to promote their causes. I consider the portion of the First Amendment that provides for citizens to petition the government for redress of grievances - or appoint a proxy to petition on their behalf - is highly valuable and gives the American people a much needed role in legislating. Their influence has outgrown their value to the general welfare of America, and I urge you to consider their counsel with great caution going forward.įirst, let me assure you that I do not disapprove of lobbyists. I am writing to you to discuss the level of influence by certain special interest lobbies, in particular the gun rights lobby. To The Honorable Members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives: