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My letter to Senator Boxer
as a lifelong liberal progressive Democrat and lifelong firearm owner and enthusiast I felt the need to express my viewpoints to my Senator whom I have voted for as long as I could vote. Instead of just *****ing about it on the internet to other gun owners, I decided to actually send Senator Boxer a letter. here it is, lemme know what you think:
I would like to express my opposition to Senator Boxer's position on the right to bear arms, particularly her support for a new assault weapons ban, which she voiced support for in a recent press conference with LA Sherriff Lee Baca.
I am a lifelong Democrat, liberal progressive, and have voted consistently for Senator Boxer and all other Democrat candidates since I first voted 14 years ago. However, I am also a proud gun owner, and I legally own multiple rifles and carbines that would be considered "assault weapons" by Senator Boxer, none of which have ever been used in the commission of a crime.
I would like to implore Senator Boxer to give up her anti-gun rights position for both moral and political reasons. Morally, I cannot condone any attempt by anyone in government to limit the personal freedoms of citizens in this country. Infringing on the personal freedoms of citizens, whether it be gay marriage, marijuana legalization, or firearm possession is always a loser in my book.
Our party champions the personal freedoms of citizens on every issue, except the right to bear arms of citizens' choosing. The hypocrisy of advocating personal freedoms in every area except the right to bear arms is not tenable in my opinion. If people use firearms in the commission of a crime, against their fellow citizens, then they deserve to be arrested and prosecuted. But to subject citizens to arrest and prosecution for mere possession of certain firearms, even if no actual crime has been committed against their fellow citizens, is not my idea of justice. We have entirely too many people ensnared in the web of the criminal justice system as it is (it is bankrupting our state as we speak), so why are we criminalizing otherwise law-abiding citizens? Murder rates have continued to plunge, even though the assault weapons ban expired. So I am rather unconvinced that there is a correlation between ownership of "assault weapons" by law-abiding citizens and violent crime.
Politically speaking it is also a very poorly conceived strategy for our party. Most Americans and Californians who vote Republican, are working-class people. We need to ask ourselves, why do working-class people vote against their own class interests by supporting Republican candidates who represent business interests exclusively?
As a firearms enthusiast I regularly socialize with Republicans, who are very much over-represented among firearms enthusiasts. My conversations with these misguided working-class Republicans has led me to conclude that if our party gave up trying to restrict citizens' right to possess firearms of their choice, we could turn a large segment of these working-class Republican voters to our side.
Many of these people vote primarily on the gun issue alone. For reference I suggest you read some of the discussions on the major firearms enthusiast websites: Calguns.net (2nd Amendment Laws section) or AR15.com (for a more nationally representative subject population). By giving up the gun issue, we could recruit a significant percentage of these voters to our side, and maintain a permanent majority in the Congress. In a nation where we are divided nearly 50/50 Democrat/Republican, even a small percentage of turn-overs to our party would make all the difference in being able to enact the progressive policies that matter to us most: business regulation, unionization of the workforce, universal healthcare, environmental protection, funding education, etc.
Why are we sacrificing our ability to enact a whole agenda of progressive policies, over one issue - the gun issue? It makes no sense politically, or morally in my opinion. Why are we allowing our political opponents to cast us as fascists for restricting citizens' gun rights?
If the Democratic Party gave up the gun issue, the Republican Party would be finished.
Thank you for your consideration Senator. I will continue to support you, despite my opposition to your position on this policy, because I believe the class interests of working-class people is a more important issue than the right to bear arms. But what I can't do is convince my Republican friends to vote Democrat, so long as the Democratic party (Senator Boxer included) insists on restricting the personal freedom to own firearms of one's choosing.
I would like to express my opposition to Senator Boxer's position on the right to bear arms, particularly her support for a new assault weapons ban, which she voiced support for in a recent press conference with LA Sherriff Lee Baca.
I am a lifelong Democrat, liberal progressive, and have voted consistently for Senator Boxer and all other Democrat candidates since I first voted 14 years ago. However, I am also a proud gun owner, and I legally own multiple rifles and carbines that would be considered "assault weapons" by Senator Boxer, none of which have ever been used in the commission of a crime.
I would like to implore Senator Boxer to give up her anti-gun rights position for both moral and political reasons. Morally, I cannot condone any attempt by anyone in government to limit the personal freedoms of citizens in this country. Infringing on the personal freedoms of citizens, whether it be gay marriage, marijuana legalization, or firearm possession is always a loser in my book.
Our party champions the personal freedoms of citizens on every issue, except the right to bear arms of citizens' choosing. The hypocrisy of advocating personal freedoms in every area except the right to bear arms is not tenable in my opinion. If people use firearms in the commission of a crime, against their fellow citizens, then they deserve to be arrested and prosecuted. But to subject citizens to arrest and prosecution for mere possession of certain firearms, even if no actual crime has been committed against their fellow citizens, is not my idea of justice. We have entirely too many people ensnared in the web of the criminal justice system as it is (it is bankrupting our state as we speak), so why are we criminalizing otherwise law-abiding citizens? Murder rates have continued to plunge, even though the assault weapons ban expired. So I am rather unconvinced that there is a correlation between ownership of "assault weapons" by law-abiding citizens and violent crime.
Politically speaking it is also a very poorly conceived strategy for our party. Most Americans and Californians who vote Republican, are working-class people. We need to ask ourselves, why do working-class people vote against their own class interests by supporting Republican candidates who represent business interests exclusively?
As a firearms enthusiast I regularly socialize with Republicans, who are very much over-represented among firearms enthusiasts. My conversations with these misguided working-class Republicans has led me to conclude that if our party gave up trying to restrict citizens' right to possess firearms of their choice, we could turn a large segment of these working-class Republican voters to our side.
Many of these people vote primarily on the gun issue alone. For reference I suggest you read some of the discussions on the major firearms enthusiast websites: Calguns.net (2nd Amendment Laws section) or AR15.com (for a more nationally representative subject population). By giving up the gun issue, we could recruit a significant percentage of these voters to our side, and maintain a permanent majority in the Congress. In a nation where we are divided nearly 50/50 Democrat/Republican, even a small percentage of turn-overs to our party would make all the difference in being able to enact the progressive policies that matter to us most: business regulation, unionization of the workforce, universal healthcare, environmental protection, funding education, etc.
Why are we sacrificing our ability to enact a whole agenda of progressive policies, over one issue - the gun issue? It makes no sense politically, or morally in my opinion. Why are we allowing our political opponents to cast us as fascists for restricting citizens' gun rights?
If the Democratic Party gave up the gun issue, the Republican Party would be finished.
Thank you for your consideration Senator. I will continue to support you, despite my opposition to your position on this policy, because I believe the class interests of working-class people is a more important issue than the right to bear arms. But what I can't do is convince my Republican friends to vote Democrat, so long as the Democratic party (Senator Boxer included) insists on restricting the personal freedom to own firearms of one's choosing.
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