This is an updated and typo corrected version of the same letter I originally posted. I'm placing it here in case anyone used it as a template.
All,
We're all appalled by the recent shootings at Aurora, Sandy Hook and other places; but this is the work of madmen; and we need to focus on better background checks and address the mental health issues in this country. James Holmes was well-known to have mental issues, yet he was not put into proper medical care by those doctors and psychiatrists who knew of his diagnosed issues. Nathan Gale, a shooter in a nightclub on December 8th, 2004, who killed the guitarist of a Damageplan was booted from the US Marines for mental issues as well. Coincidentally, in 1980 on that same date, John Lennon was also murdered by someone with mental issues as well. The shooter at Sandy Brook was known to have issues and stole his mother's legally-owned guns, and there are many more cases as well involving mentally stable people with insane actions taking lives of innocent people.
Lest we forget, Timothy McVeigh used a rental truck, fertilizer, and he killed 19 children. You can still buy the fertilizer without control and rent a truck. Guns are merely a tool, and any material thing can be used to kill. It's the person that is the problem, not the tool. Unlike the media, I don't want to focus on the tool of the gun; I want to focus on our rights.
Regardless of where you are on guns and our gun rights (which are guaranteed in the 2nd amendment of the Constitution), there are possible changes coming which could affect that amendment and make it powerless. If that can happen to the 2nd, it can happen to the 1st, 4th, 5th, and every other amendment in the Constitution until that document is as valuable and powerless as the next square of toilet paper. It's time to draw a line in the sand and make a stand against further decimation of our rights, our freedoms, our constitution and our country.
I realize not everyone likes guns or owns them; but for right now at least, we all have, like and own our freedom which has been hard won and can easily be lost. While my own father didn't like guns and never saw combat, he did go into WWII like many of that era did because they knew what was on the line - our freedom. During that war, the Emperor of Japan said he wouldn't invade mainland USA because of the armaments of it's citizenry. He may have lost the war, but he was no fool either. An invasion of America would result in a slaughterhouse for any nation that tried. I would defend my family, my life and my rights to it. I hope you would do the same for yours. Right now we all have that ability and that freedom, but soon we may not.
We must protect our freedoms, which have been getting eroded every year through different means and actions by corporations and government. The 2nd amendment protects the other amendments. It allows us the ability to defend ourselves, our families, and our freedoms against any criminal or tyrannical group, person, organizational or government. I encourage you to watch these videos below and to contact your senators, congress people, government on all levels to make sure that our rights as stated in the 2A "shall not be infringed".
We do not need gun registration, high-cacpacity magazine bans or further legislation. We need our current gun laws enforced, we need the broken NICS background check system improved upon, and we need to address the mental health issues in this country.
This sums it up pretty well -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR3t7j2 ... zQ&index=1This is why we carry -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-oNMHNrS-8&NR=1This is what we need to do -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpToQqYs75AThere's a lot of misinformation spewed out there by the mass media and anti-gun groups, so I won't counter it here, but if you want to discuss it, please contact me.
For the record, I am not pro-gun; I am pro-freedom. Guns are merely a tool by which I may maintain my freedom.
EDIT: I also sent to the senators and reps from MN. I just emailed all the ones who's email address I could harvest (this excludes the ones requiring a form to be filled out, so it's most, but not all of the senators and house reps)
sen.bruce.anderson@senate.mn,
sen.michelle.benson@senate.mn,
sen.terri.bonoff@senate.mn,
sen.david.brown@senate.mn,
sen.jim.carlson@senate.mn,
sen.roger.chamberlain@senate.mn,
sen.bobby.champion@senate.mn,
sen.greg.clausen@senate.mn,
sen.kevin.dahle@senate.mn,
sen.gary.dahms@senate.mn,
sen.scott.dibble@senate.mn,
sen.kent.eken@senate.mn,
sen.michelle.fischbach@senate.mn,
sen.melisa.franzen@senate.mn,
sen.paul.gazelka@senate.mn,
sen.dan.hall@senate.mn,
sen.foung.hawj@senate.mn,
sen.jeff.hayden@senate.mn,
sen.john.hoffman@senate.mn,
sen.karin.housley@senate.mn,
sen.bill.ingebrigtsen@senate.mn,
sen.vicki.jensen@senate.mn,
sen.alice.johnson@senate.mn,
sen.susan.kent@senate.mn,
sen.mary.kiffmeyer@senate.mn sen.lyle.koenen@senate.mn,
sen.ron.latz@senate.mn,
sen.warren.limmer@senate.mn,
sen.tony.lourey@senate.mn,
sen.jim.metzen@senate.mn,
sen.jeremy.miller@senate.mn,
sen.carla.nelson@senate.mn,
sen.scott.newman@senate.mn,
sen.sean.nienow@senate.mn,
sen.julianne.ortman@senate.mn,
sen.david.osmek@senate.mn,
sen.john.pederson@senate.mn,
sen.branden.petersen@senate.mn,
sen.eric.pratt@senate.mn,
sen.roger.reinert@senate.mn,
sen.julie.rosen@senate.mn,
sen.carrie.ruud@senate.mn,
sen.tom.saxhaug@senate.mn,
sen.bev.scalze@senate.mn,
sen.matt.schmit@senate.mn,
sen.david.senjem@senate.mn,
sen.kathy.sheran@senate.mn,
sen.katie.sieben@senate.mn,
sen.rod.skoe@senate.mn,
sen.dan.sparks@senate.mnsen.dave.thompson@senate.mn,
sen.david.tomassoni@senate.mn,
sen.bill.weber@senate.mn,
sen.torrey.westrom@senate.mn,
sen.chuck.wiger@senate.mn,
sen.melissa.wiklund@senate.mn,
rep.jim.abeler@house.mn,
rep.tony.albright@house.mn,
rep.susan.allen@house.mn,
rep.mark.anderson@house.mn,
rep.paul.anderson@house.mn,
rep.sarah.anderson@house.mn,
rep.tom.anzelc@house.mn,
rep.joe.atkins@house.mn,
rep.bob.barrett@house.mn,
rep.mike.beard@house.mn,
rep.john.benson@house.mn,
rep.mike.benson@house.mn,
rep.connie.bernardy@house.mn,
rep.david.bly@house.mn,
rep.kathy.brynaert@house.mn,
rep.lyndon.carlson@house.mn,
rep.karen.clark@house.mn,
rep.tony.cornish@house.mn,
rep.kurt.daudt@house.mnrep.greg.davids@house.mn,
rep.jim.davnie@house.mn,
rep.matt.dean@house.mn,
rep.raymond.dehn@house.mn,
rep.bob.dettmer@house.mn,
rep.david.dill@house.mn,
rep.zachary.dorholt@house.mn,
rep.steve.drazkowski@house.mn,
rep.ron.erhardt@house.mn,
rep.roger.erickson@house.mn,
rep.sondra.erickson@house.mn,
rep.dan.fabian@house.mn,
rep.andrew.falk@house.mn,
rep.tim.faust@house.mn,
rep.peter.fischer@house.mn,
rep.david.fitzsimmons@house.mn,
rep.mary.franson@house.mn,
rep.mike.freiberg@house.mn,
rep.patti.fritz@house.mn,
rep.pat.garofalo@house.mn,
rep.steve.green@house.mn,
rep.glenn.gruenhagen@house.mn,
rep.bob.gunther@house.mn,
rep.tom.hackbarth@house.mn,
rep.laurie.halverson@house.mnrep.rod.hamilton@house.mn,
rep.rick.hansen@house.mn,
rep.alice.hausman@house.mn,
rep.jerry.hertaus@house.mn,
rep.debra.hilstrom@house.mn,
rep.maryliz.holberg@house.mn,
rep.joe.hoppe@house.mn,
rep.frank.hornstein@house.mn,
rep.melissa.hortman@house.mn,
rep.jeff.howe@house.mn,
rep.thomas.huntley@house.mn,
rep.jason.isaacson@house.mn,
rep.brian.johnson@house.mn,
rep.sheldon.johnson@house.mn,
rep.phyllis.kahn@house.mn,
rep.tim.kelly@house.mn,
rep.andrea.kieffer@house.mn,
rep.deb.kiel@house.mn,
rep.ron.kresha@house.mn,
rep.carolyn.laine@house.mn,
rep.ernie.leidiger@house.mn,
rep.ann.lenczewski@house.mn,
rep.john.lesch@house.mn,
rep.tina.liebling@house.mn,
rep.ben.lien@house.mn,
rep.leon.lillie@house.mnrep.diane.loeffler@house.mn,
rep.kathy.lohmer@house.mn,
rep.jenifer.loon@house.mn,
rep.tara.mack@house.mn,
rep.tim.mahoney@house.mn,
rep.carlos.mariani@house.mn,
rep.paul.marquart@house.mn,
rep.sandra.masin@house.mn,
rep.joe.mcdonald@house.mn,
rep.jay.mcnamar@house.mn,
rep.denny.mcnamara@house.mn ,
rep.carly.melin@house.mn,
rep.jason.metsa@house.mn,
rep.rena.moran@house.mn,
rep.will.morgan@house.mn,
rep.joe.mullery@house.mn,
rep.erin.murphy@house.mn,
rep.mary.murphy@house.mn,
rep.pam.myhra@house.mn,
rep.michael.nelson@house.mn,
rep.jim.newberger@house.mn,
rep.jerry.newton@house.mn,
rep.bud.nornes@house.mn,
rep.kim.norton@house.mnrep.tim.odriscoll@house.mn,
rep.marion.oneill@house.mn,
rep.michael.paymar@house.mn,
rep.gene.pelowski@house.mn,
rep.joyce.peppin@house.mn,
rep.john.persell@house.mn,
rep.john.petersburg@house.mn,
rep.jeanne.poppe@house.mn,
rep.cindy.pugh@house.mn,
rep.duane.quam@house.mn,
rep.joe.radinovich@house.mn,
rep.paul.rosenthal@house.mn,
rep.linda.runbeck@house.mn,
rep.tim.sanders@house.mn,
rep.shannon.savick@house.mn,
rep.mary.sawatzky@house.mn,
rep.dan.schoen@house.mn,
rep.joe.schomacker@house.mn,
rep.peggy.scott@house.mn,
rep.yvonne.selcer@house.mn,
rep.steve.simon@house.mn,
rep.erik.simonson@house.mn,
rep.linda.slocum@house.mn,
rep.mike.sundin@house.mn,
rep.chris.swedzinski@house.mnrep.paul.thissen@house.mn,
rep.paul.torkelson@house.mn,
rep.mark.uglem@house.mn,
rep.dean.urdahl@house.mn,
rep.jean.wagenius@house.mn,
rep.joann.ward@house.mn,
rep.john.ward@house.mn,
rep.anna.wills@house.mn,
rep.ryan.winkler@house.mn,
rep.kelby.woodard@house.mn,
rep.barb.yarusso@house.mn,
rep.kurt.zellers@house.mn,
rep.nick.zerwas@house.mn
by Heffay on Wed Jan 16, 2013 2:14 pm 
