WILLIAMSON
FOR
U.S. CONGRESS 2016
DEMOCRAT
CONGRESSI0NAL DISTRICT 6
“The Future Can Be Ours.”
480-607-9726
Dear Friend,
If a leader, and our society, has the power to take steps to prevent
needless suffering, should not that leader, and society, do what he or she
can do to bring that about?
Background checks on gun purchases and a waiting period of at least a week
could possibly prevent not only mass shootings but also tragic suicides.
In addition, the needless suffering not only of the survivors disabled by
their wounds but also of the family members who help them to recover could
be eliminated. Moreover, the search for justice by the family members for
their loved ones, whether deceased or debilitated, might never have to
happen.
For example, as reported by Jack Healy in the New York Times, “before the
bullets and bloodshed in the movie theater, Stefan Moton was a teenager
who did push-ups and boxing exercises in his bedroom, his dreams fixed on
becoming a mixed martial arts fighter. Now, his goals are humbler:
Strengthen the sections of his upper body that he can still move…. Feed
himself again.” (“Full Toll From Aurora Theater Shooting Goes Untold at
Trial,” by Jack Healy, New York Times, July 1, 2015.)
Mr.Healy goes on to say: “Mr. Moton,” now 21, “was shot through the spine
and left paralyzed from the chest down.” He “is among scores of survivors
who have taken the witness stand in the murder trial of James E. Holmes,
the former neuroscience graduate student charged with carrying out the
midnight rampage at a multiplex here in July 2012…” 12 people were
killed in the shooting. But “many stories of Aurora’s painful legacy,
which families say remains as raw and urgent as ever, have gone untold in
court.”
The article goes on to state that family members and friends “are allowed
to cry in court, but audible sobs are against the judge’s rules. So during
a particularly wrenching moment — an autopsy description, or an
explanation of a bullet’s destructive path — they walk into the hallway,
or the quiet room with counselors, therapy dogs and other victims’ family
members.
“‘It kind of catches you off guard,’ said Lonnie Phillips, whose
stepdaughter, Jessica Ghawi, a budding sports reporter, was killed. ‘If
you hold it in for a long time, you can’t even imagine when it’s going to
hit, and what’s going to trigger it.’
“‘What gets us through is each other,’ said Sandy Phillips, Ms. Ghawi’s
mother.”
Another perspective on gun deaths is that, according to Elizabeth
Rosenthal in her article in the New York Times on March 8, 2013, “more
than 60 percent of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides.”
Her piece, entitled “Suicide, With No Warning,” chronicles the tragic
suicide of Kerry Lewiecki, a recent law school graduate, early in the
summer of 2010. Says Rosenthal: “To his large, loving family and many
friends,” he “was an optimist and problem-solver, with a big laugh and
impressive hugs.” He was even getting ready to marry his longtime
girlfriend.
“Then, just a few weeks later, within the span of a few hours, he bought a
gun and shot and killed himself, at age 27. His father, Mike, a doctor in
Albuquerque, who still chokes up when he recalls that day, said: ‘We had
no clue he was desperate. I don’t think he’d ever shot a gun before.’
“Said his father, ‘If it had not been so easy to buy a gun maybe he would
have spoken with someone or woken up the next morning and heard the birds
and felt better.'”
Indeed, a waiting period of one week on his gun purchase might have saved
Mr. Lewiecki’s life.
Friend, when I am elected your congressman in November 2016, I will
support legislation that calls for background checks and a waiting period
of one week on all gun purchases. The background checks would be designed
ONLY to screen out the dangerously mentally ill and those prone to
violence from buying a gun, NOT to deny citizens their Second Amendment
rights. The purpose of the waiting period would be to prevent impulse
suicides by people who are going through a difficult period in their
lives.
If you would like to contribute financially to my campaign, please visit
my website at: williamsonforuscongress.com. Click on “Make a
Donation.” That will take you to the contribution page. If you wish to
contribute by check and not credit card, an address is there provided that
you can use. Remember, the Federal Election Commission requires that you
provide your name, address, name of your employer and your occupation.
The Future Can Be Ours if we support the reasonable measures of background
checks and a waiting period for all gun purchases. Do we not value the
lives of our children and loved ones whether they are at a movie theater,
school, public event or other life situation? There is of course no
guarantee that such measures will prevent the mass shootings and the
individual suicides we seek to put a stop to. But they MIGHT, and that
MIGHT is mighty important, because those will be lives saved by the
precautions we had the good sense to support.
If you wish to respond to this e-mail, please do so. I will be interested
to learn your viewpoint.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
John
W. John Williamson
Scottsdale, Arizona