Dear Village Green,
The Social Action Committee of the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County is strongly advocating for prudent guidelines concerning the purchase, carry rights, and use of guns in this country. Because we believe that it is our responsibility to live an ethical life and leave the world a better place for future generations, and in honor of the thousands killed by guns every year in senseless acts of terror, we want to encourage immediate measures for stronger background checks and prudent gun sale restrictions, most particularly of assault weapons which have no peaceful use but are weapons for which the sole purpose is killing many human beings rapidly and with maximum bodily destruction.
While we support and praise the legislation already passed by the New Jersey legislature restricting the right to carry in certain “sensitive” venues, and limiting the rounds of ammunition that magazines can hold, more needs to be done nationwide to pass sensible and practical gun legislation. Victims of gun violence range from young children to older adults, and represent all ethnic groups, although many are Black, Indigenous, Asians, other people of color, Jews and Muslims. These random acts of gun violence occur everywhere: in our schools, in our houses of worship, in our shopping malls, in small Mom and Pop stores, in our train stations, and on our public streets. In essence, no place is safe.
The perpetrators are often filled with racial hatred, rage, or are suffering from mental illness. What they have in common is their weapon: guns, often military style guns that decimate bodies and blow faces off.
It is our conviction that no reasonable interpretation of the Second Amendment—composed in a time of front-loading muskets when automatic war weapons were unimaginable–should preclude our ability to establish guidelines and measures to keep us safe in a civilized, democratic society. If we as a nation cannot do that, we will descend into anarchy and public terror where no one is safe.
Sincerely,
Meredith Sue Willis, Chair
Social Action Committee
Ethical Culture Society of Essex County, NJ
