In light of the August 28 shooting in an Oregon grocery store”

Dear Republican Neighbor and fellow Jackson County Resident,

I am writing to ask your help.  I think we are all reeling from the recent mass shooting like the one in Uvalde.  Our politicians donot really want us to find an answer to this mutual problem; we are the only country in the world where children get slaughtered in school. They exploit our political division to keep money in their pockets and themselves in power.  I am a gun-owning Democrat, and a mature adult.  I know as you do that compromise is not a dirty word.  It is not surrender.  Surely, there is a middle ground to this debate so we can move forward and truly be the exceptional nation that we used to be. As a Republican, you are the only person who can talk some sense into your elected representatives.

We can always do “both/and”.  It is never simply all or nothing.  Democracies don’t work that way.  Democracies work by compromise and good ideas come from both sides of the aisle. Securing our schools and placing armed police presence in them is a good Republican idea.  It is also a good idea to get background checks before a gun purchase and raise the age of purchase to the drinking age. The USA does NOT have any more mental health problems than the rest of the world; that is not why we have more school shootings. That is insulting to us as a people.  We just have too many guns in the hands of the wrong people.  Semi-automatic weapons are not used for hunting. but they can be used to shoot 100 rounds of ammunition into a 3rd grade classroom. The gun manufacturersproduce them to make money and scare the rest of us.

Please for the sake of our community and nation, urge your leaders to find some middle ground.  I am certainly talking to the people I vote for. Let’s do something together about this national recurring nightmare.

A Mountain Mother

 

Instagram