Message from Casey and a response

**Brick** · August 22nd, 2019, 07:54 PM

Here's Casey's answer to a message I sent him regarding the current shit-storm swirling about red flag laws etc.

Dear Brick:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me about the Second Amendment and the regulation of firearms. I appreciate hearing from you.
I support the Second Amendment right of law-abiding Americans to own guns for protection, sporting and collection. But, like many Americans, I believe we need commonsense gun legislation that will help to prevent tragic mass shootings as well as the daily gun violence that takes the lives of approximately 33,000 Americans each year.

The Sandy Hook massacre affected me deeply. The shooter used a military-style assault weapon with magazines containing up to 30 rounds of ammunition. Realizing that he chose this weapon because he wanted to inflict the most damage in the shortest amount of time, and that he would have tried to kill hundreds of children if he could have, led me to reevaluate how we approach gun violence as a Nation. After careful study, I decided to support legislation to close loopholes in the existing background check system, as well as legislation to institute a federal ban on military-style assault weapons and to restrict high-capacity magazines. I voted in favor of these measures, as well as efforts to close a loophole allowing known and suspected terrorists on the Terrorist Watchlist to purchase firearms, when they came before the Senate for consideration in 2013, 2015 and 2016. None of these measures gained enough support to pass the Senate.

Since Sandy Hook, thousands of Americans have lost their lives to gun violence. We have witnessed some of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history at Charleston, Orlando, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, Parkland, Thousand Oaks, Santa Fe, Dayton, and El Paso, Texas. Gun violence recently took a toll on our own Commonwealth. On the morning of Saturday, October 27, 2018, we witnessed the most deadly act of violence against the Jewish community in American history. As congregants of the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh were holding Shabbat morning services, including a bris to welcome a newborn child into their community, they became targets of horrific violence because of their religious beliefs. Eleven congregants were taken from their families and six other individuals were wounded, including four police officers who responded to the scene. The suspect was armed with three handguns and one AR-15 assault rifle.

As a public official, I believe my colleagues and I have an obligation to enact commonsense reforms that will keep Americans safe and reduce the likelihood of gun violence incidents. We are a Nation of people who come together, roll up our sleeves and solve difficult problems. We can pass smart measures to reduce gun violence while fully respecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. Please be assured that should the Senate consider legislation affecting firearm regulation, I will have your views in mind.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.
For more information on this or other issues, I encourage you to visit my website, http://casey.senate.gov. I hope you will find this online office a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.

Sincerely,
Bob Casey
United States Senator

Here's my response to his nonsense, I hope he takes it as a slap in face!

Sir,

There are portions of your message that I seriously object to. these follow:

“commonsense gun legislation” Not one such item has been proposed that would have STOPPED any of the mass killings and “gun violence” you decry. BUT every one would further restrict MY rights or condemn MY personal property

“daily gun violence that takes the lives of approximately 33,000 Americans each year.” About 60% of the number you tout here is SUICIDES. For 2017 according to FBI Uniform Crime Report, total murders by firearms was 10,982. Too many to be sure but never as many as those with a spin claim. On the opposite side there are anywhere between 100,000 and 2 million defensive uses of firearms annually.

“We have witnessed some of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history at Charleston, Orlando, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, Parkland, Thousand Oaks, Santa Fe, Dayton, and El Paso, Texas” Terrible events to be sure BUT! In Sutherland Springs a pair of civilians armed with the very same AR type rifle you seek to ban stopped the murderer. BTW that murderer had been convicted in a military courts martial of domestic abuse and if the Air Force had complied with US law he’d have been unable to legally purchase or possess ANY firearm. In nearly every other instance you cite here except Las Vegas, the individual murderer was “known” to law enforcement. One had been indicted on drug charges and the state did NOT update NICS in a timely manner (Charleston) . In Orlando, the FBI had investigated the murderer twice based on citizen complaints and cleared him each time. In Parkland, local police had responded to 40 separate complaints against the murderer for aberrant behavior, even threatening another teen with a firearm, complaints were also made the FBI. ALL were ignored and at NO time did local Police consider using Florida’s EXISTING law to have the murderer undergo an involuntary psychiatric evaluation which could have identified him as a threat to self or others. WRT Sandy Hook, don’t forget the murderer there committed matricide in order to obtain the guns and ammunition he used in that attack, it has been reported that his his mother was considering having him institutionalized, which he should have been from the beginning. If there is a common thread here beyond murder and violence itself, it is the apparent lack of moral courage needed to enforce existing laws!

“I believe my colleagues and I have an obligation to enact commonsense reforms” Yet every measure you and others support would further erode MY rights and would further diminish the requirement for “due process” that protects those who’ve NOT committed a crime and completely ignores the criminals among us. “Universal Background checks, gun show loophole, private sales, Internet sales” Smoke screens all of them! Federal law controls the interstate sale of firearms and requires that any sale across state lines involve at least ONE Federal Licensed Firearms Dealer, for handguns and were the purchase is not made in person the firearm may only be shipped from one FFL dealer to another, where the buyer must complete all required federal and state requirements including a NICS check. Private sales are the province of the STATE governments and again federal law applies in that one may NOT sell to a prohibited person. BUT among the crimes that have the very lowest of prosecution priority is the crime committed when a “prohibited person” lies and tries to purchase from a legal source. IN FY 2017 out of 112,000+ denials by NICS only 12,000+ were submitted to ATF field offices for investigation of that number only 12 (that’s right TWELVE) were prosecuted by US Attorneys! You can confirm that data by reading GAO report # GAO-18-440.

My bottom line: Instead of diminishing my rights and forcing ME to prove my innocence before I can exercise MY Constitutional rights, please use your good offices to spotlight the lack of enforcement of existing law!

Brick
Apolacon TWP, PA