Recent mass shootings are hitting too close to home. My sister lives just outside of Aurora, Colorado. One of my cousins shops in the Clackamas Mall in Oregon and another cousin attended Virginia Tech when the shooting occurred there. A good Glen Ellyn friend is friends with the parents of the little girl who was the sole survivor of her class in Newtown. I cannot sit still any longer. If this is not the moment to change things, then what will the next moment look like?
Even today, Representative Roskam does not support universal background checks for firearm purchases or any other gun violence prevention measures being discussed in Washington DC.
Following the tragedy in Newtown, there is real political momentum. We must act now to prevent more tragedies. While IL has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, it is almost meaningless without similar gun laws governing the rest of the country. Crime guns come to IL from many other states, in fact, the number one border for crime guns to cross in the entire country is from IN into IL.
We in Glen Ellyn are in a unique position to ask for change. Our Congressional Representative, Peter Roskam, is a leader of Republicans in the House of Representatives. He is the Chief Deputy Whip, ranking 4th of 232 house Republicans. I believe that he represents a constituency that would want safer gun legislation, because the only other option on the table is arming our teachers, and that is not an acceptable option.
Gun violence takes over 30,000 lives and leads to over 60,000 injuries annually. To the fiscally minded, the Firearm & Injury Center at University of Pennsylvania estimates that the annual cost of this gun violence is over $100 billion. Two of every 5 guns sold are sold without background checks. Since 1982 there have only been 3 years without mass shootings, and six of the 12 deadliest shootings have taken place since 2007. Since 1968, more Americans have been killed by gunfire than in all the wars in our nation's history.
It has been almost 2 months since 20 little children and 6 adults were murdered in CT and it angers me that Representative Roskam is not even calling for the most basic of changes, universal background checks. I am here today to remind my friends and neighbors in Glen Ellyn that we are at a turning point. We must raise our voices and demand change and so I ask the President and Board of Glen Ellyn to support gun safety initiatives in Springfield and Washington DC and I would like to ask my friends and neighbors in Glen Ellyn to contact Representative Roskam and ask him to support the President’s gun safety proposals. Rep Roskam can be reached at 202-225-4561.
Kathleen Meier
Glen Ellyn
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