|
本帖最后由 pinetrees 于 2016-3-3 08:22 编辑
Email from LexForLiberty, lexforliberty@gmail.com
A Letter to Town Meeting Members
Dear Friends,
Our spokesperson Mike Barg has drafted a letter that will be distributed to all Town Meeting members as well as the Board of Selectmen to urge them to oppose Article 34. This letter has been signed by the rest of us on the committee, but the more signatures we get, the more powerful our statement will be.
Please consider adding your name to ours. Unlike before, no addresses or phone numbers are necessary. If you are a Lexington resident, just reply to this email and say you would like your name added. We currently have approximately 150 subscribers to this site, so we are definitely able to make a strong statement.
We want to send this out within the next couple of days, so please read the text below, and if you're on board, reply back to us to add your name to ours. The text of the letter follows.
(PS: The earlier Op-Ed which many of you have already signed will be sent to the Lexington Minuteman in the near future, once the dust from today's town elections has settled. Thank you for your support on that effort as well.)
------------------TEXT OF LETTER FOLLOWS------------------------
Dear Selectmen and Town Meeting Members of Lexington:
We, the undersigned residents of Lexington, respectfully request you vote NO on Warrant Article 34 (copy of the proposed full text attached) at the Annual Town Meeting. Our reasoning is as follows:
1. Article 34 proposes to ban, and directs the police department to “seize and destroy,” legally owned property. This would violate our Second and Fourth Amendment rights.
2. Article 34 would have no effect on criminals, as the three types of semi-automatic firearms targeted for banning are widely available in Massachusetts and across the country. Further, there is no “gun problem” in Lexington; one of America’s safest communities.
3. In addition, Article 34 would ban certain rifles that only differ cosmetically from permitted models, as illustrated clearly by this short educational video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIERPxPnHGk.
4. Firearm ownership in Massachusetts is already highly regulated by current laws. To legally own a firearm a citizen must complete mandatory training, pass police background checks, provide written local character references and be deemed “suitable” by the local Chief of Police.
All decent people are appalled by the mass shootings in the country. However, none of these crimes were perpetrated by responsible, law-abiding citizens. They were perpetrated by people with serious mental illness, criminals and terrorists. Article 34 would do nothing to stop such crimes because it is an emotion-driven reaction based on the false premise of improving public safety and is being directed against many hundreds of responsible, law-abiding citizens of Lexington; i.e., your neighbors and friends. Further, Article 34 would be a misdirected waste of Lexington’s precious resources. It is NOT based on facts and is without merit. In addition, Article 34 would be singularly ineffective in that it does nothing to improve firearms safety, reduce criminal use of firearms, improve mental health or reduce suicides. Therefore, what problem is Article 34 trying to solve?
We cannot live in fear and allow it to divide our community. The dear price paid for Lexington’s hard-earned liberty must not be destroyed by the fear-mongering and social bigotry represented by Article 34. Please Vote NO on Article 34!
Thank you for your kind attention.
Sincerely,
Michael D. Barg CAPT USN (Ret.) Veteran, Alan V. Seferian, Seth Riney, Douglas White, Gwen Sloan, Barry Johnson, Catherine White,Patrick Morin, Ronald Tashjian
....
|
|