What I Wrote to Congress

I have no idea what strikes a note with sitting Senators and representatives. But I know what I feel. Here’s what I sent to my representatives in Washington. Be my guest to copy this template.

Dear ___________,

I am writing you to ask that you take the necessary steps to end gun violence in the United States.

I am haunted by the imagery and the stories coming out of Newtown, Connecticut. This massacre is a moment of national mourning. But it also points to a grave national failing. We, collectively, failed the students at Sandy Hook Elementary. It is time to end the ongoing violence in this country. Only elected officials like yourself, ___________, can right this injustice.

I was in junior high school when the shootings at Columbine High School took place. That event rocked the nation and forced children, like myself at the time, to confront the very real dangers of the world. The similarities between Columbine and the school I attended growing up in Pennsylvania were daunting. If it could happen there, it could happen anywhere.

[Sir or Madam], that was over thirteen years ago. Nothing has changed.

I can no longer abide this destruction, this bloodbath being perpetrated on American soil. I put it to you, ___________, and your colleagues in Washington to save us from ourselves; to protect us from the killing machines that have taken too many lives in this country this year alone.

The time for complacency is over. The time for feints and denialism and bickering has passed. You must act now to make it more difficult for anyone to get a gun. You must act to limit the firepower available on the market. You must end the illegal gun trade that goes on in the US and regulate the legal sale of weapons so that killers cannot perpetrate these mass shootings anymore.

As a child I thought that there could never be an event more tragic than Columbine. How many more times must I be proven wrong? How many lives will it take before congress stands up and demands that something be done to stop this senseless violence.

I beg of you to effect change, ___________. I ask you to save the lives of countless Americans with your vote. End gun violence now.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Poritsky