Dear friend,

Every day it seems like there’s another mass shooting. In fact, there have been 1.46 mass shootings on average each day so far in 2023.

This has to stop.

The United States has more guns than people. No wonder we also lead the world in deaths by guns.

I support the right to bear arms—we’re one of the few constitutional sovereignties in the world that guarantees that right—but we live in a different world than that of 1791, and every right has its limits.

Say, for instance, every citizen had the right and ability to create a nuclear bomb. Would that fall under the right to “bear arms”?

Over and over again, courts have found that gun control is not unconstitutional. None other than conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a 2008 ruling, the second amendment is “not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” Forbidding firearm possession by “dangerous people,” in school and government buildings, and placing restrictions and regulations on the sale of firearms (like here in California) are all constitutional.

Speaking of California—since 2005, we tightened gun laws in the state, making it the most difficult state in which to purchase a firearm. Not surprisingly, our gun deaths fell accordingly. We went from the national average gun mortality rate in 2005 to 38% fewer deaths than the national average in 2020.

Even that number of deaths is far too much. Someone is killed every three hours by a gun in California.

We cannot let certain rights infringe upon the rights of others—in this case our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

I support a nationwide ban on assault weapons.

As a side note, there has been a lot of right-wing fearmongering and commotion over “trans shooters” in the past couple of weeks. I’ll just note that the overwhelming majority of assailants in mass shootings are cisgender men, and trans people are far more likely to be victims of gun violence than perpetrators.

This is yet another case of right-wing politicians doing what they do best—taking an anecdote and pretending it’s a statistic.

I prefer to stick to the facts. 

In solidarity,

Maebe