Hi — Today is National Gun Violence Awareness Day. In the first six months of 2023, over 17,000 Americans have lost their lives to gun violence, including 755 children under the age of 18 and 268 people who have been killed during a mass shooting.

We have a problem.

Starting with the fact that those numbers will be higher by the time you receive this email. More Americans will die tragically, senselessly, and due, at least in part, to inaction by too many of our elected leaders.

As a Representative, nothing is more important to me than your safety, the safety of our kids, and our ability to live without the fear of violence. Yet, year after year after year, Washington refuses to take meaningful action. That inaction has led to countless deaths and shattered families.

Our schools and our streets are beginning to feel like war zones. The same weapons I carried in combat are gunning down 3rd graders. There’s absolutely no excuse.

Most Americans support gun safety laws that will keep weapons out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them and prevent weapons of war from killing our neighbors in supermarkets or movie theatres or nightclubs or playgrounds. So, why the hell haven’t we done it?

Because too many lawmakers, particularly on the far-right, are afraid.

They need the gun lobby to continue writing them checks for their campaigns, so they do nothing.
They fear negative television ads and mailers from extremist groups, so they do nothing.
They know that the loudest voice in the room usually gets the attention, and the goons at the NRA, they’ve got a giant megaphone, so they do nothing.

They have chosen their political preservation over American lives. It’s the single most gutless thing I have ever experienced. And it has to change.

To the countless families deeply impacted by gun violence, I want you to know I will always have your back. I will do everything and anything I can to prevent another tragedy. I know that’s not enough. But we remain in this fight together, and the majority of Americans stand with us. We will make progress. We have no other choice.

Yours in service,

Pat



Pat Ryan for Congress
P.O. Box 2113
Kingston, NY 12402
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Pat Ryan is a former member of the U.S. Army. Use of his military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.
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