Friend,

I went to bed on Saturday night with the community of El Paso on my mind. When I awoke to the news of the second shooting in Dayton, I was shaken. Until we put action behind our thoughts and prayers these won’t be the last mass killings at the hands of a hate-filled gunman who should never have had access to assault weapons.

Friend, our government has failed us. Even after Sandy Hook, even after Parkland, even after Las Vegas, our leaders refuse to lead.

We deserve a government that responds when these shootings occur — and I don’t mean on Twitter. We deserve a Senate that isn’t controlled by Mitch McConnell and the NRA.

That is what is on the line in this election.

Last week it was Gilroy, this week it was El Paso and Dayton. When white supremacists vandalized the Temple Israel synagogue in Columbus, Georgia last week with anti-Semitic fliers, they could just as easily have come with assault weapons. And through all of this turmoil, our senator remains silent about this threat to Temple Israel — when synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway have been targeted for mass shootings in just the last year — and offers only thoughts and prayers to the families of the slain in Texas and Ohio.

Friend, in spite of mind-boggling Senate inaction by Mitch McConnell and David Perdue, you can help do something right now to counteract the scourge of gun violence.

I am asking you to split a $5 contribution between Moms Demand Action and Giffords PAC so that we can begin to take steps right now to counteract gun violence and win this race to enact real gun safety legislation that will save lives.

Thank you for joining me and taking this important stand.

—Teresa

P.S.: You can read the Daily Beast op-ed I wrote last year about gun violence and Georgia here.

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