Friend,

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. America is worth celebrating, and worth fighting for.

I spent the weekend in Mt. Shasta (blue) and Alturas (very red) talking to voters. Nothing is more patriotic than voting - and celebrating the overthrow of British rule 246 years ago is a good analogy for voting out an unpopular incumbent.

Make no mistake, Doug LaMalfa is unpopular. Even the Republicans think that he has been in office too long and that he makes too much money off government agriculture checks.

But, July 4th aside, the point of this email actually comes about because I took part in two parades this weekend: the Fandango Day Parade (on Saturday) and the Mt Shasta Fourth of July Parade (on Monday). I don't like parades as much as I like actually talking to voters - but they're a traditional aspect of American campaigning. The Alturas Parade had about 1,000 spectators and the Mt. Shasta Parade had many times that.

It made the (near-simultaneous) shooting at the Chicago Parade hit home. Driving to Redding from Mt Shasta, I turned on the radio only to hear of yet another mass shooting - this time in the suburbs of Chicago. Yet again, the perpetrator is a young, white, far-right extremist. Yet again he was armed with a legally-purchased AR-15. Yet again, he had made a series of morbid posts online that clearly pointed to a troubled mental state.

The shooter (who I am not naming on purpose - a practice that I wish the media would follow) had no business owning an AR-15. Sadly, Illinois (like California) already has a "Red Flag Law." The police had the tools to stop him, but not the information. The problem is that no one reported him. If we are going to be a gun-owning country - and I believe the Second Amendment has that intent - then we need to be more willing to report dangerous posts online (red flag laws), gun store owners need to be more discriminating in who they sell weapons to (background checks).

The Biden Administration has just passed the most substantive firearms bill in 30 years. We may be able to build upon that bill in the next Congress - but that means that Democrats need to keep the House and build upon our lead in the Senate. Age restrictions for semi-automatic rifles make sense. Magazine size restrictions (the amount of bullets a shooter can fire before pausing to reload) would reduce fatalities. Common sense solutions like these - that protect the public while protecting the rights of legal gun-owners - have no chance in a Republican Congress that takes its marching orders from the NRA.

Look, I know that most of the readers of these emails want a ban on AR-15's. I don't: sorry. I'm a centrist and a veteran, and I think the Second Amendment is important because I think the Constitution is important. In contrast, LaMalfa only "cares" about the Second Amendment because he gets money from the gun lobby.

I'm pro-2A. LaMalfa is pro-death. That is a difference worth voting for. I hope we can agree on that.

Max
Combat Veteran and Democrat For Congress

Max Steiner is a combat veteran, foreign service officer, and Democrat running to flip California's 1st District from red to blue. Consider supporting Max's campaign by making a grassroots contribution here.

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Max Steiner is a combat veteran of the Iraq War and Sergeant First Class in the Army Reserves. Use of his military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of Defense.

Max Steiner for Congress
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