imported post
Here is a draft.
Mayor Barrett, Chief Flynn:
It was more than slightly disconcerting to hear you use the stage set by the assault on 2 police officers to launch a misguided emotional attack on law-abiding citizens. Citizenswho want nothing more than to be secure in their person by exercising the human right that the voters of Wisconsin overhwlemingly affirmed in 1998 with an amendment to our state constitution. This amendment reads that the people of Wisconsin have the right to keep and bear arms for security, self-defense, hunting, and any other lawful purpose. This right applies to the good people of Milwaukee just the same as it applies to a resident of Boulder Junction. With the dangers that we face in your city, it is perhaps more apprapos here than anywhere else in the state. Please recognize that others share the same dangers that police do. Police are not the only people in this community that face threats from the criminals of this community. Would you want to disarm them for their safety also? I understand the emotional reaction you have to seeing people in the hospital. But emotion should lead to compassion, not legislation. Logic is a better source of legislation than emotion is. Please also understand that other innocent people in this city have had to visit hospitals and morgues to mourn the loss of a loved one who fell victim to the criminal element of Milwaukee and had no opportunity to defend themselves. The college student that was killed by UWM a few years ago just walking to get a burger. Her family no doubt could pound a podium and demand that the wisconsin legislator hold a special session to restore the right of wisconsin citizens to have a gun in their purse for safety.
Its saddening to me that the mayor of a major metropolitan city in the United States would lump "special interest groups" in with the criminal that shot those 2 police officers. If you cannot distinguish between that kind of punk criminal and law-abiding citizens who just want to protect themselves... If you cannot distinguish between an 18-year old punk who already had been convicted of crimes who broke the law and concealled a weapon, who broke the law by drawing a weapon NOT in self-defense, and who broke the law by firing on 2 fellow human beings who posed no threat to his life and safety... If you cannot distinguish between that criminal, and the single mother who works late in Schlitz Park and walks across a lonely dark parking lot to her car SO close to a high-crime area of YOUR city. If you cannot distinguish between this punk criminal and the father that just bought a house in riverwest, fixed it up, and is trying to make a better life for himself and his family that just wants to take his dog for a walk at night and give his wife the comfort of knowing that he will be able to protect himself and return home safely to his family. If you call that "special interest"? If can't distinguish between those 2 polar opposite segments of society, then you have no business as a mayor of a major metropolitan city in this country. Ed Flynn has no busines being the police chief of one either if he struggles to have the capacity to make the same distinction. Perhaps if you wanted to look for REAL solutions you would recognize that your pejoratively labeled "special interest groups" have the same goal as you do. To have a safer city. You should reach out to people who have similar goals, not scapegoat them for political opportunity in the wake of a personal tragedy of those 2 officers.
Sincerely,
hugh_jarmis
opencarry.org
(I'll use my real name on the real letter)