The title is mine. The text is a letter our daughter wrote to her elected representatives after the Orlando massacre at the Pulse nightclub. It's timely today with the powerful action by some elected representatives, including her congressman Gerald Connolly, sitting on the U.S. House of Representatives floor demanding action on gun control.
I wish I had such principled representatives. Mine are among the top recipients of NRA funds. Here's to addressing this serious problem and here's to citizens, like Jocelyn Dorfman, and to elected representatives like Connolly, John Lewis, and Donna Edwards, who are taking a stand by sitting down.
Dear Congressman Connolly,
My name is Jocelyn Dorfman, and I am your constituent in the 11th
District. As my elected official, you are my representative in the Congress. I
know that you do not undertake that challenge lightly. I also know that I am
one of many voices you were elected to represent. Please consider this letter
providing my perspective as a resident and preschool teacher in Fairfax County.
Every day, it is my responsibility and privilege to guide 15 three-
and four-year-olds through the challenges of life. I teach them that hands are
not for hitting, that mean words can hurt a friend’s feelings, and that we wash
our hands after using the bathroom and before eating. I teach them to take a
moment to consider a friend’s point of view; to listen when it is their
friend’s turn to speak; and to be respectful of their friends, their teachers,
and their families. I teach them these things so that they can be ready for
kindergarten and school when the time comes, yes – but I also teach them these
things so that they can be good citizens of the world. Watching, reading, and
listening to the news sometimes makes me feel as if most adults have long
forgotten these basic lessons.
I am also a student of American history and government. I know that
the United States Constitution is one of the most important documents ever
written. However, I also know that it is important to consider the time in
which it was written. When Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton,
and the other founding fathers codified this document, it took approximately
one minute to load and shoot one bullet with a Brown Bess or Flintlock rifle.
When they agonized over every single word of each sentence in the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights, they knew it was important enough to include “a
well-regulated militia” in the Second Amendment. I know that it took me several
weeks and some very long trips to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get my
driver’s license, vehicle safety inspection, and vehicle registration; it
should not be easier than that process to purchase a machine that has no other
purpose than to hurt, maim, and kill.
This past weekend, I was visiting the parents who raised me to be
aware of the world around me and to be a responsible citizen. I consider myself
lucky that I was with them when I woke up to the news that 50 people were
killed and even more were injured in Orlando, Florida.
I have a Master of Science in psychology; I am more than aware of
the impact mental illnesses can have upon a person. However, the ease and
simplicity of the process by which a mentally ill individual can obtain a semi-
or automatic killing machine is horrifying. We will learn much in the coming
days and weeks about the assailant’s history and potential motivations, but we
already know that he was able to obtain and use a weapon designed with the sole
purpose of killing a lot of people quickly.
A United States citizen purchased that weapon legally. A citizen who
had been investigated by the FBI more than once and who had a history of
domestic violence.
In April 1999, at the time of the mass murders at Columbine High
School, I was nearing the end of my fourth grade year. At nine years old, I had
to process the fact that I might be unsafe in school, a place of fun and
learning. Those fears came to fruition in December 2012 when I woke to the news
that twenty children had been murdered. The fact that this timeline left out
Virginia Tech, which happened during my own freshman year of college; Waco,
Aurora, Roseburg, and countless others leaves me nauseated.
At some point, we have to stand up to the NRA and say enough is
enough. Let the CDC and other research bodies investigate gun safety. Let there
be a legal and prescribed process for obtaining, registering, and
re-registering weapons. Let me be able to know that my fifteen students will be
safe.
I am asking you to hear and understand that as your constituent I
would like you to vote for, introduce, or otherwise support at least some
common sense gun regulation. When flying to visit my parents, I could not carry
on a bottle of shampoo greater than 3 ounces – but tomorrow I could walk into a
gun store and legally purchase an AR-15.
Let’s require a gun license. Let’s require gun safety courses, like
driver’s education. Let’s check people’s eyesight, and also check if they’ve
committed a crime since the last time they registered their weapon. Let’s make
it so that if you want a more deadly weapon than a shotgun or a handgun, you
have to go through a more rigorous process. Let’s make sure that people being watched
by the FBI either aren’t allowed to buy guns, or at the very least, make sure
that the FBI is immediately made aware of the purchase. Let’s keep guns out of
the hands of known perpetrators of intimate partner violence.
I am a native Virginian, and I consider myself lucky to have been
born and raised in this great Commonwealth. I am also very lucky to have been
raised by two conscientious parents who intentionally moved to a county and
state that provided high quality public education, who raised me to be aware of
the bigger picture of my county, state, and country; and who raised me to be a
citizen of the world. As such, I have always been active in politics at every
level, from handing out sample ballots as a five-year-old to working on my
father’s school board campaign to voting in every possible election since I was
first eligible.
Yet, this is the first time I have written to my elected official.
I write to you now because enough is enough. Thoughts and prayers,
while comforting, are not enough. No moment of silence can bring back Edward
Sotomayor Jr., Luis S. Vielma, and Kimberly Morris, much less the thousands of
individuals who perish from automatic weapons every single year in our
country.
Thank you for reading this. You are my elected official. Please hear
my voice and make my voice heard in these matters. Please know that hands are
not for hitting or for holding assault rifles in our communities.
I’m counting on you to do the right thing.
Sincerely,
Jocelyn Dorfman
