Mr. Heck
My name is XXXX XXXX.
I will be brief, I know your time is valuable. You will undoubtedly hear from many people who will call on you to support and enact gun control legislation in the coming weeks in the wake of the mass murder committed in Colorado. I ask that you please not blame guns for this crime.
One thing is sure, every time a tragedy like this happens, we learn something. What we learned in the case of the Aurora Colorado murders, is that the shooter was an unemployed grad student. I would venture to say that this man was paying for his education and living expenses with public funds of one sort or another. After Virginia Tech, we learned that the killer had been found by a court to be mentally compromised. We have since added a new prohibited class of individuals to the list of those barred by law from purchasing a firearm. Now I think it is clear that when someone whom we can identify as an individual who is receiving a substantial amount of state and federal aid suddenly endeavors to purchase four firearms through the National Instant Check System (NICS), That Check system should be alerted and trigger an investigation.
Public funds are not intended to subsidize the purchase of firearms with federal student aid grants and loans, unemployment benefits and welfare monies. If someone wishes to purchase a firearm, they should be able to demonstrate that they can do so of their own means and earnings. It is true that people have a right to be secure from unreasonable search and seizure, but as taxpayers who are footing the bill for this man's living and educational expenses, we have a right to disclosure with respect to what these funds are spent on.
If you intend to search for a solution to this problem, we cannot ignore what we learned from this event, and we must act on his behavior, and not focus on his tools of destruction.
Thank you for your time.
