Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
201
Fargo, ND 58103
November 9th, 2014
Heidi Heitkamp
(here address here)
Dear Senator Heidi Heitkamp,
My North Dakotan roots go back several generations and as a born and raised North
Dakotan, I feel like a lot of who I am reflects in being raised in the Midwest. Here in
the Midwest we value a strong work ethic, our communities, and a practical way of
living (sometimes more conservative than I would like). North Dakotas identity is
deeply rooted in our agricultural and farming communities that embody self-reliance
and the need to lessen government intrusion. We are also a state that has a very
active hunting and shooting culture, which many North Dakotans strongly identify
with as well. Hunting, especially, is an important part of North Dakotan history,
culture, and the economy that has traditionally been a rite of passage from one
generation to the next. Most, if not all North Dakotans, recognize that ND is a progun state.
For the most part, I have mostly maintained an ambivalent attitude towards gun
control laws, even accepting your votes, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, against expanding
background checks on gun sales and bans on assault weapons. A year ago, when
you defended your stance in a statement made to the Politico, in a news article
written by Manu Raju, you said, North Dakota has one of the highest rates of gun
ownership and the lowest rate of gun violence. And I think people there look at this
from the standpoint that: This is my Second Amendment right. This is part of our
culture in North Dakota. And they expressed those opinions to me pretty loud and
clear. As a North Dakotan, I understand this reasoning because even though I
myself did not grow up with any type of awareness about guns or the culture
surrounding guns, I have witnessed how strongly my family, peers, and neighbors
identify with the right to bear arms. Like a stated earlier, North Dakota is a pro-gun
state with an active hunting and shooting culture.
So I can understand the way you voted, when you did, even risking being the
minority in your political party. Truly living up to your reputation, as you said to the
American journalist organization Politico, as an independent-minded person, being
only one of four Democrats to vote No against stricter gun control laws because at
the end of the day you want to represent this legendary state the best you can.
Again, I feel like you were right in representing what was good for the state of North
Dakota, as far as voting for what the majority of North Dakotans wanted, but maybe
it was not what was best for the nation as a whole, but again at the end of the day
you did what you thought was best. Also, in your line of work you do have to worry
about being re-elected and I believe if you had voted for these gun control policies,
it most likely would have harmed your chances for re-election in the future.
In light of the recent mass shootings America has had to witness in the recent years
and the state of Washington passing into law extended background checks on
nearly all sales of firearms, I have been thinking more and more about the debate
on gun control and whether or not it is imperative to support gun control safety by
looking at the facts. What I started to ask myself is a ban on assault weapons but
not handguns really going to change things. Would limiting the amount of bullets a
magazine can carry going to limit violence or are stricter background checks really
going to prevent firearms from falling into the wrong hands? What I found the
answer to be, is that these types of regulations and bans wont prohibit gun
violence completely but they would certainly save some lives. I was brought up to
believe that every life is worth saving even if it is just one.
Senator Heidi Heitkamp, you are a huge proponent for supporting women in cases
of domestic violence. In fact according to Ballotpedia you supported a bill trying to
reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. The purpose of this bill
according to Ballotpedia was to, Combat violence against women, from domestic
violence to international trafficking in persons. As a woman, I love that your
interests in politics lie within wanting to help women, especially women in abusive
situations. I have a bias as a woman to when it comes to social issues I put womens
rights and protecting women from abusive situations (i.e. domestically or human
trafficking) towards the top of my list of most concerning social problems in the
world today. So when it comes to sharing a common interest in the safety and future
of all women, promoting safer gun laws is just the smart thing to do.
According to the website Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the site states that
Guns pose a particular threat in the hands of domestic abusers and states that,
Abused women are five times more likely to be killed by their abuser if the abuser
owns a firearm. The same site also states that, Domestic violence assaults
involving a gun are 12 times more likely to result in death than those involving
other weapons or bodily force. According to a study done by Everytown for Gun
Safety they found that between 2009 and 2013 57% of mass shootings involved an
intimate partner or family member. We saw examples of this in the Sandy Hook
Massacre, with the shooter killing his mom, her collegues, and elementary students.
Even more recently, the mass shootings occurring at a Washington State high
school saw the shooter attacking his friends, one of whom was an ex-girlfriend of
the shooter. In a CNN article that interviewed Keyanna Kelton, a student from the
same high school, she believed the shooting happened because of an altercation
that happened weeks prior to the incident involving the shooter and his cousin. The
shooter and his cousin had an altercation over an ex-girlfriend of the shooter, who
was thought to be in a relationship with his cousin. Zoe Raine Galasso was shot and
killed at the scene of the crime, her death later being ruled a homicide. Women are
not only limited to homicide alone in domestic violence cases. Many women have
also reported being threatened or harmed with firearms from their abuser.
Even with federal laws that prohibit gun ownership for citizens convicted of a
misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, the lack of requirement for background
checks for the sales of guns between private sellers, which includes gun shows,
allows domestic abusers a way to obtain firearms which they will most likely use
against their victims. Enacting stricter background checks wont stop all domestic
abusers from obtaining guns but it will make it help in making it less likely for them
to get their hands on one and could potentially help to save some womens lives.
Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence stated that states that require a background
check for every handgun sale, 38% fewer women are shot to death by intimate
partners. Personally for me, if having background checks for nearly all gun sales
helps to save even one life, I think the added annoyance of background checks on
sales including private sellers is worth the cost.
Because of our common interest in the wellbeing of all women and the fact that we
both aim to fight domestic violence against women, I believe it is common sense
then to change your position on background checks concerning gun sales. Along
with North Dakota, Washington State also has a large hunting and shooting culture,
yet their voters turned up and knew that safer communities are more important
than past time and traditions. That safer gun laws dont take citizens guns away but
save lives. If you feel as strongly about protecting women from domestic violence as
you advocate then wanting stricter background checks on nearly all gun sales
should be an automatic vote Yes for you.
Three women a day die because of domestic violence, three women a day according
to National Network to End Domestic Violence. If private sellers are required to
background check everyone they sell to, then maybe there will be one less woman
a day who is likely to die. If you are truly trying to fight against domestic violence
then why would you not be in support of making nearly impossible for domestic
abusers to get access to guns. I think at the end of the day you need to ask yourself
if making a majority in North Dakota happy is worth the lives of some women that
could have easily been saved.