Earlier this week, I received this urgent message from my mom, H’s mom, Jaime…and about 100 other people. Courtesy of the partisan purveyors of political prudence at
MoveOn.org :

Subject: Urgent: Don't Let the Assault Weapons Ban Expire

Dear friend,

The national ban on military-style assault weapons will expire on Monday, September 13th, unless President Bush and Congress act now. President Bush promised to renew the ban, but instead he's letting it expire -- he has refused to call on Congress to deliver it for his signature.

For 10 years the assault weapons ban has taken the deadliest weapons off our streets, cutting their use in crimes 66 percent. But beginning Tuesday the 14th, an 18-year-old will once again be able to buy an AK-47 assault rifle in most states.

We can stop this if we speak up now. President Bush and Congress must renew the assault weapons ban, not let it expire.

Thank you.


Now I’m as politically conscious as the next guy (okay, more so since the next guy thinks Dick Cheney is the second lead in the Tomkat’s production of “How the West was Hung”), but I find it hard to believe that the most powerful people in the country would listen to something so dry and lifeless. So I thought this a perfect opportunity to let my true feelings about the proliferation of automatic weapons be known. Herein is the slightly modified letter I sent to President Bush, Senators Feinstein and Boxer, and Representative Watson last night. Well, this morning. Do you think they discount letters sent after 1am? Shit, I know I would. Here goes:

Arm America!

After all of the lies that have been told to America, how can we trust the President when he says that we are "fighting them over there so they can't fight us over here"? As recent tragic events in Southern Russia have shown us, the war is being brought into our lives more frighteningly than ever.

We, as Americans, have an obligation to defend ourselves and our most precious national resource--our children. And that is why Congress and the President should...nay, MUST repeal the ban on assault weapons and arm our schoolchildren with them immediately.

America's youth should never fall victim to the cruel threats of terror the way those poor malnourished misinformed pinko Ruskie kids did. In an ever-changing, perilous world, America must be strong enough to defend itself, from the youngest to the oldest. Senior Citizens have the luxury of having fought once to defend their country in a foreign war, but younger generations have no such experience.

Luckily, thanks to amazing advances in video game technology and our society’s perverse obsession with violence and gunplay, today's youth is better equipped than ever to take up arms to defend our way of life. Why NOT arm our best marksmen (and those with the quickest reflexes and best eyesight) with the weapons with which to defend themselves?

It is your duty, Mr. President, Madam Senator, to uphold ours and our children's right to keep and bear arms, especially the biggest, baddest, most automaticiest guns that are out there! For the good of America, you must allow the assault weapon ban to lapse. Our children are depending on you.

God Bless America!


And they wonder why some people don’t vote…