Senate Resolution Says “Safety of ALL Americans is of the Utmost Importance”

Dear Senator Baldwin,

This letter is in continuation of my voicemail from earlier today. I understand you have co-sponsored the Anti-Asian Hatred resolution that recently been introduced in the Senate. I would like to draw your attention to a couple of items from that resolution, both on page 5. The resolution states that recognizes that “the health and safety of all people of the United States, regardless of background, must be the utmost priority;”, and “condemns all manifestations and expressions of racism, xenophobia, discrimination, anti-Asian sentiment, scapegoating, and ethnic or religious intolerance”. Does this mean that from now on we can expect that you and your colleagues will now start standing up to any and all racist rhetoric coming from any and all elected officials? Will you and your colleagues be issuing statements denouncing this rhetoric immediately? Does this mean that you and your colleagues will now be doing interviews and issuing statements when the media propagates racist rhetoric in their broadcasts and print/web articles? If the health and safety of ALL people in the U.S. are of the utmost priority, then it is reasonable to expect that you and every co-signor on this resolution will be on the front lines of denouncing any and all of this vile rhetoric, as it only sows division and endangers everyday Americans. This type of rhetoric is what radicalizes people and leads to the violence we see in our communities. With a resolution such as this I would expect that we would see immediate denunciation and an end to any and all harmful rhetoric based on a person’s characteristics coming from our government officials and media.

I also understand that HR8 will be making it’s way to the Senate for consideration as the house has passed this bill. I strongly oppose this bill and any bill that infringes upon 2nd amendment rights. The problem does not lie with law abiding citizens. I would challenge you and your colleagues to put in front of the people how you will stop the illegal sales of guns that happen on the street. That is our real problem. I point you to a DOJ report from 2016 that showed 90% of guns used in crimes are obtained illegally (https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/suficspi16.pdf). Of that 90%, 56% were stolen (6%), found it at the scene of a crime (7%), and purchased from the underground market (43%). How does any legislation proposed or otherwise address these issues? The answer is there is no legislation that will ever stop the illegal obtainment of guns by criminals. All the legislation will do is infringe upon law abiding citizens 2A rights and leave them less able to protect themselves against criminals. And with this, I will point you back to the recently introduced Anti-Asian Hatred resolution where it states “the health and safety of all people of the United States, regardless of background, must be the utmost priority”. This includes our ability to protect ourselves from harm of the criminal element through our right to bear arms. We the people elect you to uphold our Constitution and protect our rights under it. HR8 is an infringement on our constitutional rights and I strongly urge you to vote against HR8 and uphold your oath to defend and protect the constitution.