Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Brady letter to U.S. Senate re assault weapons ban

I. The letter

The Brady United Against Gun Violence organization today published in Roll Call an open letter  signed by 50 healthcare professionals — including surgeons, pediatricians, emergency medicine doctors, and more — imploring the U.S. Senate to save lives by passing an assault weapons ban.  https://www.bradyunited.org/act/thisisourlane#openletter. 

The text of the letter is as follows:

Dear Senators,

We are trauma surgeons, pediatricians, emergency medicine doctors, and healthcare professionals, and we’re in Washington, D.C., this week meeting with your offices to urge the Senate to bring the Assault Weapons Ban Act to a vote before the end of the current session. This past year, we’ve treated over 110,000 Americans who have been shot. Forty-five thousand of those never made it home. These senseless tragedies are increasing, with gun-related injury becoming the leading cause of death in children and adolescents. Tackling this complex public health problem requires a number of solutions, one of the most important of which is banning assault weapons.

While this measure continues to gather dust in the Senate, the slaughter of Americans with military-style assault rifles has ripped apart families and communities across the country. From a grocery store in Buffalo and an LBGTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs to a July 4th parade in Highland Park and an elementary school in Uvalde, the one thing that holds true in all these circumstances is that the best medical treatment is prevention.

Assault weapons are uniquely deadly. Data demonstrates mass-shooting fatalities were 70% less likely to occur under the federal assault weapons ban of 1994. And we have seen this firsthand. These weapons operate with such force they literally blow holes into human bodies. They liquefy organs and explode bones. While we do our best to save lives and treat the destruction caused by military weapons that leave bodies resembling blocks of swiss cheese, it’s not always possible. Sometimes, children’s bodies are left so unrecognizable that parents can only identify them through DNA tests.

While the care we provide to patients is critical, we have both the opportunity and responsibility to think beyond the bedside to advocate for solutions to address this public health crisis. From motor vehicle fatalities and tobacco to clean water and vaccines, healthcare professionals have always been at the forefront of addressing public health problems. We want to make sure our position is clear: Failing to pass an assault weapons ban means more patients on our operating tables and explaining to families that their loved one is never coming home.

We plead with you to bring the Assault Weapons Ban to a vote before the legislative session ends. And we call on all others to join us, Brady, This is Our Lane, and our partner March Fourth by contacting your senators and demanding the Senate pass this life-saving bill without delay.

Signed,

Joseph V. Sakran, MD, MPH, MPA FACS, Brady Board Member and @ThisIsOurLane Founder
Aaron Wolfe, DO
Amy Shriver, MD FAAP
Angela Scott, MD, FAAP
Ashley B. Hink, MD, MPH
Bijan Ketabchi, MD, MPH
Brian Eichner, MD
Brian R. Stork, MD, FACS
Brittany Ebbing, MD, MPH
Cathy White, MD
Christina Colosimo, DO MS
Christopher Turner, MD MPH
Cynthia Carter, DO
Dorothy R. Novick, MD
Dr. Morgan Wurtz
Dr. Vladimirovna Tatiana, DO
Dr. Cassandra Stegall, DO
Dr. Jennifer Gemmill Eileen Broomall, MD
Elliot Lieberman, MD
Emily Lieberman, MD
Habib Khoury, MD
Halleh Akbarnia, MD FACEP
Hannah Boutros-Khoury, M.D.
James McJunkin, MD
Jena Krueger, MD
Jennifer Rubin, MD
Jenny Stevens, MD MPH
Jerrold Eichner, MD
Jordan Vaughn, MD
Kelsey Gastineau, MD FAAP
Kerith E. Spicknall, MD
Kristen Kann, MD
Kristine M. Pleacher, MD
Lindsay D. Clukies, MD
Maya Haasz, MD
Melissa Kelley, MD
Nadja Peter, MD
Nicholas Puoplo, MD
Nicole M. King, MD
Peter T. Masiakos, MD, MS, FACS, FAAP
Rebecca Meyers, MD
Roy Guerrero, MD
Sabah Servaes, MD
Seth Trueger, MD MPH FACEP
Sheena Gupta McKenzie, MD, MBA, FAAP
Sofia Chaudhary, MD
Terence McAllister, MD FAAP
Mary Ottolini, MD
Zachary Beck Domont, MD

II. #GunsForSelfDefenseOnly
Email to Brady United legal team
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>To: mstankiewicz@bradyunited.org <mstankiewicz@bradyunited.org>
Sent: Wed, Dec 7, 2022 4:41 am
Subject: For Brady legal team - re letter to U.S. Senate urging assault weapon ban
Dear Brady Legal Team,
I live in Alabama.
To defeat the Second Amendment extremists, I think all advocacy for common sense gun solutions, such as banning assault weapons, should be bolted to the mantra #GunsForSelfDefenseOnly.
I am urging this widely, such as indicated at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2022/11/gunsforselfdefenseonly.html.
I think President Biden, Congress, governors, mayors, state lawmakers, law enforcement officials, and others having public responsibility to prevent gun violence in America should adopt the mantra of #GunsForSelfDefenseOnly and make a public declaration such as set out at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2022/09/declaration-of-public-officials-for-gun.html.
Use of the mantra #GunsForSelfDefenseOnly, and the aforesaid declaration, require that they be defensible under the Second Amendment. In Alabama and elsewhere I have solicited opinion about what the Second Amendment protects and does not protect, but have not gotten response.
The purpose of this email is to urge the Brady Legal Team to consider whether the #GunsForSelfDefenseOnly mantra would be useful, and defensible under the Second Amendment, in connection with the open letter to the United States Senate that Brady United Against Gun Violence published in Roll Call yesterday, signed by 50 healthcare professionals, imploring the U.S. Senate to save lives by passing an assault weapons ban.
As part of my efforts on this, I will post this email at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2022/12/brady-letter-to-us-senate-re-assault.html.
Perhaps the advocacy and messaging that Brady United is doing regarding an assault weapons ban is wholly adequate.
Perhaps this email will be helpful to Brady United.
Thank you for your attention to this email.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
Mountain Brook, AL
-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: mstankiewicz@bradyunited.org <mstankiewicz@bradyunited.org>
Sent: Tue, Dec 6, 2022 11:29 am
Subject: can you provide me with email address for legal team
Dear Mr. Stankiewicz:
I am not in the media. I would like to send an email to the Brady United legal team. Can you provide me with an appropriate email address? Can I send the email to you, and you forward it to the legal team?
Thanks.
Rob Shattuck

Second email to Brady legal team
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: mstankiewicz@bradyunited.org <mstankiewicz@bradyunited.org>
Sent: Tue, Dec 13, 2022 6:51 pm
Subject: For Brady legal team - re letter to U.S. Senate urging assault weapon ban
Dear Brady Legal Team,
This second email to you continues to press for using the mantra #GunsForSelfDefenseOnly to shape common sense gun control legislation that is proposed at this time by gun control advocates, to shape the advocacy that is made on behalf of such proposed legislation, and to shape the defense in the courts of such legislation that is passed by Congress or in the states.
The first email I sent to you is the below December 7th email, which December 7th email I have posted at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2022/12/brady-letter-to-us-senate-re-assault.html.
I will also post this email at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2022/12/brady-letter-to-us-senate-re-assault.html.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
Mountain Brook, AL
[December 7th email is omitted here on this link and is above on this link.]

Third email to Brady legal team
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: mstankiewicz@bradyunited.org <mstankiewicz@bradyunited.org>
Sent: Thu, Dec 15, 2022 9:00 am
Subject: For Brady legal team: This week's Rhode Island high capacity gun magazine ban case
Dear Brady Legal Team,
It seems to me that this week's Rhode Island high capacity gun magazine ban case (Judge upholds Rhode Island's high-capacity gun magazine ban. Here's what it means) shows the merits of the mantra of #GunsForSelfDefenseOnly for shaping common sense gun control legislation, shaping the advocacy that is made on behalf of proposed legislation, and shaping the defense in the courts of such legislation.
The below are quoted from the foregoing article and are either exact quotations of what Judge McConnell said in the case or characterize what the Judge said:
"Consistent with its obligation to protect public safety, but consonant with its fealty to the Constitution, the Rhode Island General Assembly has responded with, among other firearms regulations, the [large capacity magazine] Ban."
The Second Amendment protects the right to people to "keep and bear arms," and at its core the right to self-defense, McConnell observed.
The ban was a reasonable and measured approach to restricting large-capacity magazines, which in practice easily convert handguns into semi-automatic weapons capable of rapid fire, he said.
He accepted the opinion of an expert for the state that throughout history "high capacity firearms ... were understood to be weapons of war or anti-insurrection, not weapons of individual self defense."
Where the Judge refers to "fealty to the Constitution," the touchstone for that is that SCOTUS has pronounced that there is a constitutional right of individuals to own and carry guns in public for self-defense.
That right does not exist in a vacuum, and there is also a governmental "obligation to protect public safety."
It seems to me those two things (the "right to self-defense" and "protect[ing] public safety") frame and will frame just about every gun control case.
I think the public can understand those two things (the "right to self-defense" and "protect[ing] public safety"), and the public understanding those two things will allow the public to better evaluate what they hear from the two sides about gun control cases.
To contribute to that happening, the public needs to hear parties who are in the public eye (or who get into the public eye) talking about the "right to self-defense" and "protect[ing] public safety".
I urge that the messaging by the Brady organization be as much as possible about the "right to self-defense" and "protect[ing] public safety".
Thank you for your attention to this email.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
Mountain Brook, AL
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)