If you think guns are the problem...

As I said yesterday, I'm spending this week trying to make change and encourage action. If you follow my social feeds, you know that I've walked with Everytown to End Gun Violence. I think you know where I stand on guns; they should be heavily regulated. I see no need to have weapons of war, assault rifles readily available to any civilian in America. To me, it's ludicrous. There is no reason to have this type of weapon unless you want to kill and very quickly. I'm not out there lobbying to take guns away from responsible gun owners but as most of them will tell you, they agree with more regulation and I bet when push comes to shove, they'd sell back their assault rifles with only a little bit of push. Trevor Noah's video explains the sentiment best... America needs to decide what kind of country we want to be. We don't care about public safety but rather make extremely big deals about the right to bear arms, no matter how much regulation on those arms should be in place

If you are like me and wish to see more common sense gun laws put in place, there are things you can do. I happen to live in Massachusetts, widely regarded as a liberal state with similarly liberal laws and governance. When I write a letter to my representatives, which believe me, I have done, I receive a response that basically says "dude, I agree, and have voted as such"... that has left me a little bit irked that my action has caused little movement of the needle. So if you, like me, want to see action in the form of common sense gun legislation and you live in a state where you have elected officials who have very much voted in opposition to that legislation, get on your computer and start writing. It could be as little as sending a tweet or a form letter to your government representatives in order to start action on your home turf. If you don't see action, use your vote this November, down ballot, and kick the do nothing reps out of office. It's as simple as that. Our power is in our voice and vote, never forget that.

Meet the 45 Senators who Blocked Background Checks
This is Your Rep's Stance on Guns

And while we're talking about your vote:
Here are the Members of Congress who Voted Against Protecting Gay People from Hate Crimes

"Members of Congress don’t get elected in order to send out sympathy tweets," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said. "Members of Congress get paid to change policy to make people safer ... in this Congress, we’re not even trying. We’re not even making an attempt. That’s offensive."


This post from Nicole Silverburg is a great resource for ways you can reach out to your elected officials. In the words of Nicole PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE. Take a little bit of time out of your day today and call or email your representatives. Not doing so — staying silent and privately grieving — isn’t enough anymore.

You can also sign petitions like this MoveOn.Org to ban assault rifles and the White House's We the People petition of the same.