U.S. House Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator:
On behalf of the 3 million members of the National Education Association—teachers, counselors, and other dedicated professionals who strive to support, nurture, and protect students—we urge you to vote NO on H.J. Res.44. Votes on this issue may be included in the NEA Report Card for the 118th Congress.
We should be doing everything in our power to make our communities and schools safer from gun violence. Instead, H.J. Res.44 would move us in the opposite direction.
The U.S. Justice Department has issued a final rule to properly classify firearms that are equipped with a “stabilizing brace” that makes them especially lethal. Guns equipped with this brace have been used in several horrendous attacks, including the March shooting that left three children and three adults at Covenant School in Tennessee dead. H.J. Res.44 would condemn the rule, sending the message that Congress is oblivious to the mass shootings that have turned the places where Americans work, shop, celebrate, and learn into killing fields.
Our children and other loved ones, friends, neighbors, and colleagues have been killed or wounded in mass shootings at schools and colleges; churches, synagogues, and temples; grocery stores, shopping malls, and restaurants; parks; hospitals and clinics, veterans homes and nursing homes; movie theaters, entertainment districts, and LGBTQ nightclubs; festivals and other celebrations; and in many other places.
Americans feel as if they are under siege, threatened by attackers who always have the upper hand: Unbeknownst to us, they plan their attacks and arm themselves to inflict maximum carnage, at the time and place of their choosing. We must have commonsense laws and regulations that make it more difficult—not easier—for would-be murderers to carry out their schemes.
Students should not have to endure drills on how to hide from mass murderers. Educators should not be forced to act as human shields against guns that are configured to make them treacherous weapons of war. None of us—in a nation that stands up to terrorism around the world—should have to live with the constant threat of terror in our communities.
We urge you to vote NO on H.J. Res.44.
Sincerely,
Marc Egan
Director of Government Relations
National Education Association
