Hello there! As I write this, just dropped off a mail in ballot yesterday because its primary time in DC. (Fellow DC-ans, June 21st is the official day.) I have donated to voter mobilization. I have been known to ask my local friends what ward they are in and if they know what candidates they have to choose from. I'm a big believer in voting.
I live in DC. Electeds I voted for* crafted the gun legislation that the Supreme Court struck down when they decided guns were basically people. Or better than people. I'm pretty sure the legalese boils down to that.
So my city council can make new laws, but my member of Congress doesn't get to vote. So if I somehow believed voting was the only way for me to push for change, I'd be pretty darn depressed right now.
But, I believe in letting my feelings and wishes known to a large variety of people in power on a regular basis.
I believe in pushing for things like more money towards initiatives that build better communities, like violence interruption, like jobs, and housing, and addiction care.
And I also try to be regularly loud about my support for restricting guns. Whatever choices we make, reducing guns in this country is going to be a long process. But I'm for it. I'm old enough to remember when we had gun legislation in DC, when we had a federal assault weapon ban. Yes, there was still crime. But well, it didn't used to be more dangerous to be a school kid than a cop. And to be clear, I am in favor of less dead people all around here.
*Okay, like technically, the initial law was crafted when I was a wee thing, but it got struck down after I had been of hating she for some time, so if we had wanted to change it, the option existed.
