For several years, I’ve been researching the topic of guns in America: sport, defense, food, profit, civilian, military, rural, city, law enforcement, crime, injury, death and divisiveness. I’ve met in person the head of the Gun Unit at LAPD; the Chief of Police in Blacksburg, Virginia, a first-responder at the Virginia Tech massacre; a former gang leader in Chicago’s South Side; gun makers and sellers at the NRA Annual Meeting in Texas; parents of a first grader who was shot at school in California; head of the trauma center in Atlanta who daily pulls bullets from victims; founder of CDC’s Injury Prevention Center; gun owners in rural Kentucky. I could go on. I took a concealed carry class in Florida. I’ve fired weapons at ranges across the country. I’m a playwright and filmmaker and these stories inform my work and my role as a citizen. Most every gun owner I’ve met has been honorable, respectful of the law and concerned for safety. It’s a small group of extremists who foment the lie that the federal government is on the verge of taking away our guns and our Second Amendment rights. They thrive on controversy and division. They lure gun owners to prove their allegiance by signing on to conspiracy theories and fear. Do we want our community, diverse in politics but united in love of freedom, to be drawn into this divisive fight? Let the assembly know that the Second Amendment Sanctuary Resolution is extremism and it’s bad for Haines.

Aaron Davidman