Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
Nashua Office of Senator Kelly Ayotte
144 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03060
Senator Ayotte,
As a lifelong resident of New Hampshire, I am incredibly disappointed in your recent vote against common sense gun control legislation in the Senate. I grew up in your hometown of Nashua, 50 or 60 miles from the nearest urban center. Sandy Hook reminds me of my elementary school, and it wasn't long ago that I was a young student there. As a little schoolboy in that environment, you invest so much trust in the people around you. You listen to the adults without questioning, and there’s always an implicit promise involved. Someone will always protect you, from bullies, from strangers, and from harm.
At Sandy Hook Elementary School, that sacred promise was broken. What happened that morning wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t right. Putting aside all the lost potential and the heart-wrenching pain felt by the victims' families, we won’t ever give these kids back their innocence. Wherever they go in life, the ghosts will always be there to haunt them. This world has just a little less trust, a little less hope, and a little less freedom than it did on December 13, 2012.
This is what the stubborn gun-happy politics of Washington has done to us. Nothing is safe from being destroyed anymore. Not us, not the ones we love, and not our spirit. We're all just game pieces in a massive roulette board where no one wins and humanity itself has the most to lose.
Last week, you and your fellow senators had a chance to change all this. By voting “Aye” to the Manchin-Toomey background checks proposal, you could have helped create a responsible process to prevent the most dangerous among us from committing atrocities like the one that occurred at Sandy Hook.
You did not take this chance. Instead, only days after an equally horrible tragedy occurred two miles from my university in Boston, you voted against the Manchin-Toomey bill. Not only that, you filibustered it. I am of the view that you did this not because of your own personal conviction or because you felt you were representing your New Hampshire constituents, 75% of whom support background check legislation according to a recent public poll. Rather, you sought the continued approval of the National Rifle Association, an out of touch special interest group based in Virginia whose president recently argued that the solution to school shootings was to put more guns in schools.
I am unsure how you can continue conducting your daily affairs after so blatantly selling out the good people of the Granite State as well as the innocent victims of Sandy Hook. I am of the opinion that voting against basic measures to protect our children makes you unfit for public service. The fact is that people in it for selfish reasons should not be responsible for making decisions that affect the lives of millions. Were I currently in your position, I would reconsider a continued career in politics and return to a simpler life with my family. I doubt that will happen, but one thing is for sure in all this: next election, you may be getting the NRA’s support, but you won’t be getting mine.
Best Regards,
Your Constituent