Dear Fellow Activists,
At some time in our lives we will all experience an empty chair at the table.
With the holiday season approaching, I’ve begun to think about all those tables and all those empty chairs. The holidays are full of happy traditions, things we do and say in similar ways throughout the generations until they are so familiar they are almost a ritual. But the death of someone we love creates a profound emptiness around not only the physical chair that person occupied, but around the traditions they supported.
In the United States, an average of 40,620 empty chairs each year are due to gun violence.
I’ve also begun to think about empty chairs at the table because some gun owners and the organizations they belong to are complaining that they don’t have a seat at the table when it comes to gun safety. They argue that we won’t have meaningful change until they are brought to the table and allowed to participate. Aside from the “blackmail” tone of their argument, I believe that gun owners do have a seat at the table. In fact, I argue that they have more seats at the table than they should, exerting more influence and impact than they deserve.
When over 90% of Americans want universal background checks but it continues to be blocked in Congress — well, who’s sitting in the seats and doing the blocking? If 83% of gun owners want background checks but it continues to be blocked in Congress — well, who’s sitting in the seats doing the blocking?
How do you get a seat at the table? You vote! And when making your choice of candidate, you vote for the person who will represent you on the issues you decide are most important. So, despite some gun owners saying they support safe gun storage and universal background checks, the question remains — who are they voting for and what is their representative saying when they sit at the table? Because if you elect someone who blocks the very things you want, you still have a seat at the table. Maybe you should have just voted differently.
