River Brown

Dear President Biden,

I support all your efforts you’ve made over the years to enact gun safety laws and I share your heartache over the mass shootings in our country as well as all the child gun deaths. 

As you probably know, every time there is a mass shooting, gun sales go up, because people are afraid.

Have you thought about some dignity and restraint protocols for the mass media, especially television reporting of mass shootings?  I think there should be silence instead of shock:  the account should be rolled on the screen in print and read solemnly by one voice.  It ought to include where the gun was acquired, for example.  It should be a moment of grieving, not of pedestrian interest. 

Rather than you going on TV, seeming to apologize to the nation for another mass murder, have you thought of going to the town [in person or send an ambassador] like the armed forces do, to offer direct sympathy and support to the survivors?? No reporters or televised statements.

We have got to take mass shootings out of the category of gaming and ill-informed political statements.  How can we do this?

I am a retired public school teacher who spent too many hours on the classroom floor with frightened children during school lock downs in San Jose, on the east side, among the neediest students. 

Now I have joined the Silicon Valley Alliance for Gun Safety to work for better education and legislation on this issue — praying to counter the incredibly effective marketing that the NRA has done for 30 years. 

I am trying to brainstorm other avenues, in addition to the slow process of changing local and national laws.  I have written to you some of my thinking. 

With great respect for your heart and service,

River Brown