Letter to Murray and Cantwell

Senator,

I am deeply disappointed in your recent vote on the "Thune-Vitter amendment". I am basing this upon the article posted on MSNBC.

As Washington state is one of the more permissive states in regard to issuance of concealed pistol licenses, your vote merely harms Washington residents' ability to exercise their civil rights and basic huiman right of self-defense. Your job as a senator is to look out for our State's interests, and you have abdicated that responsibility in this instance as in so many others.

{Added to Senator Murray} It is revealing that on your list of issues in this automated format, you don't even list "civil rights" as an option.{/end addition}

We have nothing to lose by allowing other states' law-abiding and licensed residents to carry their concealed pistols in our state, according to our laws, and much to gain from reciprocity, which is also a Constitutional issue, under Article IV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, commonly known as the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

As a CPL holder, I have been vetted and prodded to verify my clean legal record and law-abiding character. Yet I am still required to jump hoops through artifically high barriers in order to conform with arguably unconstitutional limits on my civil rights when I drive 2 miles south from my home.

Please be aware that I am strenuously registering my objections to your policy in person, print, and online at every chance I get. My single voice does not sway much, but I believe that the majority opinion is on my side and suffers only from misinformation, and apathy induced by feelings of being disenfranchised. This can change.