In a letter to the president, Evan Todd asks: "Whose side are you on?"
A man who was wounded in the 1999 Columbine High
School massacre has penned an open letter to President Barack Obama,
saying the White House's proposed gun-control initiatives are woefully
misguided and will do nothing to save lives.In the frankly worded letter, published Wednesday by TheBlaze, Evan Todd offers a point-by-point rebuttal of Obama's proposals to curb gun violence following December's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty children and six adults were killed in the massacre in Newtown, Conn.
"Mr. President, in theory, your initiatives and proposals sound warm and fuzzy — but in reality they are far from what we need. Your initiatives seem to punish law-abiding American citizens and enable the murderers, thugs, and other lowlifes who wish to do harm to others," Todd wrote.
"Let
me be clear: These ideas are the worst possible initiatives if you
seriously care about saving lives and also upholding your oath of
office. There is no dictate, law, or regulation that will stop bad
things from happening — and you know that. Yet you continue to push the
rhetoric. Why?"
Todd was a 15-year-old sophomore at Columbine in
1999. On April 20 of that year, two teens cloaked in black trench coats
and armed with multiple guns and bombs opened fire at the high school in
Littleton, Colo. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 fellow
students and a teacher and wounded 23 others before committing suicide
in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.Todd was hiding under a desk in the library when one of the shooters fired his shotgun twice at it. Todd was hit by wood splinters and suffered wounds to his face and back. He says he talked the teen gunmen out of killing him before he managed to escape.
After Columbine, Todd became a public speaker, appearing at high schools, colleges, churches, youth groups and business groups across the country to talk about faith, anti-violence, bullying and the importance of good character and personal motivation, among other topics.
In his letter to Obama, Todd wrote that universal background checks for gun sales "will arguably have the opposite impact of what you propose" and lead to a "black market" for illicit weapons.
A proposed ban on military-style assault weapons, Todd said, will also do no good because such a ban proved ineffective when it was place from 1994 to 2004.
"The people have spoken. Gun store shelves have been emptied. Gun shows are breaking attendance records. Gun manufacturers are sold out and back ordered. Shortages on ammo and firearms are countrywide. The American people have spoken and are telling you that our Second Amendment shall not be infringed," Todd wrote.
And he said a proposed 10-round limit for magazines "is just another law that endangers law-abiding citizens."
"Whose side are you on?" Todd asked the president.
According to a recent poll, the majority of Americans are on Obama's side. The CBS News/New York Times poll found that Americans back the central components of the president's proposals, including background checks, limits on high-capacity magazines and a ban on semi-automatic weapons.
You can read Todd's full letter to Obama here and his interview earlier this week with TheBlaze here.