I just wrote a letter to Sen.  Susan Collins with the following question and request. The question: Our elected officials are supposed to work for us, the citizens who elected them and pay their salaries, not the NRA or other lobbying groups or funding sources, aren’t they?

Statistics from reliable polls show that the majority of Americans are in favor of stronger gun safety regulations, including background checks on all gun sales, red flag laws, safe storage laws, banning assault style weapons, and raising gun ownership to age 21, to name a few. Why is it that not even 10 Republican senators are willing to get on board with common sense gun safety measures that their constituents want?

This is not democracy; it is power mongering. It is pandering to an out-of-control base.

I requested that Sen. Collins please use whatever measures she can to influence her fellow Republicans to actually do something to reduce gun violence. She should: Make a strong, brave speech, as her predecessor Margaret Chase Smith did; shame her fellow Republicans (though I’m not convinced they are capable of shame); and remind them who they work for.

Being in office isn’t about continuing to be in office. It’s about working for the American people who elected them.

Barbara Peisner
Portland