In April, I called members of our congressional delegation to ask each of them where they stood on assault weapons. To my shock, Rep. Chellie Pingree was the only one in favor of banning assault weapons. I wrote a letter to the editor with these results.

Soon after, a middle schooler in Yarmouth, Leif Hellstedt, wrote a letter calling on Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins and Rep. Jared Golden to support an assault weapons ban. Leif’s words haunt me to this day. He wrote, “by not doing so, they are putting everyone’s lives in danger: I cannot comprehend why that is OK to them. For me, it is just unthinkable that our elected officials don’t support the safety of their voters.”

Rep. Jared Golden has since changed his position and asked forgiveness of the citizens of his hometown Lewiston for his prior support of assault weapons. He said that he had been wrong and would spend the rest of his time in Congress working to ban such weapons. I urge Sens. Susan Collins, Angus King and Gov. Janet Mills to follow in the footsteps of Golden and Pingree.

Jeanette Good
Falmouth