Does anyone think there is freedom and liberty while locked down in our communities after gunfire on a public road in Saco? Near a bus full of our children? After a slaughter of innocents in Lewiston?

Who really thinks that we, the many, held against our will as hostages in our homes by those with guns, have freedom and liberty? Or the right of a trained militia to bear arms? Who really thinks this is what the founders imagined? The founders, who dreamed of a destiny unfolding as the “pursuit of happiness”?

We the many, the most, the majority, without guns, semi-automatic killing machines, who are responsible for our children, our communities, our families sheltering in place, paying for all the damage and paying for the lives lost in this storm of gun violence, must take back our freedom. We must no longer be held hostage by this siege and say “no more” to the billions of dollars spent every year on gun violence. No more to burying innocent loved ones. No more to wringing our hands over children slaughtered in school by madmen.

There is no constitutional right to being held hostage by the profiteers of gun violence, the Rambo marketeers, who crawl into shadowy corners while we bury our friends and family. No more.

Steve Kelley
Kennebunk