Matthew Havens
P.O.Box 7
Sheldon, IL 60966
(815) 429-3084

House of Representatives, IL Congressional District 15
2417 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Representative Ewing:

A recent Newsweek (March, 2000) ran with an article titled "Did Kayla Have to Die?" This referring to the 6 year old girl shot to death by a classmate in school.

This type of sensationalist journalism sickens me. Where are the screaming headlines when a parent shoots or stabs their child to death? Where was the cover story when an adult ran his car into a school playground killing two small children?

The media inflates these statistics not because of the incidents themselves, but to further their own anti-gun agendas. It seems that society does not care what happens to children, so long as they are not being killed by guns held by their peers.

No amount of gun control or restrictions will ever stop someone wishing to kill another human being. The boy who shot Kayla found his gun, which was bought illegally in the first place, from an absentee parent who had no responsibility for raising a child in the first place. That law did not stop her death - nor will any other gun control legislation being pushed through Congress by people who have been brainwashed by the media, and bleeding-heart politicians eager to jump on a tragedy to further their re-election bids.

I urge you, as your voting constituent, to vote "NO" to any further legislation that limits the second amendment right guaranteed to all law abiding Americans; young and old.

Sincerely yours,

Matthew Havens