We have just witnessed another horrific mass murder in this country – this time in Louisville, Kentucky, just two weeks after one in Nashville, Tennessee, at an elementary school.

As you know, there have been others, at grocery stores, nightclubs, movie theaters, houses of worship, and so on; and of course, there will be others, no doubt. We are in an aberrant moment. There is a sickness raging through our society and it is killing us. 

We are asking for your help. We believe, even if not sufficient, a necessary step towards reducing gun violence will require an overwhelming majority of Americans demanding that it stop! We believe our power is in our numbers.

We need your help to establish a national day of reckoning and recognition – a nationwide protest. As you well know, the powerlessness of the individual in regard to this matter is profound. But as one body, with one voice and a singular purpose, and in huge numbers, we can be transformative. 

There are 258 million adults in this country. Taking the more conservative figure from the poll of polls, 70% (or more) of them want stricter gun laws. This is an overwhelming majority of Americans: 70% of 258 million people translates to 193 million adults nationwide who want gun legislation. We need to see these people in the streets. We must hear their collective voice. Let them speak, as one. 

If our children are slaughtered and maimed and horrified in their classrooms, don’t they, too, need to speak?

Will you help us organize a one-day, nationwide protest providing an opportunity for these millions of Americans to make themselves heard? At a minimum, three-fourths of the country wants more substantial gun safety legislation. 

As you know, a small minority of the population, with the help of monied interests, lobbyists and politicians, has turned our country into the killing fields of America. Those in favor of greater gun safety have the numbers. It is within our power to stop it.

This is our ask: Because of your vast network of contacts and the mechanisms you have in place to bring about change, and because you have been in this fight for many years and are part of a multi-pronged effort to achieve gun safety in America, we need your help. 

Would you be willing to work with all the other activists and activist organizations in the country to organize a 24-hour, peaceful protest/work-stoppage/general strike this summer, with the sole purpose of demonstrating how fed up, disgusted and furious we are at the senseless shootings and mass killings that have become commonplace in our society and have been made to appear ordinary in an otherwise civilized world; and that we want legislation and policies to bring it to an end?

Protests work, but only when they are large enough (widespread), loud enough (passionate), and demand change (consequences) from the powers that be.

Will you help us? If yes, you can reach me at paulrappoport@comcast.net.

Paul S. Rappoport, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychologist

Wyndmoor