The December 14, 2012 school massacre in Newtown CT is only the most recent of an increasingly violent series of tragedies in our Country. Innocent children and adults have been slaughtered. It is time to state unequivocally that the Government of the United States of America enact permanent, immediate effect legislation to ban the sale and ownership of assault weapons and extended ammunition magazines.

Please Note: The following is a pledge, that you, the reader, are asked to take. While we must hold our elected officials accountable, I believe that each and every one of us is responsible to the extent we do not take action. Congress may restrict constitutional rights if necessary to protect the general public health and welfare. It is blatantly obvious that Congress must act to protect the public from the increasing incidences of mass casualties from gun violence. In order to motivate Congress to act, I am asking every citizen to take a pledge to not vote for any elected official who does not take a meaningful position in favor of gun control, either through support of legislation or a Constitutional Amendment.

My friends and relatives have been affected by the insane acts of a few gun-slinging beasts.

lessen the chances or mentally unstable individuals owning a gun

Florida is one of 4 states that does not restore voting rights to felons who have served their sentences, completed parole or probation, or any combination of these. Instead, Florida has a complicated, lengthy and costly petition process to get rights restored. Last year only 78 successfully made it through the process, and most don't even try. Year after year in voter registration drives, I am saddened to see the shame and bitterness on so many faces, often because of a mistake made in their youth, when they say they will never be allowed to vote. How can we expect responsible civic participation from all these people, when they are told they will be disenfranchised for life? We all lose.

Like any other rational person in this country, I am outraged by the continuing lack of discussion about gun control in the wake of the almost weekly mass shootings like the one in Newtown, Connecticut. President Obama's uncharacteristic lack of nerve in the face of the NRA's lobbying power during his first term must now become a thing of the past. Never mind that the President now no longer has to worry about running for re-election. Surely, his conscience, as a parent of two school-age children not much older than the victims of this and other shootings, must drive him to enact serious, meaningful gun control legislation through Congress.

I'm a grandmother of seven grandchildren. Watching the tragedy at Sandy Hook School in Newtown CT made me physically ill. Now is the time to enact some federal gun control laws. If not now, when?

HOW MUCH LONGER CAN WE CONTINUE TO HIDE OUR FACE IN THE SAND. HOW MANY DIFFERENT WAYS CAN WE COUNT THE MASS MURDERS. SCHOOLS, THEATRES, CHURCHES , STREET CORNERS WAITING FOR THE BUS. PIERS MORGAN ON CNN TOLD US RECENTLY THAT THERE WERE 35 GUN MURDERS IN ENGLAND LAST YEAR CONTRASTING TO THE U.S. IN THE THOUSANDS, NOT SURE OF THE FIGURE. COME ON CITIZENS WHERE IS YOUR VOICE? LET IT BE HEARD. "BAD THINGS KEEP HAPPENING WHEN GOOD PEOPLE STAND BY AND DO NOTHING."

20 elementary school children have been murdered by a gunman wielding a weapon capable of shooting repeating rounds. Enough is Enough. It is time for mothers and fathers and uncles and aunts and grandparents and sisters and brothers to stand up to the NRA and the gun lobby and insist that the president aggressively pursue new gun control laws for our country.

Mass murder in schools, malls, workplaces? Maybe we should attack this problem in a way that would actually be effective.

I am not going type an elaborate message here for this petition like the others you have seen. "Today a gunman killed 26 people, 20 of them children between the ages of 5 and 10, on Friday Dec 14th at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., about 65 miles northeast of New York City.The gunman, who was believed to be in his 20s, walked into a classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School where his mother was a teacher. He shot and killed her and then shot 20 students, most in the same classroom.The gunman was wearing dark clothing, a mask, a bulletproof vest, and was carrying four guns. A cause and manner of death is pending." - New York Times With this recent and devastating tradegy, what more is there really to say. Something needs to be done, immediately.

"We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learn the news I react not as a president, but as anybody else would, as a parent. And that was especially true today." These words, spoken today by Pres. Barack Obama, express utter anguish in the face of an evil act: the murder of children and educators. This is not war-torn Syria, Afghanistan, or the Congo, but the site of an unspeakable tragedy -- Newtown, Connecticut. A gunman armed with semiautomatic weapons stormed the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Reports are still streaming in, but in the aftermath: 20 children and 6 adults were murdered. No one can fully answer why. But today we can change HOW. I am asking you, begging you, to please sign this petition and demand that your elected officials FIX OUR GUN LAWS. People who should not have access to guns buy them every day. Our background checks, systems of purchase, and laws have far too many loopholes and fail to protect our most innocent members of our society. We must DEMAND COMMON SENSE GUN LAWS TODAY. Please sign the petition and let's NEVER AGAIN witness a day like today! Twitter: #TodayIsTheDay