Reply from Adrian Smith

[jimneb]

I just received this reply from Adrian Smith.

January 9, 2013

 

 

Dear Mr. jimneb:

 

Thank you for contacting me regarding gun control. I appreciate you taking the time to share your views on this matter.

 

The United States Constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. Restricting laws for abiding citizens will not deter criminal behavior, and I remain concerned with the precedent measures such as assault weapons bans may set for future policy.

 

The safety of the American public, and in particular our children, is an issue I take very seriously. Rather than adopting proposals which would infringe on our Second Amendment rights, Congress must work to address underlying issues, such as the mental health of Americans, which may lead to violence in our communities.

 

As a life member of the National Rifle Association, I will work with my colleagues in the House of Representatives to protect our constitutional rights and oppose legislation which would restrict such rights. Rest assured I will keep your thoughts in mind as the legislative process continues.

 

Again, thank you for contacting me; please do so in the future if I may be of assistance.

Sincerely,

 

 
ADRIAN SMITH
Member of Congress   

 

[A-FIXER]

Same one I also received.

[gsd]

Verbatim? A canned response would be slightly disappointing.

[CitizenClark]

Verbatim? A canned response would be slightly disappointing.

It is just a reality of constituent mail. Once the boss approves particular language, you stick with the wording he has approved. In this situation, where he is no doubt receiving dozens of letters focusing on the same core issue, one of his aides probably got a stack of letters on the firearms topic and wrote one general response to all of them.

[m0par]

They all use canned responses on major issues. Staff just replies with pre-written response. Can you imagine the workload individual responses would create when dealing with the same issue over and over?

I don't think I've ever received anything but a canned response from a politician, written or email. Sometimes they aren't even related to the comment/request initially sent.

It's a helluva lot better than an intellectually dishonest canned response stating that "I believe we need to enact stricter gun control policies for the safety of our children."

ETA: Oops. CitizenClark beat me to it.

[XDHusker]

My son was good friends with Lee Terry's son.  They went to grade school and middle school together.
I sent an email to him on some issue a year or two ago and mentioned our son's.

I was quite surprised that I got a personal note from Lee asking about my son and that he saw him just a few weeks earlier at his house.  So, I suspect there's a certain threshold of emails that do get forwarded to the representatives, but I agree it's mostly canned responses.

[CitizenClark]

My son was good friends with Lee Terry's son.  They went to grade school and middle school together.
I sent an email to him on some issue a year or two ago and mentioned our son's.

I was quite surprised that I got a personal note from Lee asking about my son and that he saw him just a few weeks earlier at his house.  So, I suspect there's a certain threshold of emails that do get forwarded to the representatives, but I agree it's mostly canned responses.

The fact that a canned response goes out doesn't mean that the person you wrote to didn't get your mail. The boss still gets all the letters—he just gets proposed drafts of response letters written by his staff along with them. In your case, where you indicated that you had a pre-existing personal relationship with the boss, your letter probably got flagged as being one that required a more personalized response.

[jimneb]

They all use canned responses on major issues. Staff just replies with pre-written response. Can you imagine the workload individual responses would create when dealing with the same issue over and over?

They wouldn't get anything else done. I knew it was a canned response but thought I would share the first response that I've received from one of our Nebraska reps.

I have also received canned responses from the White House and the ATF.

[XDHusker]

If it makes you guys feel any better, I haven't gotten any responses from any of my emails.

[Poor Man]

I stated in my written letters to Senator Fisher, Senator Johanns, and Representative Smith.  that if they chose to respond I would not be satisfied with a form letter.  I appreciate the  opinions expressed by NFOA members, however, all too many times I've received a (ridiculous, even foreign to my opinion) response that tells me nothing. A copy of these letters was sent to Govenor Heineman also.

[Poor Man]

An addition to my previous post----copy to Gabby Giffords also !