We the Artists and members of the larger Arts community in New York City, including Visual Artists in all media, Musicians and Composers in all genres, Writers in every discipline, Dancers and Choreographers, Architects, Designers, Fashion Designers, Craftspeople, and everyone engaged in a supporting role to one of these endeavors, in sorrowful memory of the recent massacres in Connecticut, Colorado and elsewhere, declare ourselves united in demanding immediate and draconian firearm restrictions be put into law by congress. We are of the opinion that the second amendment was written and intended for a world in which firearms fired one round every two minutes rather than the massive numbers of todays weapons. We reject the Libertarian argument that guns are necessary to protect citizens from one's government by siting their notable failure to appear at the signing of the Patriot act and other recent legislative intrusions on constitutional rights like right of assembly. We cannot progress as a society when any deranged individual can throw the whole country into a panic of fear and terror no less grave than that caused by any foreign terrorist. The lives of every American would be vastly improved if we removed guns from general ownership altogether, and they were reserved for use strictly by the military and police and then only under extreme circumstances and with civilian oversight. The gun death figures from other countries where such laws exist are compelling and we demand that the President and Congress act immediately to make gun ownership a federal offense. That's right..we're coming to take your guns...because you're too dumb not to have them and we refuse to be ruled by the dumb anymore.