Dean Phillips: “Jim Ramstad represented Minnesota's Third District in Congress as a principled Republican from 1991 to 2009. His widow…”

“Jim Ramstad represented Minnesota's Third District in Congress as a principled Republican from 1991 to 2009. His widow, Kathryn, a remarkable woman in her own right, wrote me last week and asked that I share her message with the country: ``Jim voted for the 1994 crime bill and its gun control measures. He was one of only six Republicans to cast what was clearly a difficult vote, but he felt so strongly about the compelling need to act and believed it was consistent with his bipartisan, pragmatic, and commonsense approach to fighting crime. ``After so many mass shootings, I cannot understand why Congress does not at the very least,'' she wrote, ``ban semiautomatic weapons like the AR-15 that have been used in so many recent mass shootings.'' She continued, ``I feel very strongly about this and ask sincerely, what can we do to legislate reasonable legislation like in 1994?'' What can she do? She asks; she and the country ask, I might add. We all know what we can do. And I say, let's do it. ____________________”