Yesterday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the non-profit group he founded called Mayors Against Illegal Guns, each received a letter containing the deadly poison ricin. The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Intelligence Division of the NYPD are investigating the letters, which ABC News reported were postmarked from Louisiana.

Yesterday's letters contained threats against Mayor Bloomberg, and referred to the debate over gun control. Several reports indicate that poison-filled letters sent earlier this year to President Obama, and Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, were also the result of the gun control debate. Senator Wicker was one of sixteen senators who voted to end the filibuster and allow a vote on background checks. Thankfully, the two earlier letters were intercepted before causing any harm, and there were no signs of serious symptoms in those who opened letters yesterday.

Mayor Bloomberg issued a statement, saying he did not feel angry or threatened by the letters. He wrote, “there's 12,000 people that are going to get killed this year with guns, and 19,000 that are going to commit suicide with guns, and we're not going to walk away from these efforts.” He will not be intimidated by so-called gun advocates who refuse to accept any reasonable limitation on the right to own weapons of war, and we shouldn't be either.

We can't give up on efforts to prevent the needless tragedies that occur every single day because of guns. Several states have enacted gun control measures in the months since the Sandy Hook shooting because lawmakers listened to the will of the people. The majority of people in our country support these efforts, and we must remind lawmakers in every state that they work for us, not for the gun lobby. This won't be an easy fight, but we can win it if we stand together.