Dear Future President:

One of the biggest issues in our country is gun control, and gun control is good. Too many homicides are committed each year in this country due to guns and we need to stop it. In this letter I will explain why gun control is beneficial and why we need more gun control.

The United States has one of the highest gun homicide rates. According to BBC.com, The United States is twenty-sixth in the world for most gun homicides, and fourth for developed countries. We need more gun control because there is no reason that we should be that high on these lists.

The chances of being shot and killed in the U.S. are much higher than in other countries. According to the New York Times website(nytimes.com), the chances of you getting shot in other developed countries are nearly the same as some of the rarest ways to die in the United States. For example, in Japan, the chances of you being shot are the same as if you were struck by lightning here, and in Germany you are just as likely to be killed by a falling or thrown object. So why is it that in the U.S. you have a higher chance of being killed by a gun? In the countries that have lower death rates by guns, there is more gun control.

The United States has a large number of shootings. According to bbc.com, in 2015, there were 372 mass shootings in our country. 64 of them were school shootings. These shootings killed almost 500 people and injured nearly 2,000. But the deaths and injuries from these shootings are just a fraction of the number of gun-related deaths and injuries. Overall, in 2015, 13,286 people were killed by guns, and nearly 27,000 were injured. If we get more gun control, the people who would commit these murders would have a much harder time committing them as they would likely either not be able to get the guns or at least make the process take longer giving people and police more time to find out what these people are planning and put a stop to it.

One major argument against gun control is that it infringes on our second amendment rights. And this is a reasonable argument. However, the second amendment is outdated. It was written over 200 years ago and in a time where it would take at least a full minute to reload and shoot a single bullet. Now guns can shoot a large number of bullets in a couple of seconds, and can be reloaded in a few more. According to quora.com, there is a gun that can shoot 3000 times in a minute. That is 50 bullets in a second. If a weapon like that got into the wrong hands, it could be catastrophic. This is another reason we need gun control.

Finally, I am not going to just say we need more gun control without giving a solution. One solution, is to require proof that someone buying a gun doesn't have problems mentally, such as depression or anger issues(for obvious reasons). The persons criminal record should be checked as well. In conclusion, we simply need more gun control. 

Sincerely,

Alex