Dear Mr. President,

I love guns. I have been raised around guns my entire life. I learned to shoot at a young age and as I grew, so did my love of hunting and the outdoors. I have been reading about the topic of gun control in the news lately, and I am completely against placing tight restrictions and eventually banning guns altogether. There is a saying that "Guns kill people as much as flies cause garbage." It simply doesn't happen. I live in Northern California, far from any major cities. Down south in all the cities, Gov. Jerry Brown and the support of liberal population in cities are placing extremely tight restrictions on firearms. I'm concerned that California might be the first state to ban guns completely.

Some people are confused about what the 2nd amendment is even for. It's not about hunting or protecting your home. The amendment states"“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”" (Swann). It is intended for the citizens to be able to create a trained militia if our government becomes a tyrant. Our founding fathers were either federalists, who believed in the government and thought it would one day become strong, and the anti-federalists, who believed that the government would one day become tyrannical."The Anti-federalists―among them George Mason, Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams―were militant advocates of the inclusion of a bill of rights in the Constitution because they did not trust the power of the federal government to be restrained. And the anti-federalists wanted it because it would mean every able-bodied man in America would be armed in the event that the federal government or America’s own standing army turned on its own people.The federalists—including men like John Jay, James Madison and George Washington—wanted the Second Amendment because they believed a strong federal government would be able to control a standing army." (Swann).

I also want to lay some rumors about the AR-15 to rest. We often hear the media calling the AR-15 a "high-powered rifle" and saying that is the weapon of choice for mass shooters."The AR-15 is not a “high powered” rifle. Yes, it has more power than a handgun – all rifles do. But when you’re talking about rifles, the AR-15’s .223 / 5.56mm ammunition is considered so low powered that it is banned from hunting large game like deer and elk because it cannot humanely take them down in one shot like most other rifle calibers can. In some states like Washington, all big game must be hunted with a minimum of .24 caliber ammunition – relegating the AR-15 to small game and varmint duty exactly because it is a low-powered rifle. Most hunters today choose .308 or .300 Win Mag as their ammunition of choice." (Tribunist Staff) "At any rate, a .223 is perfect for small-game hunting, like coyote, fox, prairie dog, or other similar small-sized game. This is also sometimes referred to varmint hunting and many AR-15's are designed and marketed specifically as varmint hunting rifles. These typically have longer barrels to give the bullet better accuracy at the longer ranges typically involved when hunting this kind of game." (MacBradaigh).. Another false rumor about this weapon is that the AR-15 is a fully automatic weapon, much like the M16 and the M4."The AR-15 rifle is a gas powered, semi-automatic rifles which means that one press of the trigger results in one round being fired. The United States military uses weapons like the M-16 and the M4 that both look like an AR-15 but provide both fully automatic fire and three-round burst fire – both of which are not possible with an AR-15." (Tribunist Staff). Also, some believe that the AR in AR-15 means Assault Rifle."The “AR” in AR-15 does not stand for Assault rifle in any way. It stands for “ArmaLite Rifle” after the firm that designed the weapon in the 1950s." (Staff). This rifle is not at all what major news networks like CNN and MSNBC are making it out to be. It isn't as harmful and powerful as the rifles that hunters use to shoot larger game animals, like a 30-06 for example. The best that this rifle could do is killing a small buck in states that is legal to shoot them with this weapon and ammunition size.

The next president of this great country should make the concerns of the citizens a top priority. And this is an issue that I feel very strongly about. Even if guns are banned, criminals will not follow laws. They will still be able to get guns. And when no civilian is armed with concealed, or even open carry permits, then I fear that there may be more victims for mass shootings. Mr. President, this is an issue only you can solve.

Sincerely,

Brandon D.