Dear Future President,

My name is Chloe Stark. I am in eleventh grade and I attend Avondale High School in Auburn Hills, Michigan. I am writing this letter because I have some strong concerns about the frequency of mass shootings in the United States today. These horrible events happen much too often in the United States, and I understand that under the second amendment all people have the right to bear arms, but after so many cases of mass shootings, don’t you think there’s a problem? They are happening often, so often some people are losing their sensitivity to the matter. When did mass shootings and gun violence become acceptable? When it comes to the topic of mass shootings, most of us will readily agree that it’s something that needs to be stopped. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of whether or not banning high capacity magazines would be an effective way to try and resolve the issue. Mass shootings could be reduced and lives could be saved if high capacity magazines were banned in the United States.

High capacity magazines can hold large amounts of cartridges at a time, allowing the shooter to not have to reload as often. In the United States, people love to hunt. Some people may argue that by banning high capacity magazines, it could make it harder for people to hunt since they would have to reload more often. However, high capacity magazines cannot legally be used for hunting anywhere in the United States. Therefore, banning them would have no impact on the hunting community.

Banning these magazines will not stop mass shootings in the United States, but it would be a step in the right direction. In an article titled on thetrace.org, the author states that banning high capacity magazines would be an effective strategy in limiting the number of victims in this type of event. Eight states have already taken direction and banned them, but why isn’t every state following? In an article on usafiretraining.com, it states that “Even a poorly trained criminal with limited firearm experience could likely drop a magazine and push in another one in 2-5 seconds.” This is a good point, but according to usnews.com, most criminals only use what they can legally get a hold of, so if high capacity magazines were banned, it’s much less likely that these magazines would be used in this type of crime. If banning high capacity magazines could save lives in the United states and ultimately make it a safer place, why hold back?

Sincerely, Chloe Stark