Dear Mr. President,

I’d like to address a topic that is a problem already, and has the potential to get worse and worse if we don’t get it under control before it gets way too out of hand. I know there have been people working on the issue a lot lately because of how many injuries and/or deaths that have occurred recently, and I appreciate the ladies and gentlemen that have been spending a lot of their time trying to help it. The problem at hand that I’d like to talk about is our second amendment, the right to bear arms. There are many laws on guns and how they should be handled, but not everyone is obeying them or will obey them the way they were meant to be. There have been at least 722 non-self defense deaths since 2007, seven years before the concealed carry law was actually passed in the U.S. and that seems like a huge warning to me that some people are going to only try to get a concealed carry license for all the wrong reasons.

A major issue that has happened many times and could happen plenty more that should not have even happened once, is school shootings. Innocent kids have had their lives taken from them and their beloved families, just because some hooligan had an I.D. verifying their age and a license allowing them to holster a gun when out and about. There have been 31 school shootings in the U.S. since Columbine in 1999, which is an outrageous number for that type of thing to have, and I’m disgusted to live in such a place where going to school is considered terrifying for some people. My understanding, however, is that the Nation has been running more background checks on people who come through trying to buy guns, which is a good idea, but also might not be that great either, only for the reason that it may not always be a good way to judge somebody. Someone could have an amazing background, coming from a family of people who have never gotten in trouble before, but the person themselves goes crazy or something, and ends up still getting a gun and causing mayhem in the world. I’m not exactly sure of a great way to completely tell if a person is going to grow up to be a maniac or not, but I know that you guys will work on it more and more and eventually find a better way to help it.

Another problem that we’ve had is guns falling into the hands of young or inexperienced children, causing major trauma and sometimes even death to the people that they love and care for dearly. This happens because a gun was either just lying out somewhere in the open, or not put up very well and the child sees it, thinking it’s a toy, plays with it, and it ends up going off. No matter if the gun is set on safety or where it’s placed in your house, (or out of your house for that matter), a gun is a deadly weapon and is not safe by any means, especially for children. A young girl, 9 years of age, from Tuscon, Arizona is a perfect example of a gun falling into the wrong hands. She was learning how to fire an uzi from a firing range instructor when the recoil became too much for her to handle and she ended up shooting the instructor by accident because she was incapable of resisting the drawback of the weapon. We have to be more careful with this problem especially, because now that man’s family and loved ones are traumatized, as well as the little girl and her family as well. It’s a horrible experience to go through and no one needs to go through it, nor deserves to.

This next problem isn’t very major, because it hasn’t happened a lot, at least not that I've heard, however, it is nonetheless a shocking and terrifying story that I read about when researching about gun problems. An off duty at the time, St. Louis police officer by the name of James Cashatt was prepared to open fire after being hit in the shoulder from what he saw was the silver barrel of a gun. Luckily for him, and whoever shot at him, he realized that it was only a shot from a paintball gun that caused the sting in his shoulder and restricted himself from returning fire with a more deadly weapon, and re-holstered it. This also goes to show that some children are getting a hold of weapons, deadly or not, easily somehow and not using them in a smart or careful way, causing paranoia and scares through the streets of some American cities and states all because of what seems to be them thinking guns are toys and can be flaunted about without consequences. What some of these children don’t realize though is that they could point a fake gun at the wrong person and that could possibly mean the end for them if they aren't more careful. I know I personally don’t like guns being pointed at me, and I can’t imagine that other people would either, even if the gun could bring no harm, it takes one glance before you have to make a split decision when it comes to dangerous and deadly weapons, and it could cost a kid who thought it was all fun and games, their life.

After I had researched a little more about the gun laws in America, I found myself to be more skeptical about how we’re handling it and that it’s not being portrayed as that big of an issue, when in reality, it’s a major problem that needs to be put on the top of the priority list. I know there’s no absolute way to just stop people from acquiring guns, it’s gonna happen, I understand that. Some people hunt, some polish them up and keep them racked on the mantle for a keepsake or whatever other reason they have for owning a gun. However, I do believe that this would be an issue that needs to be brought up to the public to help them realize how terrifying our economy is becoming because no one is treating guns like the dangerous killing machines that they are anymore. People treat them like they’re just another piece of equipment that won’t hurt anybody, and then someone ends up getting hurt when they didn’t have to, had the person been a little more cautious with what they were using. I hope this helps open up everyone’s eyes just a little bit more on just how bad things have gotten over the years with gun control policies and can be portrayed as more of an importance, than it already is, for the safety of our Nation.

Sincerely, Mason