Dear Future President:

My name is Annie Fink. The process on background checks for guns must become more rigorous. Many people in America do not realize that from 2001-2013, about 156,000 people died of homicide(Simon, Sanchez 5). If our background checks on guns became more rigorous, we could knock this number down significantly.

Gun control is a big problem in the United States. CNN News says the U.S. owns about 270 million guns. That is just over the population of Indonesia, the fourth most populated country in the world. Ever since mass shootings and terrorist attacks, background checks have gone up(Simon, Sanchez 2). However, this has not stopped the bad people from getting guns and using them against American citizens. For example, on December 14, 2012, a mass shooting occurred in an innocent elementary school. Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School, and killed twenty-six people. He killed twenty students, and six adults. Many of the students he killed were just little first graders. Teachers acted and risked their own lives to save the young children’s. Later, Adam Lanza then took his own life. I believe that if Adam Lanza had gone through a background check when he bought the assault weapon, this horrid incident would not have occurred. The FBI states that guns were used in seven in ten killings(Simon, Sanchez 3). This is a shocking point of data, that would go down if people went through rigorous background checks. There should be a mental health check on people who want to buy guns. Many people who commit such horrible terror attacks have been found to have mental issues. Those who have mental problems should not be allowed to purchase a gun. In January of 2016, President Obama created new gun laws that required all people who want to purchase a gun have a background check. In an article with The Fiscal Times, Obama stated, “Congress still needs to act. The folks in this room will not rest until Congress does. Because once Congress gets on board with common-sense gun safety measures, we can reduce gun violence a whole lot.”(Dent 1).

The amount of deaths from gun control is a major problem in America. President Obama said, “Gun control won’t happen during my presidency.” This mean that it is up to you to make a difference about gun control.

Best regards,

Annie Fink

                                                                               Works Cited

Dent, Millie. “21 Unbelieveable Facts About Guns in America.” The Fiscal Times. 7 Jan. 2016. 19 Oct. 2016 http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/01/07/21-Unbelievable-Facts-About-Guns-America.

Simon, Mallory and Sanchez, Ray. “U.S. gun violence: The story in charts and graphs.” CNN. 4 Dec. 2015. 18 Oct. 2016 http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/04/us/gun-violence-graphics/.

Smith, Matt. “Sandy Hook killer Adam Lanza took motive to his grave.” CNN. 26 Nov. 2013. 30 Oct. 2016 http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/25/justice/sandy-hook-shooting-report/.