Dear Future President,

I am a victim of gun violence. I stand with more than 1.2 million children who lost a parent due to gun violence under the age of 15. I lost my father two years ago, due to a workplace shooting, that was aimed towards him. His shooter carried an illegal gun.

In Japan it is nearly impossible to get hold of a gun. According to Zeeshan Aleem, a writer for mic. “In Japan: in 2007, the death of 22 people in gun attacks caused great alarm” today in America we have 100,000 every year. The population of Japan is 127.3 million compared to 318.9 million in America. If Japan Has as many people as America their gun deaths would be they would have about 55 gun deaths per year.

In contrast, the United States is second only to Mexico in the rate of gun deaths. We talk about foreign threats all the time, but the real threat is right here in our own house. From nbcnews.com “Nearly three times more kids (15,576) were injured by a firearm in 2010 than the number of US soldiers (5,247) that were wounded in action that year in the war in Afghanistan. The cost of war is expensive but so is the kids who were injured by a gunman

According to V C archive ¨But while the majority of crime victims are treated and released, gunshot victims represent a third of those requiring hospitalization.34 The average cost of acute care treatment ranges from $14,85035 to $32,00036 per hospital admission. Because of the young average age of the victims and the frequent need for rehospitalization, the lifetime medical costs are very high, around $35,500 per victim,¨ These life threatening injuries affect families for the rest of their lives.

According to U.S. Census Bureau, “out of about 12 million single parent families in 2015, more than 80 percent were headed by single mothers. Today 1 in 4 children under the age of 18 — a total of about 17.4 million — are being raised without a father4 and nearly half (45 percent) live below the poverty line.” Just from single parents in the United States“In the U.S., 8 million people suffered through the death of someone in their immediate family last year; 800,000 new widows and widowers; 400,000 people under 25 suffered from the death of a loved one (National Mental Health Association)”

93 percent of gun crimes are done with illegal guns. Clearly we are not doing enough to get rid of crimes in America when 68 percent of murders are committed with guns, 41 percent of robberies and 21 percent of aggravated assaults nationwide. Lives matter. My father's life matters, but he will be just another statistic if we do not make a push to stop gun violence.

Sincerely,

Sarah L