October 19, 2016

I believe that citizens of the United States are losing their gun rights. What do you think and what will you do to take care of it?

Dear Mr./Mrs. President,

All the amendments are equal in importance so why should one be taken from us. Our forefathers spent great amounts of time and reasoning to decide what rights we will have, so why would should we abandon one now after it has been part of our country for so long. Our rights cannot be taken from us as the government wishes to do with the 2nd amendment. I realize that this is not new to you but please stand by your people and fight for their rights as americans. Mr./Mrs. President do not take our gun rights away from us.

There have been a rise in deaths and mass killings because of guns but who’s fault is it the guns? No it’s the person's fault who used the gun. If someone doesn't have abuse of drug or alcohol, mental illness, or criminal background they should have a right own and purchase weapons. About 32,000 gun deaths occur annually in the U.S. (Marcus 1). Of those 60% are suicides, if we just take that out of the picture more than half of our gun related deaths are gone. How do we do that though? When purchasing a firearm people should have to have a background check for mental illness and be tested to see if they have had or have suicidal thoughts or actions. However this may not take away all the suicides. If parents have guns they should have to lock them up where kids or others cannot get to them.

Also another big part in gun related deaths is homicide. A large part of the homicides are gang related. Here again we need to check for criminal backgrounds and if they have one they shouldn’t be able to buy guns. As you probably know most of the guns in gangs are illegally traded and bought, but where do they get them? This question can only be answered by more enforcement where gangs are common. Places in Chicago, New Orleans, Georgia, and ect. Where gangs are common should have more law enforcement officers. This solution could lower gun deaths even more.

On the contrary, without guns how will we protect ourselves. We also need guns to feed ourselves and family. Some people live only on what they hunt and kill. Guns don’t only protect you but they give you a sense of security. Many people own a gun for security and never use it but what about the people that have had to use it to protect themselves or their families? What would they they do if they didn’t have one to protect themselves? That could cause just as many deaths as firearms would in the first place. What about all the hunters? According to FWP, “13.7 million people hunt in the U.S.”, That's about six percent of the population that probably owns a gun and uses it regularly. What would they all do if they couldn't hunt and get food on the table for their families. Gun manufacturing rates have almost doubled since just 2010 from 5.5 million to nearly 10.9 (Bureau of Firearms).

As being a gun owner myself I know what an impact it would be if you were to take away our gun rights. I use it all the time to catch small game for our animals or to scare the coyotes away from our house. I use mine mostly for recreational use but many people use as their source for getting food. I know I’ve been I situations where I wish I had a gun but didn't and I couldn't live feeling like that all the time because we didn’t have guns. Taking our guns is like taking our right of freedom of speech and religion. You wouldn’t even think about taking those away from us so why would you take our gun rights from us.

I believe that will be able to do something to protect our rights as Americans. If you choose to fight for our gun rights it won’t be easy. There's a lot of people that you will working with that think that gun control is the best route, but there will be just as many people behind you supporting you to save our gun rights.

Thank you for reading this letter and taking it into consideration.

Sincerely,

Gentry L.

Billings, MT

Works Cited 

https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/migrated/news/pressreleases/upload/FWS-National-Preliminary-Report-2011.pdf

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/05/462017461/guns-in-america-by-the-numbers