Dear future President,

Our country is slowly but surely falling into pieces as a result from the failure of gun control. I am Brycen Campbell and I go to Jefferson High School in Portland Oregon, and I would like much better gun control in our country. The safety of the citizens of the United States are at stake every single day due to the killing of African American men and the availability for people with criminal records and psychotic backgrounds to get hold of firearms. How you handle gun control can and will determine the amount of lives are taken away daily. I expect only great and positive things coming from you regarding gun control.

As an African American teenage boy and I am scared for my life on a daily basis. I am only fifteen and everytime I see the police I freeze, I think of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and even twelve year old Tamir Rice. These are boys around my age who lost their lives over police brutality and the misuse of a weapon. The police are quick to go to their guns when they get afraid. All the training they go through to be a police officer and they continuously kill people and get away with it. According to Thinkprogress.org, “776 people have been shot and killed this year alone”. I think police officers should only have their guns if needed for the situation, not if someone looks suspicious or if they are speeding. The police need more gun control than ever and it can't wait until another five or six innocent African Americans become a hashtag and a news feature.

The amount of weapon shops selling of weapons to anyone is outrageous. Now there is plenty of ways for people to get weapons, family, friends and even so stores will still sell them to you if they somehow don't know about your criminal background.According to Joe Scarborough from politifact.com, from “3 to 11 percent of prisoners who have committed murder crimes bought the guns from a gun store or a gun show” but they can only see where it was bought not if it was legal or not. You may think that 11 percent is not a lot, but I would much rather have it be at zero percent and have no murder in our country. Also there are sick and confused people with just as much availability to get a weapon than a average person who is going hunting. Never should someone like that or people who have thoughts of terrorism ever be eligible for firearms. These people obviously have some sort of problem, so why are they so often dispensed?

Our country needs a leader that can push us in the correct direction to prevent the tragedies that happen everyday. Our society knows that our gun control system is broken. That makes people with mental illnesses and thoughts of terrorism more likely to harm our country, and police to carelessly and continuously kill and harm African Americans. Our country is in desperate need of someone that can save the lives of our people and get the people who need help the help they need. Future President, I hope you take these wishes from a citizen as myself to make The U.S.A. united and strong.

Sincerely, Brycen Campbell