Dear Next President,

I have been hearing about a lot of crimes happening in the U.S. and people are being affected by them. Some crimes may be more severe than others, but every crime affects people in different way. Gun violence and terrorism are the two most severe crimes that have recently happened in America. Hopefully you can prevent the crimes from happening in America or at least limit the amount of occurrences. Gun violence is when people have guns and use them illegally either to kill people or use them as weapons and not using them for purposes such as hunting or self-defense. Terrorism is people who are violent in pursuit of political aims; meaning that there is a group of people, or just one person, wanting to attack a place in an effort to kill or hurt people on purpose.

About two years ago there was a crime happening around my neighborhood. A man was shooting and killing people including his own family. Even though he ended up killing himself a day or two later, it still was a violent crime. Those three days of hearing gunshots and news reports made me realize that crimes occur everywhere – even near me and that gun violence is a real problem.

Therefore, gun violence should be stopped because there are about 32,000 deaths every year just from gun violence. Although gun violence causes more deaths than terrorism, there are also many deaths due to terrorism. There have been several terrorist attack in the US by someone associated with ISIS. Recently, a man affiliated with ISIS went into a club in Florida and shot over 50 people. Not only did the man claim allegiance to ISIS, but since the club was known to have a high gay population, he was probably against gay rights too.

The attack in the club in Orlando, Florida, was a terrorist attack that used gun violence to kill a lot of people. Nobody truly knows why he terrorized the club and killed all the people. After the shooting, politicians suggested the attack would start a new debate of gay rights, terrorism, and gun control. After the news about the shooting spread, Hillary Clinton tweeted, “My thoughts are with those affected by this horrific act.” She then called for tighter gun laws in the United States. Donald Trump tweeted on how the attack was “horrific,” and he was “praying for all the victims and families.” He questioned why hadn’t the attack been prevented. “When will this stop? When will we get tough, smart and vigilant?” So while both candidates have different view points, hopefully both will show equal concern over gun violence.

In conclusion, if people are using guns the wrong way, like to kill people, then why don’t we limit the number of guns sold to our citizens? If we limit the number of guns sold, gun dealers, and ultimately the government, should only allow responsible people to own guns. Terrorism should be stopped by stopping ISIS and any other country that wants to fight against us.

Sincerely,

Lilyana D., Pennsylvania