Dear Future President,

I am writing you today because I feel gun control needs to change because there are too many shootings and shootings can be prevented with gun control. I am connected to this topic because our world is becoming unsafe and scarier. I feel that this issue will just get worse if there is no change. This topic concerns me because innocent children are getting shot in their schools because a gun is in the hands of a person who should not have one. I can’t imagine sending my child go to school and then there being a school shooting and losing my child from that. I would be beyond angry. More people are getting shot for absolutely no reason and this is becoming a serious issue. Something needs to be done about this and I want this to have more awareness. It isn’t fair to live in fear and have certain people take away our right of feeling safe and free of crime. However, guns are great for self-defense, when you’re in danger, and for those who go hunting, but those mentally ill with guns killing innocent people is not good.

There are too many shootings going on daily and it keeps getting worse. It is usually because people who have them have mental illnesses.  According to Rita Price, "Depression and mental illness often go unreported among high school students. Students who have mental health issues often do not get help, and their problems may not be recognized by parents or teachers. This can lead to isolation and may be a factor in those students who are involved in school violence and shootings."  The safeness of students is not where it should be. Schools need to teach more about mental health and illnesses from it to help the students who have it get treated. People have guns are going beyond what they should be doing with them. Some people are mentally insane and do not care if they kill someone else.

There are several ways to prevent shootings with the control of guns. This can work because shootings can be prevented with the control of guns if people are receiving treatment for their illness and do not own a gun. According to Abby Rapoport she says, “Mentally ill people are not more likely than others to commit gun violence. Targeting mentally ill individuals, she says, can be dangerous because it distracts from the broader problem of gun availability. Also, many laws regulating guns target mentally ill people who are committed to facilities or who are receiving treatment; these laws are counterproductive, Rapoport argues, individuals with mental illness receiving treatment are substantially less likely to commit violence.”

There are several ways to fix this issue. By addressing mental illness can reduce school shootings, and schools should have mental health counseling. If schools did this, it could prevent shootings, more awareness on mental health, and keep people safer. This would be beneficial and would help start a change in schools. Many people do not know much about mental health and do not take it seriously, so if there is more awareness, that will reduce the amount of shootings. Another way according to Steve Adubato is, "stationing police officers in schools to keep the students safe from any danger."  A solution that could happen is to create a law to take away the guns from those who are mentally ill and for future reference, make the process of buying a gun more serious and do background checks on the person. Also, have police or some security working at the gun stores to make sure the workers are following the law and not giving guns to those who shouldn’t legally have one. I feel this could be beneficial because it could keep people safer. However, some people may feel they do not want this to happen because they think they will get their gun taken away or guns will be restricted completely. They want their freedom with their guns and think they will get their privilege taken away forever. But that isn’t the circumstance, only guns will be taken from those who are mentally ill. People that would agree with this law are the ones who feel unsafe or have had the experience of losing someone close to them due to a gun shooting.

As you can see, I feel gun control should be changed because there are too many shootings and shootings can be prevented with the control of guns. There are several solutions to this problem that I have addressed and I would like to see a change in our country. I think people don’t feel safe enough  because, for example, they know there are people that are in gangs and will shoot an innocent person walking down the street so that they can steal their money. We need better security, laws, and safeness in our country in order to become a better country. People just need to understand that with the gun control, they can still have guns for self-defense.

Sincerely,

Sophie

Citations:

Price, Rita. "Addressing Mental Illness Can Reduce School Shootings." School Safety, 24 Dec. 2012. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. <http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow>.

Rapoport, Abby. "Guns-Not the Mentally Ill-Kill People." Mental Illness,  2016. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. <http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow>.

Adubato, Steve. "Police in Schools Make Students Safer." School Safety, 11 Feb. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. <http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow>.