Dear Future President,

The issue of gun control is frequently debated in this country today. I believe that civilians should not be allowed to own automatic and assault weapons and if a person wants to own a gun that is slow firing for hunting there should be an extensive background check. If we make it illegal for civilians to own fast-firing weapons it will cut down on the the amount of mass shootings because it is harder to kill multiple people with a slower weapon.

We need to improve gun control because the US is one of the worst countries when it comes to gun homicides per day. We have on average 20 more gun homicides per day than most other developed countries if they had the same population as the US, according to a study done by The New York Times in 2016. A person is as likely to get struck by lightning in Japan as to get killed by a gun in Japan, according to another article by the New York Times from 2015. Which shows that other countries have their act together when it comes to gun control. The story is the same for most other major and developed countries, except the US.

One of the main reasons that we need to keep automatic and assault weapons out of people's hands is that these weapons make it easier to kill multiple people at once. According to a report by CNN there were over 130 mass shooting last year in the US. A mass shooting is defined a shooting of four or more people. According to the BBC there are over 300 million guns in the US. This is a ridiculous amount and could be another factor to the crazy amount of homicides that we have. One solution to this problem to offer to buy back people's guns. In Australia they tried this, and over a ten year period, firearm deaths were cut in half (CNN). This is why I think buybacks might work in the US because it worked in other countries.

On the contrary, the NRA, National Rifle Association, says that people need guns so that they can use them in self defense. The statistics say differently, of the 29,618,300 violent crimes committed between 2007 and 2011 only .79 percent of the people involved used guns in self defense according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Also of the 84,459,500 property crimes, only .12 percent of people involved used a gun in self defence (The Bureau of Justice Statistics). This proves that the NRA is wrong and they have no reason to try and stop gun control laws from being tightened.

Gun control is an issue that needs to be taken more seriously in this country. The US has a far too great amount of guns, and civilians should not be allowed to purchase automatic or assault weapons. The number of mass shootings is unacceptable. If the US takes action and makes it more difficult to acquire guns we can cut down on the mass shootings as well as homicides and suicides that happen from guns each year.

Sincerely,

Forrest Love