Jordan E. Nevada

Unnecessary Guns, Unnecessary Violence

All the guns floating around in the hands of almost every citizen of the U.S. is doing nothing good for our country, all it's doing is killing us.

  Dear Mr. or Madam President,

Congratulations on your election, you’re now the person that everyone is looking up to. The person that people of this country look to for safety and protection. Now that you’re president, people are going to be looking to you after things like mass shootings, terrorism, police brutality, maybe even certain suicides. I’m reaching out to you right now to propose my thoughts, feelings, and personal experience about all the guns floating around in the hands of almost every citizen here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. I’m well aware that people in this country love their guns, but let's look at the bigger picture. Everyone has guns. Anyone could carry a gun.That means any unstable teenager, any bloodthirsty criminal fresh off probation, and just about any terrorist can count on us to supply them with any of their mass killing needs, fast and easy. In most states there is no need for licence, registration, gun training, background checking, nothing. According to the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime, “89 out of every 100 civilians in the U.S. own a gun.” Look what that has done for us, the theater in Aurora Colorado, Sandy Hook Elementary school in Connecticut, the church in Charleston South Carolina, Orlando Florida, and many more. I understand people like to have firearms because it makes them feel safe, but how does that work? You protect yourself from a gun, with a gun? That's literally fighting fire with fire. Doesn't work. At that point, it just becomes whoever shoots first which is basically war if you ask me. The fact that just about anyone can own these killing machines, is scary and ridiculous.

I have a friend, her name is Jessica, she’s seventeen years old, and doesn't live in the best neighborhood out there. There has been multiple occasions where she has been woken up from gunshots in her neighborhood. Shes also witnessed gun violence in her neighborhood many times. She has to live in constant anxiety because she's surrounded by these firearms that could take her life away in one click. How is she supposed to protect herself? More guns? Is she supposed to carry around a gun in order to feel safer? There's no reason she should have to live like that. People claim that “having guns in their homes and in their possession is the best way to protect themselves.” Well not really. From aliens or monsters, maybe. The point is, people wouldn't have to live in this constant anxiety if we weren't the country that just gives out guns like candy on halloween. We make it so easy for criminals and terrorists to just kill people if they ever felt like it.

All I’m asking here is to provide a safer environment or the people of our country. We don’t need all this unnecessary violence. I believe strengthening gun laws would only help that. It would take guns out of the hands of people that abuse the power. I really hope you take the things I've said in this letter into consideration. Please make some positive changes to this country in your four to eight years as president of the U S of A.

Voxdotcom. "The State of Gun Violence in the US, Explained in 18 Charts - YouTube." YouTube. YouTube, 2016. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

"Deadliest U.S. Mass Shootings 1984-2016." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times Staff, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

Simon, Mallory, and Ray Sanchez. "U.S. Gun Violence: The Story in Graphics." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

Damonte Ranch High School

1st Period

Dramatic Literature. 11th and 12th Grade students.

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