Dear Future President,

I’m writing to you about the need for stricter gun laws; guns are getting in the hands of the wrong people and they are causing harm. Something needs to be done so that innocent people aren’t getting killed by people who shouldn’t be able to own a gun in the first place. 13,286 people were killed with guns in 2015, and there have been 12,041 deaths in 2016 so far. I don’t know about you but that’s a lot of deaths that could be prevented if we had stricter gun laws.

Gun fatalities in states that have weaker gun laws are three times as high than states with stronger gun laws. As you can see stricter laws will cause a decrease in deaths in the U.S. The Brady Campaign to prevent gun violence and the law center to prevent gun violence gave letter grades to states gun laws. The top 10 states with the most gun homicides all have F letter grades. The top 10 states with the lowest gun homicides have from B- to A- letter grades. As you can see no states get A letter grades and we should make stricter laws so then everyone gets to at least a B or higher.

On June 17, 2015, 9 people were killed by gunman Dylan Roof inside a church in Charleston, South Carolina. South Carolina got a F letter grade from the Brady Campaign to prevent gun violence, because almost anyone can own a gun legally. On October 1st, 2015, 9 people were killed by gunman Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Oregon got a D+ letter grade from the Brady Campaign. On June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed by gunman Omar Saddiqui Mateen at Pulse which is a gay nightclub located in Orlando, Florida. Florida got an F letter grade from the Brady Campaign.

Pro-Con.org says on the con side of stricter gun laws that the second amendment protects the right to own guns and people should still be able to own guns. On the pro side it says the second amendment is not an unlimited right to own guns. The second amendment says both of these things so both sides are right, but what I would do is take away guns from people who have a criminal record and take away guns from mentally unstable people. If you have a kid that is mentally unstable and you as parents have guns, keep them locked up in a gun safe. Everyone else can continue to have that right of owning guns.

We can’t keep letting innocent people die. Some people have guns that shouldn’t be able to be near a gun. By stricter gun laws such as not letting anyone with a criminal record own a gun can decrease the amount of people being killed. We can decrease gun violence and make the United States of America a safer place by having stricter gun laws such as the ones above. So… future Mr. or Mrs. president, will you keep letting innocent people get killed by people that shouldn’t even own a gun in the first place, or will you take a stand and put stricter gun laws into action and save the innocent people of the country we love?

Works Cited

Clarke, Kevin, and James Martin. “A history of violence: Gun control in America.” 18 July 2016.

Go.galegroup.com. Accessed 18 October 2016.

Quealy, Kevin and Margot Sanger-Katz. “Compare these gun death rates: The U.S is a different

world.” 13 June 2016, www.newyorktimes.com. Accessed 13 June 2016.

Lichtblau, Eric. “Gun Control Groups Push Growing Evidence that Laws Reduce Violence.” 11

October 2016. www.newyorktimes.com. Accessed 11 October 2016.

Library, CNN. “Deadliest Mass Shootings in U.S. History Fast Facts.” 13 June 2016.

www.cnn.com. Accessed 13 June 2016.

Campaign, Brady. “2013 State Scorecard Released by the Law Center and Brady Campaign”. 9

December, 2013. www.bradycampaign.org. Accessed 9 December, 2013.

Organization, Procon. “Should More Gun Control Laws Be Enacted?”. 18 February, 2016.

www.procon.org. Accessed 18 February, 2016