Gun Control

Dear Future President,

You may think I'm just a young kid and don’t have much knowledge on gun control. Yet, I feel like I may have a long term solution to gun control. The solution includes more extensive background checks. Everyone knows that guns scare people to death, mostly because of recent terrorist attacks. It would bring a bit of security to all Americans.

If you do more extensive background checks, then you can catch people attempting to use guns in a harmful way. If background checks were more extensive, then you would find connections to terror groups or see if someone has a mental disorder or may have thoughts of using a gun in a bad way. According to an article published by CNN, when you buy a gun from a retail store, the store will enter your name and information to NCIS. They will receive your eligibility to purchase within a few minutes. Ways to be denied include being indicted or convicted of a felony, being dishonorably discharged from the army, and admitting to being addicted to a controlled substance. Yet, only about 2 percent of background checks have been denied.

However, there is the “gun show loophole” which may not really be the right name for it. You can access a gun without a background check if you are buying from an unlicensed seller. Those sales are not monitored by the National Firearms Act. If you create a law that forces all sellers to do background checks, it can make it pretty easy to catch people who are trying to distribute them.

Though criminals may still get guns, more extensive background checks would reduce it to a minimum. To eliminate this problem, start from the source—the ones who distribute the guns to the criminals. It would make it near impossible to obtain an illegal firearm if you eliminate the “gun show loophole”. Though you may think there are already many guns circulating already, after a few years, less and less guns should be circulating.

You can create and enforce a law that forces every seller to do background checks when someone purchases a firearm.

To conclude, if you create more extensive background checks, then distributors wouldn’t be able to so easily get guns. Every state needs to do background checks. You need to eliminate the “gun show loophole” by forcing sellers to do background checks. Then, trust in our national security organizations to prevent guns from being smuggled in from other countries. If you were to make these small changes, then Americans could sit at home and know they are safe from gun violence.

Sincerely,

Zach Manning