October 26, 2016

Mr./Mrs. President

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr./Mrs. President:

Congratulations on your new job! I am sure that you will do great. I am an eighth grader at Achieve Charter School of Paradise, and I am writing this letter to you to keep the second amendment the same.“Guns don't kill people, people do.” is one of the many great quotes that Eddie Izzard said about gun control. I believe that we should not make any changes to the second amendment, the gun laws. I will address how gun control laws do not cause crime, how some of these laws violate the right to self defence, and how these laws invade our privacy. Wouldn’t you want to defend yourself or someone you love if someone came at you with a gun?

Gun control laws do not cause crime. In the 20th century gun ownership doubled, and because of this, the murder and crime rate decreased extremely because the people could defend themselves with powerful guns. When the second amendment was passed, the number of deaths and injuries decreased significantly. The number of deaths decreased by approximately 90% and the number of injuries by 82%. In fact, gun ownership increases safety on our streets and deters criminals from illegal activity. A journalist by the name of John Stossel said, “Criminals do not obey the law… Without the fear of retaliation from victims who might be packing heat. Criminals in possession of these [illegal] weapons now have a much easier job. As the saying goes ‘If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.’” Gun control laws do not cause crime.

As I mentioned earlier, these gun control laws violate the right to self-defense and they deny people the sense of safety. PEW Research interviewed a group of people about gun laws, 61% of men and 56% of women said that stricter gun laws would make it “more difficult to protect their homes and families.” Vice president of the NRA, Wayne La Pierre, said “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.” A PEW foundation report found that 70% of male gun owners and 80% of female gun owners said owning a gun and having it in their household made them feel more safe. They also asked people if having a gun owned by another person in their household would make them feel safer and 64% of them said it would.

Gun control laws such as background checks and micro-checking are an invasion of privacy. The government databases that keeps personal individual information on gun owners such as their name, address, mental health history, criminal records and other personal information. A background check measure would have allowed the government to keep data bases of gun purchases, creating a “Worry what you're going to see searches of the data bases and an explanation for purposes that were not intended when the information was collected.”

Guns don't kill people, people do.” We should not make any changes to the second amendment, the gun laws. Would you want to defend yourself or someone you love if someone came at you with a gun?

Thank you, Mr./Mrs. President, for reading my letter. I hope you out my letter into consideration. Again congratulations on your new job!

Sincerely,

Hailey A