Dear Mr. or Mrs. Future President,

I am an eighth grade student who is attending a Catholic middle school in northeast Ohio. I am writing you this letter to inform you on the importance of more gun control laws. Gun control laws should be strongly enforced in The United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated in 2013 that the nation had more than 33,000 firearm deaths. 70 percent of them were homicides (11,208), more than half of them were suicides (21,175), and hundreds of them were accidental and unsolved deaths. You can help change America by strongly enforcing the gun control laws. Creating and passing a new law can help you enforce the gun control laws.

Many mass shootings have occurred in this country over the past year. The Mass Shooting Tracker calculated that there were 372 mass shootings in the US in 2015. 475 of the people were killed, and 1,870 were injured. This is because criminals are getting a hold of guns and using them to harm others. In the period of 2005-2010, at total of about 1.4 million guns were stolen during burglaries. This will keep happening if the gun control laws are not enacted.

Also, most guns used in shootings have been purchased legally. Mother Jones magazine calculated that 82% of guns used in mass shootings have been bought legally during the past 30 years (1982-2015). This means that these guns and many more have been bought from a store or gun show. It also shows that background checks are not thorough or not being done at all. Having more thorough background checks can limit the amount of deaths in the US.

I am not asking to change the Second Amendment. All that I am asking is to advance background checks, and to not let people sell guns to others from gun shows or online. These are two easy things that can change America forever. You can make America a better country by enforcing the gun control laws.

I am enforcing this issue because I am in a school setting everyday. I do not feel perfectly safe in my school anymore because the shootings in schools have increased greatly over the past year. A shooting could eventually happen at my school if the gun control laws are not enacted. Could you imagine being a young child sitting in a classroom and hearing a gunshot in the hall, or even in your own classroom? Would you feel safe anymore? This is where you can help me and many others who do not feel safe at their school anymore.

People who want to advance background checks won’t be able to change it completely. You are the only person who can enforce background checks and the gun control laws. You can offer to support background checks and the people who believe in them. You can create a law to help advance background checks. You are the only chance that America has on advancing background checks and gun control laws. I hope that you can take this to consideration. I know it can help America become a better place.

Thank You,

Kate