Dear Next President,

Hello future president, my name is Vince, and I am an eighth grader at a school in Northeast Ohio. Our country’s gun control laws aren't good enough to save children in schools. Thousands of children in school die from mass shootings, and the gun control laws that we have today aren’t able to stop crazy adults or children from getting guns. We need our gun control laws improved, from better background checks to needing a permit to purchase a gun.

Too many people are dying every day from guns. Everytownresearch.org states that on average 91 people die from guns each day. In that number of deaths, 7 children and teens under the age of 19 are averaged to die everyday from guns. Imagine finding out that your child has been killed by a gun in school. Parents shouldn't let their kids have a gun or tell them where they keep a gun. I'm sincerely asking you to make it harder for people who shouldn't be allowed to have a gun have one. We need better background checks on consumers and make background checks mandatory to buy a gun at gun conventions and online. Background checks do work, between 2015-2016 almost 3 million guns weren't allowed to be bought by prohibited people. If we continue to improve our background checks, that number will rise.

I believe in the Second Amendment, and I agree that guns should be allowed for citizens. Some citizens shouldn't be able to get one because of their mental state. Gun safety is also very important, in 2013, 505 people died from accidental firing. I'm asking you to make gun training and safety mandatory for owning a gun.  

Kids shouldn't have to go to school every day worrying that someone might have a gun. The fact that we have so many lock down drills in schools should be a sign that we need to fix this problem and not go around it. I hope that you can think of this letter next time you are in a meeting or giving a speech.

Thank you, Vince