Dear Next President:

My name is Parker Nicholsen and I am attending West Albany High School. In the United States gun control and gun policies are big right now especially with the election coming up in November. Stricter gun control will only anger Americans, and this could lead to possible problems in the future. Most Americans love having guns and if you take them away, they will still buy and sell guns, it will just be more illegal.

These gun control laws will only anger Americans and force them to get more guns sooner than later. The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The government could try to take away our guns but it would just have people lie about if they have guns. My family owns guns and I know they will not go down without putting up a fight for their guns because we use them for sport but also for protection from any intruders. Guns can also help stop criminals from breaking into your house, or car. Knowing that you might have a gun or hearing a gun cock will frighten an intruder. My father has had my brother and I go through what we would do if an intruder came into our house so we could know how to protect ourselves or each other, whether that means we use a gun, a knife or anything we have to, to stay alive and make sure we are both safe.

The government can not just ban all firearms because stated in the second amendment to the constitution it says, “ A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The government does have the power to ban certain types of guns. Some types of firearms the government would love to ban are the “Assault Rifles” which have a detachable magazine and have a pistol grip. Most all weapons that I have seen or own have a pistol grip and a detachable mag. This means that most guns could be put under that category “Assault Rifle”. Growing up with family and friends that have guns makes it hard for me to agree with all the gun protests that happen all over in our country. However, assault rifles are not very reasonable for home defense because of the high capacity mag which means it has between 30-100 rounds per mag and because it has a very high caliber which means that it can penetrate walls very easily and could possibly lead to unwanted damage to the home or to the neighbors. Pistols on the other hand are very good for home and self defense because of the small caliber and the ease of storing one of these guns. Pistols normally have either a 9mm caliber or a .45 caliber so they will not go through walls and cause any unwanted casualties.

Firearms like assault rifles and other high caliber rifles should be harder to obtain for the average citizen. The reason that they should not be banned it because they do have a use in sport like speed shooting and other competitions where those types of rifles are necessary, but even at those kinds of events they should have a background check for everyone who attends this event to prevent the stealing of one of these very deadly weapons in the wrong hands. Small caliber firearms should be a little harder to obtain but should still be relatively easy for a normal citizen to get a hold of especially for means of self defense or for the defense of their family. As the next President you should make laws to make it harder to get “assault style” weapons for the average citizen.

Sincerely, 

Parker Nicholsen