Dear Future President,

In 2015 there were 372 mass shootings in the U.S., that wounded 1,870 and killed 475 people. Guns are very dangerous weapons. Some countries forbid citizens from having guns, but some countries allow citizens to have guns. In the United States, people can buy a gun with ease and a small amount of money. This causes a lot of casualties. What is alarming is that the number of shootings are increasing every year. Gun control is a very big and important problem in this country. President Obama tried to fix this problem, and in this presidential election, the two candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton say they want to control this problem too. The problem of gun violence and mass shootings are very serious in this country so we should control gun sales and try to get back guns from people.

There have been a lot of mass shootings in the United States and many innocent people were killed. Some of these mass shootings even happened in schools. According to the BBC, there were 64 school shootings in 2015. “This number includes occasions when a gun was fired but no-one was hurt." (bbc.com). In 2016 there have already been 428 mass shootings. Do you know there has not been a mass shooting in Australia in 20 years? That’s because of the strict gun laws in Australia. Why don’t we do that? The mass shootings are increasing every year and the numbers of people who die in these shootings are huge. From 1966 to 2012, nearly a third of the world's mass shootings took place in the U.S., while the U.S. has 5% of the world's population, it had 31% of all public mass shootings. (cnn.com) In the recent shooting in South Carolina, a 14 year old teenager shot three people on September 28, two students and one teacher. One of the students was a 6 year old boy who was killed by a brain injury two days later. (fox8.com) This shooting happened recently, this can show that the gun problem is really serious in this country right now. According to the law, people who are under 18 can't get a gun, so the problem in this shooting is how did a 14 year old teenager get a gun and drive to the playground and shoot people?

It’s too simple to buy a gun in the United States. In some states people can buy a gun easily in a store with very little money. In the United States, “licensed gun dealers are prohibited from selling handguns to people under the age of 21 and rifles and shotguns to people under the age of 18” (NBCnews.com) . However, according to the Law Center, unlicensed sellers can "sell, deliver, or otherwise transfer a long gun or long gun (a rifle or shotgun) ammunition to a person of any age" (NBCnews.com). Almost any citizen in this country can easily buy a gun from either a licensed and unlicensed gun seller, even some criminals and terrorists. Also federal law does not require gun owners or purchasers to get a license or restrict the open carrying of firearms in public (NBCnews.com). According to NBC news, a customer can walk out out of a store with a rifle for just over $100 or a handgun for as little as $200. It is too easy for bad people to get guns now, almost anyone has the ability to buy them because it’s so cheap. All of these reasons contribute to the shootings in America. People in this country are frightened because the gun policy is so weak and ineffective.

Some people may think that guns can protect them from bad people, however some people use guns to do bad things. The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states: “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”. It gives the people the right to carry a gun (pbs.org). However, the Second Amendment was written in 1791, that was over 200 years ago. Things are different now, back then people need to own a gun to protect themselves and people needed guns to hunt. But now we have a different environment, we don’t need a gun to protect ourselves, we have police to protect us. Guns are very dangerous for ourselves and for other people. Some people think that if they have a gun they can protect themselves, but the truth is the gun related incidents actually involving self defense is a very low percentage. Usually people will use guns to do bad things.

People are frightened. Gun control is a very important issue right now. The government needs to take back all the guns from people’s hands, even police officers. No one should have a gun, it is not safe for the people who have guns and for the people around them. Except the guns that used in army. This will help this country to be more secure and to make people who live here feel safe. This fight might be difficult to accomplish this but it’s worth it to make this country a safer place to live.

Sincerely,

Wenjun