Dear Future President:

Murder, one of America’s most crimes that has been committed. The question is is killing others right? The answer is no. No, it is not ok to kill another person.

First of all, on average, there are roughly 16,500 murders committed in the United States each year, the most common motive of murder is to cause fear onto someone you know or multiple people that they know. Killing innocent people causes fear in everyone's mind, or at least it should cause fear. The sad thing is 47% of the murders in the United States are done by someone the victim knows, loves, or is close with or loves. That’s one of the reasons murder needs to be stopped.

Also, murder is usually committed with a weapon of some sort. In the last five years, 68% or all murders have been committed with firearms. This is a huge problem that ties into another topic, gun and weapon control which created the Gun Awareness Act. This act created laws about keeping your firearms locked away to prevent killings. There was also a hotline created called the Homicide Prevention Hotline, this hotline can help you talk to someone who will listen to you and try to help you feel you’re in danger.

Lastly, murder is a crime that has many different degrees of punishments. Some of the charges of murder that are mentioned on the FindLaw website, First-degree murder: an unlawful killing that is both willful and premeditated, meaning that it was committed after planning or "lying in wait" for the victim. Second-degree murder: an intentional killing that is not premeditated or planned, nor committed in a reasonable "heat of passion"; or a killing caused by dangerous conduct and the offender's obvious lack of concern for human life. Sometimes if you commit a murder or multiple murders, you might receive the death penalty.

The bottom line is murder is a very serious crime that has very serious consequences, and I think the government needs to be more involved to make this country safer and harm free. I hope you take my thoughts about this issue into consideration to help make this country a better place.

Sincerely,

Katie Smith