To the next President of the United States,

I want you to know that as an American citizen, I am concerned about the mass shootings in America. I see many of these mass shootings in the news, that show these shootings happen at the movies, malls, and even schools. But I’m mostly concerned with assault weapons used in these shootings because half of these types of guns were used in 62 mass shootings (Barret). So please future President, I believe it’s best if you were to put more enforcement on assault weapons.

Despite the fact that handguns are more commonly used to kill Americans by 74% out of the many other ways to murder Americans (Speiser), and handguns are easier to obtain and lighter to carry, but I can reassure you future President, that mass shootings with assault weapons kill more people than random killings with handguns. Especially, since the mortality rate rises by 63% and the injuries by 156% when assault weapons come into play in mass shootings (Barret).

Furthermore, many citizens in this country, as much as 56% in a Pew Research survey, agree that assault weapons should be banned (Barret). So the majority of the population in this country will admire your actions of banning assault weapons. And in case you’re worried about more laws on assault weapons, only 0.79% of victims out of 29,618,300 crimes protect themselves with a gun (Barret). Moreover, even less when they protect themselves with an assault weapon, thus it is not necessary to keep assault weapons because very few citizens take the second amendment into their hands.

In addition, for the rest of the remaining citizens who disagree about assault weapons to be banned, you can show to these people of how dangerous assault weapons are, by continuing raising awareness about this. You can emphasize how these types of rifles can kill more people than it should when they are used, which can cause massacres. For example, Jonathan Lowy, who is the director of Legal Action Project at Brady Center, said "These are weapons that will shred your venison before you eat it, or go through the walls of your apartment when you’re trying to defend yourself… [they are] made for mass killing, but not useful for law-abiding citizens” (Barret).

Therefore, future President, I am convinced that by making assault weapons harder to obtain, you can help save many lives since it will lower the amount of mass shootings or even prevent them since these guns are commonly used in mass shootings.

Dilara O.