Dear Next President,

I am writing to you regarding the very important issue of gun control laws in the United States. The purpose of the following letter is to hopefully either change your mind on gun control or provoke you to work as hard as possible to make what the United States needs to happen, happen. This absence of laws has costed this nation thousands of lives and needs to be changed as soon as possible.

According to a 2016 study by the New York Times gun homicides are as common as getting killed in a car crash in the United States, however in European countries like Germany, where gun owning is more restricted, being shot and killed with a gun is as uncommon as being killed by a fallen object in the United States. Or places like Japan, where gun violence is even rarer, being murdered by a gun is as uncommon as getting struck by lightning, which for an American is about one in 10 million. As a third world country, one would think that we would have stricter laws regarding gun control. We as a country are powerful enough to stop unnecessary violence.

In another study on gun control by Pro and Con there have been 464,033 deaths due to guns from 1999 to 2013, every day, 306 people in America are shot and killed in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police intervention. This statistic is unbelievable and overwhelming. Every day, family members say goodbye to 306 loved ones who were unfortunately the victims of a 225 year old Amendment that has no place whatsoever in this society. This could be your brother, sister, cousin, mother, father, aunt, uncle, grandpa, grandma, son, daughter, colleague, best friend from law school. This could be you. You could be lowered into a dirt pit in a wooden box, the saltiness from your sons tear grasping onto the beautiful white flowers your daughter picked out for you. The last sound you heard was a head throbbing bullet and your only friends will be the termites slowly digging into your cage. Maybe then you’ll realize that trusting a 225 rule that was used when men wore powdered wigs and wooden teeth was a mistake. A mistake that according to The Trace costs the lives of 12,942 people due to gun homicide, unintentional shooting, or murder/suicide.

One could argue that since it is in the Bill of Rights that was written 225 years ago that means it is still relevant to today’s society, right? Wrong. At this time, guns were not very affordable so almost nobody except for probably a government official who most likely has some sort of license to bear arms used a gun. Guns were also not as fatal as they are now, meaning that they were not well made and did not shoot very precisely. One might also think that the United States needs guns because of acts of self- defense. Turns out that only 0.79% of people who used a gun are used in self defense, which was its primary job in the first place. Another stigma about gun control is that it will not stop murders because other weapons such as knives will still be present. And my answer to that is, that it is true, guns control will not stop murders all together, but what people need to understand, is that by limiting the amount of guns available for use, it also limits the amount of people getting killed. It is not a very hard thing to comprehend. So, I hope once you start your term as the President of the United States, no matter who you are, you thank all your voters no matter the race, gender, religion, etc. with the gift of gun control, it could end up saving their lives.

Thank you,

Maggie Martin

10th grade

Mendota Heights, MN