Dear Mr/Mrs President,

I am writing you to address the fact about gun control/violence. In today's society, guns are free and almost anybody can have access to them. According to Gun Violence Law Center, “In 2010, guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings”. 31,000 innocent Americans lives were took just because of one gun. These numbers are ridiculously high and need to be brought down. If our country doesn't bring down the number of deaths by guns, we could be in for some serious trouble.

In the past year, multiple fatal shootings have occurred. These acts of violence are making a huge mark on our country. Teens and adults are scared to leave their homes everyday because of these dramatic incidents. They are affecting more and more people everyday as these gun laws get weaker and weaker. People are starting to be more scared as the day goes on because they can't even share their own opinions without the frightening thought that someone will disagree and go to extreme lengths with it. Some of the most recent shootings occurred because they didn't agree with some others decisions.I always thought that you should get to speak your mind and be confident with it. What's the point of living in a country with freedom of speech if you have a chance of getting harmed when you do? If gun laws are tightened then more people will get the opportunity to speak their voice and their mind. People should be allowed to do what they want without having to get judged and possibly get harmed for it.

One of the main reasons adults/teenagers/children use guns is for suicides. Guns are in fact one of the most common weapons people use to kill themselves with. More than 60 percent of people in this country who die from guns, die by suicide (NYT). It is a huge and very common problem that will drastically get bigger if change doesn't occur in the near future. "The firearm suicide rate has increased more than 13 percent between 2007 and 2013" (Brady Campaign). This means that the number of Children and adults killing themselves are increasing everyday. The only other common death for children are accidental injuries including traffic accidents and drowning incidents. This issue is being dramatically overlooked and treated with much disrespect. If our next president makes these laws stricter, the suicide rates can go down. There won't be as much people harming themselves leading to a better community as a whole.

Gun violence is a major issue in the United States. On average, 91 Americans are killed due to gun violence every single day. Although there are now background checks put in place for people seeking to purchase firearms, it is still very easy for these weapons to get into the wrong hands. It is almost November, and the next president is going to be elected into office very soon. It needs to be her/his top priority to take precautionary measures to keep citizens safe. Although background checks are needed in some states in U.S. to buy a gun right now, the laws definitely need to get stricter. There are many states in the U.S. that do not require background checks. Only eight states in total (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington State) require checks before they purchase any firearms, and still they are not through enough to ensure a safe place for Americans. Anyone in the U.S. regardless of his or her background will eventually be able to have the privilege to own a gun. Everyday more and more lives are lost just because guns are so easy to have in their positions. It is unacceptable that this is occurring in the U.S. If we want a stronger and safer society, we need to eliminate the things that make our country so weak. We not only need to eliminate handguns for example, but weapons that can have a much bigger impact, including machine guns.

Please Mr or Mrs President, help solve this awful issue going on in our country. Although gun violence is a very complex issue facing the United States, we must start to make the citizens feel more secure and safe in their own country. When it comes to a human's life, not a lot of risk should sacrificed. Making penalties for the people who abuse guns and creating better background checks, can get our country back on track. If the numbers keep getting higher and higher, our country get risk great loss. Everyday thousands of lives are lost just because of a small firearm that could easily get eliminated. By creating safer and better background checks we can solve this horrible problem.

Thank you,

Amia Kharitonova