Dear next president,

In the past couple of years, there has been a rise of the controversial topic of gun control and even possibly the ban of them. The right to bear arms is a right given to us by the Second Amendment that reads: "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." Banning guns goes against the Constitution, and it was made so that we the people, have rights that the government shall not interfere with. With the increasing number of mass shootings, people are pointing their fingers at the gun. Guns do not kill people. People kill people. A gun cannot pull its own trigger. Would you want the First Amendment taken away from you?

According to www.pbs.org, only 8% of the nation’s legally purchased guns are used in any type of crime including theft, murder, etc. By banning guns, the common citizen will obey the law but criminals won’t. Tell me again how criminals follow laws? That means 92% of legally purchased guns are not used in the mass shootings that you hear on the news. If you ban guns, citizens who are law-abiding will be defenseless against the criminals who either kept their guns or smuggled them in from other countries. What makes you think that criminals won’t get guns when they can still get drugs? If you are at home with your family and someone breaks in and threatens your whole family with a gun, what are you supposed to do? Beg for your life? If you had a legally purchased gun you could save your life and your families. With the world wide terror alerts at a high, popular locations such as malls are a big target. If someone comes in shooting with a gun, a citizen could shoot the terrorist and save many lives that would otherwise be lost.

Now many people are using the argument that ever since Australia banned their guns, they haven’t had a mass shooting. According to http://reason.com/archives/2016/03/22/australias-gun-buyback-created-a-violent when the government order the turn in of the citizens guns, only 20% were given up to authorities. The police also admit that there is indeed a black market that they cannot eradicate that is bringing in guns from other countries. According to Australia’s The New Daily Australia has had an 83 % increase of crimes that include firearms from the year 2008 all the way to the year 2015. According to www.wsj.com Switzerland, Norway, and Finland has the most mass shootings per capita compared the U.S and all three of those countries banned guns from citizens. This is proof that maybe banning guns might not stop these mass shootings from occurring.

To whomever the next president may be, please protect our rights as American citizens. We need to uphold the Constitution that are wonderful country was built on. It says that these rights “shall not be infringed”, and people are trying to get them taken away. Banning guns will not solve our problems. When alcohol was banned during the Prohibition, people still got alcohol! Not one amendment should be taken away or altered in anyway. How is that fair? Our country is based on a government that doesn’t fully control us, and we need to keep it that way. The people need to be able to protect ourselves from our government. We shouldn’t be controlled by it.