Dear Future President:

     I am a 16-year-old girl living in West Virginia, and I believe we Americans deserve the Second Amendment. Please don’t take it away from us. Guns make us feel safe, and they’re our form of protection. If you take away guns from Americans, they will feel as if they do not have any form of protection against the government. Taking our guns away from won’t stop crime. Criminals don’t care if they obtain guns illegally anyway; therefore, it wouldn’t stop them from what they’re doing. In fact, according to gunfacts.info, 93% of the guns used in crimes are obtained illegally. If we think banning guns or creating stricter gun laws will help we are wrong, because -- according to procon.org --Mexico has the strictest gun laws in the world and they had 11,309 gun murders in 2012 compared to our 9,146. Strict gun laws tend to be very racist aiming toward the people living in poor black communities

     A Harvard study found that the more guns in a nation the less crime there is. Gun sales have gone up in the past 20 years, and the homicides with firearms has gone down 39%. By not making guns illegal we are preventing crimes. Guns are used 80 times more to stop crimes than to commit crimes. If we all could carry guns then we would be able to protect ourselves from attackers. Criminals would be less likely to pull a gun on someone if there was a high chance of the surrounding people carrying a gun. Being able to carry a firearm would not only prevent possible shootings, it can help prevent other crimes too. Infowars.com says women in the US use guns over 200,000 times a year to protect themselves from sexual crimes every year.

     Guns can be used for more than crime. People assume all they do is kill; however, they are used for shooting sports. This is a form of entertainment for people all across the country. This sport teaches the correct way to use firearms and bows. Shooting sports is beneficial to our nation because it helps prevent incorrect and unsafe gun use. Guns are also used as a tool to get food. Nearly 14 million people hunt each year. Some of these hunters hunt for food to feed their family, for it is cheaper than buying from the store. According to nhfday.com, hunters brought in more revenue than Google did for the year of 2012. Clearly guns aren’t beneficial for just gun owners because they help the government too. Americans need to start looking at the pros and the cons of guns. They hear a few bad things about them that may not even be true and assume they’re bad for the United Sates.