Dear Future President,

There is too much shooting happening across our nation that we can’t just brush aside and let it solve itself. We need to intervene now. I suggest that we start with shops that sell guns to the public. The owners need to do a back ground check on customers before they sell a handgun, rifle, etc. to them. They should check for criminal records and medical records to see if they are dangerous enough to not have a gun. If they do this, they can see if they have any mental problems. In Alabama, there was a guy named John R. Houser who had mental issues. In Alabama, you don’t need a permit to buy a gun, so it was easy for him to get one. Even after his wife threw all his guns in the river, he still got more. If the gun shop owner did a back ground on him he would have seen the many charges against him. He would have seen that he hired a man to burn down a lawyer’s office, threatened to kill his daughter’s fiancé, threatened to shoot law enforcement, and even booby trapped his house to cause a natural gas fire. If he seen this he would never have gotten that gun and kill those 2 people at a Lafayette, CA movie theater.

In Chicago, there have been over 500+ homicides so far this year related to gun violence. 13 people were even killed over Labor Day weekend. Even though Chicago is one of the cities with the toughest gun laws, all of this is still happening. There were even 92 killings in August alone. After all of this has happened, Chicago is the best city to start reinforcing new gun restrictions.

I am not saying that we should just disregard the 2nd Amendment completely, just revise it a little. People should be able to have a gun in their possession for self-defense purposes only and nothing else. If someone broke into your home when you are still there or someone is trying to rob you, you should be able to defend yourself with a gun. The bad thing is, for you to be able to claim that it was only in self-defense is if you have a concealed weapon and a permit for that gun.

After all, that I have said in my letter, I want you to think about what could be done about this. In my letter I stated the two sides of this debate. If the public has excess so easily to all these guns, then that means that we should change that. If I haven’t convinced you then you should think back to all those terrorists, homicides, etc. that happened these past years, and maybe that will sway you a little more.

Sincerely,

Brooke R.