Dear President,

This letter is regarding a very important issue-gun violence. Being a first world country, one would think that the U.S would be free of unnecessary violence, that we would have no fear of getting harmed because of hate, and that our gun laws would be very strict. But really? Is that what the reality is? The total homicide rate of this country is 5.3 per 100,000 people whereas in Australia it is 1.1, Germany is 0.6, Japan is 0.3, and Canada is 1.5. (cbs.news). Gun violence has become more and more common, especially in the past few years. So far this year, 465 people have died from mass shootings all around the country and a lot more were wounded. (massshootingtracker.com). Isn’t it embarrassing that being first in the world we can’t enforce gun laws? We can’t defeat violence. We should more strict our existing gun laws same for every state. Guns should be prohibited for everyone except for the police.

Guns are getting into the hands of the wrong people, not everyone who is a criminal has a criminal background. Whenever you talk about gun control in your speech and interviews, you always say that people who are on the terrorist watch list shouldn’t be allowed to purchase a weapon. How can you guarantee that any person is not a terrorist? Or doen't have a criminal background. When someone is buying a gun, you aren’t there with them to ask them why are they buying this weapon. In 2015, Dylann Roof, a white man, shot 9 African Americans in a church. Who knew he was a terrorist? This gun was given to him by his father. (huffingtonpost.com). 

Another example of this is the murder of the Imam, in Queens. This summer, a leader of the Muslim community and his assistant were killed. This was a hate crime and a very terrible act of violence done by Oscar Morel, a 35 year old man from Brooklyn, using a gun. (nydailynews.com). People release their hate by committing such horrible crimes and why won’t they? When they are allowed to do so. Therefore, gun laws should be restricted, they should be illegal for everyone from any background, except for police.

Furthermore, weapons are too accessible nowadays. People have access to guns through many different ways and almost anyone can buy a gun. For example, the internet has opened new ways for people to purchase or make any weapon. According to Joshua Eaton, Last year, “a reporter at Wired Magazine built his own semiautomatic assault rifle with parts and equipment he bought online”. (hub.3dissue.net). So there are many accessible ways for people to purchase any weapon online or offline. Therefore these websites which sell these products should be closed for all ages.

Some people might argue that gun control laws don’t need to be restricted. There are already enough gun policies and yes I agree that we have very specific laws for owning all types of weapons but yet they aren’t strong enough to prevent one from owning a weapon to kill innocent people. For example, when a person is buying a weapon the FBI has three days to complete his/her background check and if it takes more than three days the person can buy that weapon. Therefore I claim that the law should change. The FBI should have a week at least for the background check.

In conclusion, guns should be prohibited for everyone in every state except for police because they are being used for racist and violent purposes by random people. Shootings are happening everywhere, even in churches, schools and malls. Guns are being used as toys. There are too many legal ways through which people can access weapons. These ways should be closed so we can avoid violence. It’s very important to address this issue now and ban guns. I hope that as President of this country you will end this suffering .

Sincerely,

Faiza