Dear Future President,

FiveThirtyEight gives the statistics of firearm related deaths, and there are around 12,000 gun related homicides each year. I am writing now because of my immense concern regarding gun control in the United States. The government needs to take action and make it very difficult to get ahold of these deadly weapons, or simply make them illegal. The easy access most people have to firearms raises the amount of killings involving guns, causes more shootings, and raises crime rate. The few reasons that defenders of the 2nd amendment give are very weak, or just inaccurate. The second amendment says "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." which focuses on the idea of a militia, which is defined as “a part of the organized armed forces of a country liable to call only in emergency” by Merriam-Webster dictionary. The definition has it noted as an organized armed force called only in an emergency. The people who make use of the 2nd amendment are not by any means organized, and the United States is certainly not in constant danger as to give reason to allowing everyone to own a weapon at anytime. I intend to address both the reasons as to why there needs to be more gun control, and why the opposition is flawed.

First, the biggest reason for enforcing stricter firearm laws is due to the large amount of killings that are caused by them. Nationwidechildren.org reasearched the amount of children killed by handguns kept in the house and discovered that, ‘Every year, nearly 1,500 children die from guns and many more are seriously injured. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes the best way to prevent firearm-related injuries to children is to remove guns from the home. However, if you choose to keep a gun in the house, it is important that it is unloaded and locked, and the ammunition is stored and locked in a separate location.’ That is a terrifying number of deaths that could easily have been avoided, only if children didn’t get ahold of such a dangerous weapon. In defence to this, many handgun owners claim to be responsible in the fact that they take precautions in protecting their children, either by locking the gun away, or keeping it unloaded. If you’re weaponry is locked in a safe, how likely are you to be able to reach it in time before you’re attacked by an assailant? You’d have to find the safe, and get the combination right in a very stressful situation, and that’s counting on the person that needs it, actually knows the combination and hiding spot of it in the first place. Too many innocent people and children die from guns, while still many preach about how they are they key in protecting ourselves, and the only way they’ll listen is if there are strict laws that they need to obey.

Next, the United States has a horrid number of shootings, especially when compared to other countries. An article posted by The Guardian found that, ‘Data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive reveals a shocking human toll: there is a mass shooting – defined as four or more people shot in one incident, not including the shooter – on five out of every six days, on average.’ That is a disturbing amount of shootings, which is only made worse due to the fact that the United States is a first world country. The United States leads all the first world countries for shootings to an unbelievable degree, having 133 mass shootings from 2000-2014, while all other first world countries had less than 10. The OECD did a study on first world countries’ gun policy and shootings, and made a chart showing that the total number of ‘rampant shooting incidents(2009-2013)’ America’s total was 38, and the country closest to this number was Germany, which only had 3 total incidents. Australia has had guns heavily restricted or banned for many years, and they have yet to suffer a shooting since the ban. Nation Master compared all the crime stats of Australia, a country with a ban on guns, with the United States, where guns run rampant. The stats show that every type of crime is exponentially higher in the United States than it is in Australia. Specifically, the murders with fire-arms per person in Australia are 3, but in the U.S., it’s 32.57, almost 11 times higher than Australia. There is also the claim that you could just as easily use a knife to kill multiple people, but knife wounds are far less lethal than gunshot wounds, as is revealed in a study by the University of Pennsylvania which, ‘Examined 4,122 patients taken to eight Level I and Level II adult trauma centers in Philadelphia between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007. Of these, 2,961 were transported by EMS and 1,161 by the police. The overall mortality rate was 27.4 percent. Just over three quarters (77.9 percent) of the victims suffered gunshot wounds, and just under a quarter (22.1 percent) suffered stab wounds. The majority of patients in both groups (84.1 percent) had signs of life on delivery to the hospital. A third of patients with gunshot wounds (33.0 percent) died compared with 7.7 percent of patients with stab wounds.’ With over three-quarters of the total deaths being caused by gunshot wounds, it’s very easy to see that the mortality rate ratio of firearms and knives are not even remotely close, furthering how if guns were more difficult to get ahold of and people decided to use knives, the death rate would still be exponentially lower.

Finally, crime rate in general is far higher due to the availability of guns to the public. Research conducted by Fact Check states, ‘Homicide data for 2013 don’t give us a clear picture of homicides only by firearm; however, 70 percent of homicides for the year were by firearm. The 10 states with the highest homicide rates were: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, New Mexico, Missouri and Michigan. That lists includes six states that also have the highest firearm death rates.’ This clearly proves that states with high firearm death rates, have the highest homicides rates at well, showing that there is an actual correlation between the number of deaths and guns.

In conclusion, the laws now make it far too simple and easy to acquire a gun. Because of the ease of access to guns, death rates go up, the number of shootings go up, and the crime rate in general goes up. This is an issue in dire need of resolution, that you as the President must address and take action in order to resolve. Supporting the passing of gun control laws, making a new amendment that makes it possible to own a gun only with very good reasons, or that more detailed background checks must be completed before someone could own a gun. Whatever is done, must be done soon, before more innocent lives are lost to ridiculous gun control laws.

Sincerely,

Sydney H

Works Cited

"Australian vs United States Crime Stats Compared." NationMaster.com. NationMaster. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

Becker, Kyle. "If You Look at This Chart of Top 10 Nations in the World for Mass Shootings - One Thing Jumps Out." Independent Journal Review. 01 Dec. 2015. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

Ben Casselman, Matthew Conlen and Reuben Fischer-Baum. "Gun Deaths In America." FiveThirtyEight. 24 Aug. 2016. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.

"Gun Laws, Deaths and Crimes." FactCheckorg. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

"Gun Safety." Injury Research and Policy Gun Research. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

Palazzolo, Joe. "U.S. Leads World in Mass Shootings." WSJ. Wsj.com, 03 Oct. 2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.

"Survival Rates Similar for Gunshot, Stabbing Victims Whether Brought to the Hospital by Police or EMS, Penn Medicine Study Finds." Survival Rates Similar for Gunshot, Stabbing Victims Whether Brought to the Hospital by Police or EMS, Penn Medicine Study Finds. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

Team, Guardian US Interactive. "1,000 Mass Shootings in 1,260 Days: This Is What America's Gun Crisis Looks like." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.