Dear future “Savior of America,"

I feel the movement on gun control is a futile effort. For example, this can be seen when Chicago issued a ban. As guns became difficult to obtain, many more guns started coming across the border. The ban only stopped Chicago residents from obtaining forms of self defense, leaving them unarmed all over the streets of Chicago.  Many guns used in crimes are no longer traceable due to the fact that their serial numbers have been scratched out and aren’t legible.

Similar to the war on drugs, if we ban gun ownership from the general public, more often than not, criminals will have their hands on it and getting it illegally. The same concept can be applied to guns. The US government went about the drug war all wrong. The best way to have done it is to treat it like we do alcohol, by limiting it to a certain amount.

Another way to get our hands on rifles is to make them ourselves. This can most commonly apply to the AR-15. When it comes to most rifles in the US, we tend to think the entire gun is registered to the owner when for any gun with two separate receivers. Only the lower receiver is registered leaving the upper to be tossed around like a game of hot potato. Now with new and improving technology, regular civilians like you and I could produce a rifle. Now some people can get their hands onto, which is 80% finished. Any government agent will tell you that “technically” that would be a block of aluminium. But any gunsmith will tell you that that’s an unfinished lower receiver. Many tools can be bought to help with the finishing of it. Combining this with a trigger mechanism and a upper receiver will result in a “Ghost Gun."  These rifles are all untraceable by the government and are by all means illegal. 

If we ban guns, we leave law abiding citizens' lives in the hands in criminals and gang members. 

 -Ben Nguyen