Dear Future President,

In the court case McDonald v. City of Chicago in 2010, the supreme court ruled that the second amendment applies everywhere. It applies to the states, and as well as federal jurisdictions. America needs its guns. We need them for our protection. As much as we wish gun regulation would work, it won’t. It just simply won’t.

If there was a way for nobody to have guns, I’d be all for it, but there isn’t. It’s impossible. Here is why: the only people gun regulation/gun bans would affect are law abiding citizens. Drugs are a prime example; they’re illegal, yet everyone and their mother can get their hands on them. So why would guns be any different? We would be worse off.

Criminals would be the only ones with access to guns, and innocent, law abiding citizens would suffer. Chicago is a great example. Chicago has some of the most gun restrictions in the U.S., and yet, it has the highest gun related deaths in the country(ijr.com). It’s not even close. In the month of August, Chicago alone had over 400 people shot and at least 78 homicides. This year, Chicago recorded more homicides and shooting victims than New York and Los Angeles combined, according to the Chicago tribune. New York has three times the population of Chicago. Los Angeles has nearly 1.3 million more citizens than Chicago. That is very alarming.

Gun control just makes the jobs of rapists, robbers, murderers, and the mentally deranged easier. Criminals rely on people who can’t defend themselves. A family from Loganville, Georgia was lucky enough to have had a gun to save themselves from an intruder with bad intentions. The mother and her 9 year old twins were trying to fend off near the attic but the intruder wouldn’t back down. The burglar was said to be carrying a crowbar. Luckily, the mother was able to get to her gun and shoot the burglar five times according to cbsatlanta.com. What if the mom didn’t have a gun to go to? Luckily, we will never know. But if she hadn’t been allowed to or was stopped from purchasing her gun, there would have been a very different outcome. In another incident in Phoenix, Arizona, according to The Associated Press a 14 year old boy who was babysitting his younger siblings shot an intruder who had broken down their front door and was armed. Luckily the boy shot him before he could do anything.

Now, I’m not saying we should have access to every gun because there are reasonable restrictions we should have. The average citizen, or any citizen for that matter, shouldn’t have assault rifles that are rapid fire and can shoot off more than 20 rounds without reloading. There is no need for that. You don’t need an assault rifle to protect your family or shoot a deer. The only people that should be allowed to use those types of weapons are those in the military. Respect the second amendment, but ban assault rifles.

So, Mr. or Mrs. President, will you protect America’s right to bear arms? Will you continue to let us, the people, defend ourselves from rapists, murders, or burglars? The facts are there. The statistics are there. We need our guns, and we’re safer with them than without them. Criminals don’t follow laws. So why would anyone in their right mind rely on gun regulation to do anything good for them except restrict them from defending themselves from those who see themselves above the law?