Dear Next President:

My name is Noah Emry and I am a junior at West Albany High School. I have a couple of concerns about gun and gun control policies, specifically background checks and banning guns. America needs to stop banning guns and make background checks more efficient so the good people can have protection and the bad people won't be able to use guns for violent crimes.

This is a big concern to me because I would like to be a gun owner in the future and if all the guns are banned I won't be able to own one. I've also seen in the news a man purchase a gun who had openly pledged to Isis on Facebook.  This simply can not happen if we want to keep America safe. Especially if the good people can't have a gun to protect themselves from these bad people. The only way to keep this spectrum balanced is to make background checks better. This way the people who are good and can use guns for good can have a gun and the people who are going use guns for violent crimes won't be able to get a gun as easily as they can now.

An example of bad people being able to get a gun too easily is in the article in The New York Times by Drew Atkins titled "Man Charged With Murder in Shooting of 5 in Washington State." Atkins states, ”He was charged three times with domestic violence against his step father. After one episode in December, a District Court judge in nearby Island County told him that he was not allowed to have a firearm." Arcan Cetin, a three time domestic violence offender was able to get a gun and kill 5 people. This is simply unacceptable and proves that there is an obvious gap in the background check process.

I have a couple of ideas I would like you consider. First and foremost all guns sales online should be illegal especially on sites such as Craigslist and Ebay. The government also should provide a free gun safety class that is required to purchase any firearm. Another good way to stop bad people from buying guns is to require an exam by a doctor to make sure the person is in a good physical and mental state to own a gun. Background checks should also check all of the social media sites the person is on to make sure they have not said anything that makes them at risk of terrorist acts. And of course if they have any violent crime on their criminal record they should not be allowed to purchase a gun.

I truly believe that guns can be a major help for protection and security. I also believe however, that guns become very dangerous in the hands of the wrong person. This means that banning guns is not the answer but making the background check process stronger and more reliable to keep guns out of the wrong hands, and into the good hands, is. Thank you for taking your valuable time to read my letter.