Dear President,

                 I, as a U.S. citizen under 18 may not be able to vote, but I can still make an impact on how my country is ran. So, I ask you, HOW are you going to deal with controlling purchasing and usage of guns? Well, I think there should be background checks on ALL guns. I have MAAAANNNNNNNYYYY (many) reasons for this but I am going to tell you 3 if you keep reading.

               My first reason for this is that most school homicides are done with weapons. More specifically,  in 2013 there were 59 DEATHS and 124 non-fatal gunshot injuries. (everytownresearch.org). If I was president I would want all students to feel safe on school properties, and to not feel threatened. But, If there was  background check on guns, less people would have them, and it would be safe people, so the risk is a lot fewer. Also, if students don't go to school they won't get a good education. If many students feel threatened this can seriously affect the economy because they will not get good jobs. This will lead to a decrease in the GDP per capita, which is NOT good.

             My second reason is another safety issue, and needs to be addressed. This is that people are selling guns illegally. This can cause other things like school shootings, as I mentioned earlier. Did you know over 500,000 firearms are sold illegally each year? Well, if we had background checks on guns this number would reduce drastically. Also, selling guns illegally would lead to lots more homicide, or murder, or even more mass murders...

              My third and last reason is  very important to me as I frankly don't want to die. This reason is that mass murders are done by guns. And, to top that off 31% of the World's mass murders occurred in U.S. in only 2016, so far. So, if we had background checks criminals couldn't get guns legally OR illegally. This would then reduce mass murders, which is POSITIVE news. Also, to reduce it even more there could be gun-free zones to not just limit mass murders, but to make people feel more safe.

            All in all, I think that there should be background checks on guns. I don't think this is a hard request. Also, there could be no negative result, so why not do it. I hope you agree with me, and read this letter. Thank you.

                                                                                                 Sincerely,,

                                                                                                               Natalie M.