Alissa Millar

Ms. Gardner

English 10H/ Period 6

12 November 2016

Dear President-Elect Trump,

The United States of America: land of the free, home of the brave, but are we safe?

33,000. That is the annual number of deaths alone in America resulting from gun violence,

whether it be mass shootings or suicides or homicides or accidents (Casselman et al). When compared to

other countries of similar incomes, most gun deaths occur in the U.S. (Preidt). Simply put, most people

can easily obtain a gun here; in fact, in the majority of states it is 100% legal to purchase a gun with no

background check at all. As a result, the threat of gun violence excludes no single American. We need

stronger, sounder, securer laws to control the gun ownership and usage in our country if we want to

escape this path of self destruction.

The Second Amendment reads, 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. Our nation ratified this policy

in 1791, 225 years ago. Despite all of the changes and progress our country has made within that time,

many people still hold onto the Second Amendment as a way of justifying the possession of firearms,

their use for self defense, and the ideation that more gun control will not improve homicide or suicide

rates. The fact is, with the colossal amount of technological advances weve made since 1791, keeping

gun ownership well regulated has become considerably more complicated, and in many aspects, like

background checking, we have fallen behind. In addition, less than one percent of victims to violent

crimes have used a gun to protect themselves (Gun Control), and areas with more suicides often times

have a higher availability to guns (Brady Campaign). The mindset that we can only be safe from guns in a
perfect world holds us back tremendously. So I ask you, President-Elect Trump, will you try to loosen our

grasp on the past? Will you lead this country in a step forward? Will you change our perspective? Will

you honor victims of past violence to protect your present and future citizens?

Of course, it may never be possible to end to gun violence altogether; however, we cannot let this

stop us from taking action, especially to prevent suicides. Suicides make up two thirds of all gun deaths in

the United States (Casselman et al), and almost 50% of all suicides are by firearm (Suicide Statistics).

Because of the abundance of suicides in this country, no one can deny that most people feel its weight at

some point in their lives, from an acquaintance, a loved one, or themselves. We can prevent these tragic

events, though, and gun control could drastically change these heartbreaking statistics. Studies conducted

by the Brady Campaign show that states with the highest suicide rates also have gun ownership rates

higher than the national average, while they show the opposite for states with a lower than average gun

ownership rate. It would be absurd, given these statistics, not to put gun control in effect, even if only to

prevent suicides. We cannot ignore this research. We must try.

I was just 11 years old when a man shot 12 people and injured 58 in the Aurora movie theater

shooting, my first memory of a mass shooting. Obviously our nation is doing something wrong if just

going to the movies ignites fear in a child. The fact that the shooter legally purchased the firearms he used

even more obviously points out our faults. Sadly, this was not an isolated incident; more than three

fourths of all guns used in 62 mass shootings since 1982 were purchased legally, according to Mother

Joness A guide to Mass Shootings In America. Over half of these shooters used high capacity

magazines or assault weapons, only banned in about eight states. When paired with the data that most of

these killers had shown signs of mental illness before the events, the fact that they legally purchased

firearms at all frightens me even more. Not only do we need to debate if military capacity weapons should

be available to the public, period, but we also need to insure that the background checks we impose are
effective and mandatory under all circumstances. As said in proverbs 28:26, those who trust in

themselves are fools, we must not rely on blind trust, but on assured security.

President-Elect Trump, we do not put our troubles in your hands, rather we join our hands with

yours. Together, peace is possible, tangible, visible. I do not ask you to take responsibility of the violent

crimes that rack our past, but to take responsibility of moving forward from them. So please, do not let

guns control our country, let our country control guns.

Sincerely,

Alissa.

(word count: 801)

 Works Cited

"Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence." The Link Between Suicide and Guns | Brady Campaign to

Prevent Gun Violence. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2016,

http://www.bradycampaign.org/the-link-between-suicide-and-guns

Casselman, eta l. "Gun Deaths In America." FiveThirtyEight. N.p., 2016. Web. 27 Nov. 2016,

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gun-deaths/

"Gun Control - ProCon.org." ProCon.org. N.p., 28 June 2016. Web. 27 Nov. 2016,

http://gun-control.procon.org

Preidt, Robert. "How U.S. Gun Deaths Compare to Other Countries." CBS News. CBS Interactive, 3 Feb.

2016. Web. 27 Nov. 2016,

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-u-s-gun-deaths-compare-to-other-countries/

"Suicide Statistics AFSP." AFSP. American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 2014. Web. 27 Nov.

2016, https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/

Note: I am aware that we were supposed to use signal phrases for any statistics, but I did not in most of

my video, my mistake; however I felt it ingenuine to add them into my letter after filming. I did not want

to take others research without crediting them, and that is why I have added the parenthetical citations for

the data without signal phrases.