Letter to Legislator

08/07/2021

From: [Sender Name]

To: Alejandro Mayorkas

Secretary of Homeland Security

The United States Department of Homeland Security

2707 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE

Dear Sir:

On behalf of concerned citizens, I write to express people’s serious concerns concerning the Gun Control Act that is failing to resolve the issue of gun violence that prevails in the country. Legal possession of firearms among United States citizens has been a controversial subject for the longest time. The United States is the most armed nation worldwide, with 270 million guns being owned by its citizens (Kleck, 2017). Despite the gun policy guaranteeing citizens the right to possess guns, several restrictive gun laws have been imposed on firearms distribution and possession. Certain groups of people, including the mentally unstable, criminals, and soldiers who have been dishonorably discharged from the military, cannot possess guns. I support laws that prioritize keeping guns out of the wrong hands as much as possible.

A law that is linked to gun policy in the U. S is the Gun Control Act of 1968. The long title of this law is “An Act to amend title 18, United States Code, to provide for better control of the interstate traffic in firearms.” This Act is one of the United States Federal laws entitled to regulate firearms ownership and the firearms industry. It was implemented in October 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson (Polan, 2017). In the federal laws, it is Title I. Gun Control Act was modified in 1993 to introduce background checks and included a list of people prohibited from owning firearms.

I feel that the last thing a populace should have uncontrolled access to is a firearm. What is ironic is that with all of the talks some gun advocates make regarding the ease criminals have acquiring guns despite “tougher gun laws,” they do not seem to realize that a significant factor in why criminals can obtain guns so quickly is because the rest of the population can as well. The Gun Control Act fails to reduce violence, and many gang members do not fully register their firearms (Harris & Tarchak, 2019). Although legal possession of firearms may protect many people’s lives, its drawbacks outweigh the significance, and I think one major change is to remove the Gun Control Act from the Constitution.

I am advocating for the removal of the Gun Control Act from the Constitutions due to several reasons. Owning guns has increased the number of deaths and nonfatal injuries in the county. Over the past few decades, there have been several discussions on whether gun usage has been within written laws standards. This has been due to the countless tragedies being tied to firearm usage. Mass shootings and school shootings have increased since many people own and possess firearms. Therefore, the Gun Control Act has not been effective in lowering the incidences of violence, and restrictive laws against the possession of firearms can be useful in preventing more deaths. Also, legal possession of firearms has led to more crimes, and the Gun Control Act has been ineffective. This is because many cases of violence are reported across the country, even with the Gun Control Act. From the Brady Campaign 100-point scorecard, Illinois was ranked among the strictest states with gun control laws. In 2017, Illinois was ranked among the top thirty cities with the highest homicide rates (Winkler, 2018). For this reason, restrictive the Gun Control Act is not an effective mechanism for solving violence since criminals do not operate on the laws of supply and demand.

The first ten constitutional amendments, the bill of rights, outline inalienable rights. These are not rights that the government grants the people, but instead natural rights that all citizens should enjoy unless they lose them via due process of the law for grievous breaches of others’ rights. The second amendment should be removed from the Constitution to allow citizens who have not had their rights removed due to either being a convicted felon or mentally incompetent to defend themselves, called prohibited persons. This is necessary because the United States police have a duty to protect the people. Legal possession of firearms means that the police do not have jobs to do since American citizens can protect themselves from using guns. This is wrong; the police always want to protect the citizens, and if they happen to be around when a crime is committed, they will. Furthermore, they must be at a crime scene or arrive there on time. So, allowing the legal possession of firearms would leave many people as subjects to criminals’ whims. Furthermore, the CDC states, offenses from defensive guns often occur more than any other crime since criminals steal guns from gun shops and from those who legally possess them (Kleck, 2017). Thus, it will be a wrong move if people are allowed to possess guns legally.

In conclusion, I think that guns mean organized warfare, which causes more damage than in the pre-gun era. Guns mean revenue for a few and loss for many- especially those who lose loved ones, lose body parts, or become disabled. The government can never fight violence with violence, but with active ways to combat violence- and certainly banning guns would go a long way in that direction. However, everyone’s guns would have to be taken away, not just a few- including the law enforcement agencies and the armies. The government can also prevent many murder and gun violence incidences if new laws on restrictions of guns were imposed. To come to the point of ending the conflict, there is a need for an end to arms and open dialogic possibilities and collaborations for peace in the world for everyone. It is also better to address the actual problems that trigger violence. The easy way to have a quick and dramatic drop in violence would be to end the war on drugs. A large portion of gun violence is related to gang activity and the drug trade. The best solution is also to educate people that murder is wrong under all circumstances, and killing should only be done in self-defense or war or as a necessity of the state to kill serious criminals. There is a need to get people to not want to be violent to stop violence from happening.

Sincerely,

[Name]

[Title]

References

Harris, R., & Tarchak, L. (2019, November 11). Discussing Guns in America Is Difficult. Let’s Try It. from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/opinion/gun-control-laws.html, Accessed November 30, 2020.

Kleck, G. (2017). Point blank: Guns and violence in America (First Edition). New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Winkler, A. (2018). Is the Second Amendment Becoming Irrelevant? Indiana Law Journal 93(1), 253.

Polan, R. B. (2017). The Context of Violence: The Lautenberg Amendment & Interpretive Issues in the Gun Control Act. Brook. L. Rev., 83(1), 1441.