“Our country’s gun laws are, and have been, working well,” was the infuriating and stomach-twisting statement one of my peers tested in a class debate on whether or not our country is in need of stricter gun laws. If the U.S. believes that our gun laws have been “working well”, we’re saying the countless number of lives a gun took away so quickly meant absolutely nothing.

Gun control, unfortunately, has become an obvious necessity to our country that suffers from tens of thousands of lives lost annually and approximately 100,000 survivors a year whose lives are forever changed by a gun that was too easily placed in the wrong hand. Not to mention the significant amount of lives affected by their loved ones who are victims of gun violence.

New York Times claims 74% of gun owners in the U.S. believe “the right to own a gun is essential to their freedom”. Any law-abiding citizen deserves the right to own a gun to protect themselves, their family, and their property, but, according to Giffords Law Center, since “between 1955 and 1975, the Vietnam War killed over 58,000 American soldiers- less than the number of civilians killed with guns in the U.S. in an average two-year period,” it has become obvious that our country is basically crying for change. Between marches and speeches, through social media and through writing like this, the people couldn’t have made it more clear that we are suffering and scared. If only the people that have the power to put our words into action would listen, maybe the countless innocent people that died because of a gun would still be here today. When will the people be heard and when will the, what seems like endless debate, finally resolve?

I, a concerned 14 year old girl, go to school everyday knowing the possibility of being shot while trying to get an education. This shouldn’t be a concern of mine, or a concern of anyone else in our country, so I write this in hopes of a better tomorrow, and hopeful that Trump, will in fact, “make America great again”. Our country needs to make our background checks more regulated and make the gun show loophole illegal so that criminals and mentally ill people can’t say, like how a national survey of inmates claimed, that “getting a gun was as easy as buying a beer”. Our country has an average of one mass shooting a day in which four or more people were murdered or injured. After Australia’s 13th mass shooting over the span of 18 years, they said “enough”. When will our country FINALLY have enough?