Dear Steve Cohen,

Greetings, we are two high school students from Tennessee, Curie, and Romele, who have gone through a mass shooting in Tennessee. It was traumatizing and absolutely heartbreaking. People running in all directions, screamings and shriekings, bullets shooting through the air like heavy rains, and ponds of blood; recalling the memories from that day was beyond dreadful. Being the fortunate ones from our friends and relatives that have survived, we see the urgent need to help more people and lessen the danger by enhancing the gun control laws in Tennessee. We understand that you stand for gun control, therefore we would like to propose some of our solutions regarding the gun situation in Tennessee. A total of four, spoken from our hearts. The first two solutions include background checks for all weapons and an age and capability limit for gun owners, and the latter two include the ban on deadly weapons and permit requirements for gun purchasers. We sincerely hope you can consider some of these solutions. We rely on you to make changes to our Loveland.

First and foremost, imposing a background check for all weapons. Although Tennessee requires licensed firearm dealers to submit background checks on all gun purchasers, the gun loopholes in the Tennessee gun laws allow people who have a possession of guns to not go through the licensing process as background checks are not required for private sales. Tennessee’s annual firearm homicides have reached 434 deaths in total, with the annual firearm suicide total climbing to 675 deaths. This dangerous situation can definitely be reduced via imposing a stricter background check because many of those deaths come from the unlicensed gun owners who obtain a gun unrightfully. Secondly, Tennessee should also impose an age and capability limit for firearm owners. Although licensed dealers are prohibited from selling handguns to anyone under the age of 21, and selling rifles and shotguns to anyone under the age of 18; however, the gun loophole in the Tennessee gun laws again allowed virtually any law-abiding citizen over the age of 18 to purchase an assault weapon, as well as keeping firearms loaded in his/her personal vehicles whether or not he/she has a handgun-carry permit (legislation passed in 2014). This blurry and indeterminate age and capability limit for gun owners display a big threat to the public’s safety. In addition to the already dreadful situation where people who did not go through the proper processes and evaluations to owning a gun owns a firearm, they can now even take away someone’s lives at any time, since they can keep it loaded in their personal vehicles.

We were also thinking that the banning of deadly weapons and the requirement of a permit before the purchase of a firearm would be beneficial for the safety of the Tennessee people. Firstly, the ban on deadly weapons. Many mass shootings happen as a result of the availability of these deadly weapons. But before we go into this solution, we would first need to know how to define deadly. By deadly, we mean any weapon with the capability of killing multiple people before even reloading. A pistol is a weapon designed to kill but compared to the capabilities of an assault rifle, it pales. In Nashville, Tennessee, on April 23rd, 2018, 3:23 AM, a man named Travis Reinking approached a Waffle House and opened fire with an ‘assault-type rifle’ killing four people. Fortunately, he was detained but paying attention to the details of this case, the gunman used an assault rifle which fits the definition of ‘deadly weapon’. Due to the availability of assault rifles in Tennessee, acts of violence like this are possible. Banning deadly weapons might be a way to end the violence by stopping the deaths of innocent Tennesseans. Another solution that we think would prove to be helpful is the implementation of having a permit before the purchase of guns. According to Bustle who have reported on the state laws of Tennessee regarding guns, there is currently no requirement of having a permit before purchasing a weapon. A gun permit is a license that allows people to carry a gun. People who have gun permits have to go through a process which makes sure that they can carry a gun responsibility. The fact that you don’t need to have a permit in Tennessee to purchase a firearm is a scary thought since it basically means anybody can get a weapon without getting screened for potential dangers. We may never get over what happened many months ago. So, please Mr. Congressman, we don’t want anyone else to go through what we went through. Thank you for your time Mr. Congressman, we are looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank You,

Curie and Romele