USA, national production of firearms tripled in the last 20 years, with over 139 million destined for the domestic market, in addition to 71 million weapons imported from 2000 to 2020
The data are contained in the first inter-ministerial report ever made in the US on the ‘plague’ of firearms, by cross-referencing statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Attorney General’s Office, the Deputy Attorney General, disseminated in recent days by the Justice Department and relaunched by the media after the massacre in a Texas primary school, with a toll of 20 deaths.
The document, a true war bulletin, highlights on the one hand the growing attraction of Americans for firearms and the equally growing ease of obtaining them on a market flooded with weapons of all kinds, even ‘do-it-yourself’. On the other hand, the government report records a boom in homicides, at the highest level in the last 25 years.
In the last two decades, US manufacturers have produced 139 million weapons intended for trade, of which 11.3 million for 2020 alone, in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic
During the same period 71 million Weapons they were imported, compared to only 7.5 million exported, further increasing the quantity already available on the US market.
Strong growth in production went hand in hand withexpansion of the US armament industry, where the number of companies operating in the sector has been multiplied by 7. In 2000 there were 2,222 companies dedicated to the manufacture of weapons while in 2020 the government registered 16,963. As a result, the annual production of firearms for commercial sale has grown significantly, by 205% in 16 years, from 3.9 million in 2000 to 11.3 million in 2020, with a peak of 11.9 million recorded in 2016.
In addition, the document photographed the preferences of Americans regarding weapons, which fall on the semi-automatic rifles of the type AR-15, although they have mostly bought automatic guns 9 mm, considered cheap, accurate, easy to use and similar to the weapons used by policemen.
In fact only three days ago the author of the massacre in the Texan schoola student 18 year old from the Uvalde high schoolposted photographs of two on his Instagram account semi automatic rifles type AR-15, one of the two weapons used in yesterday’s carnage. In what sounds like a tragic omen, a few weeks ago the WEE1 Tactical company put on sale a Junior model, the JR-15, presented as “the same weapon as dad and mom”, priced at $ 389.
One of the most worrying conclusions of the government report concerns the boom of so-called “ghost weapons”, that is, kit weapons that can be manufactured at home, costing a few hundred dollars, and with some parts that can be purchased online or even produced with a print. 3D.
Unlike the factory-made weapons, they do not have any serial numbers as they are not considered as such throughout the sales process. Furthermore, they do not require possession of a license to carry firearms and those who buy them are not subjected to any checks on their judicial records or psychiatric disorders. The government report reported that in 2021 the police recovered 19,344 kits of “ghost weapons” against 1,758 in 2016.
Last April the president Joe Biden has tightened the regulation on their sale, inserting the obligation on the part of the resellers of these kits to verify all the previous history of potential buyers and to insert a serial number on the various parts to be assembled. “We can cope with the current surge in violence only if we have the best information available and if we use the most effective tools and studies to support our efforts,” said Lisa Monaco, number two of the US Department of Justice.
In fact, a recent study by the health authorities has shown a “historic” increase in the number of death from firearms in the United States in 2020, potentially caused by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and poverty. According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), 19,350 homicides were recorded in 2020, marking a 35% increase compared to 2019, and 24,245 suicides.
USA, murder rate of around 6.1 per 100 thousand inhabitants, the highest in the last 25 years
In addition, on several occasions the organization Violence Policy Center, in the fight against gun violence, denounced a boom in the marketing of manufacturers for young Americans, with the offer of a wide range of strong colors ranging from pink to metallic purple, lighter and more manageable. The advertisements for weapons aimed at young people use symbols, illustrations and images marked by ‘street culture’, very direct and very compelling.
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