The sensational data has consolidated over time: in the United States there are more weapons than people in circulation. Faced with an event like the shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which caused the deaths of at least 19 children and two adults, this is where any analysis must start. Because it is evident that any manifestation of imbalance, the expression of a discomfort, of a personal or social problem, with a weapon at hand potentially becomes the occasion for a massacre.
Already in 2015, an analysis by the Washington Post based on data reported by the Congressional Research Service (1998-2009), the manufacturing and import / export data (2010-2013) and the US Census, it was clear that the number of civilian weapons (357 million) clearly exceeded the total number of the American population (317 million). In other words, as early as 2013, the United States had more firearms than people.
The data update shows an increasing sales trend, which has seen a real boom in the years 2020/2021, marked by the pandemic and social tensions related to the race for the White House, which saw the current president Joe Biden prevail over Donald Trump, culminating in the assault on Capitol Hill. In addition to Texas, which has always been the state with the greatest presence of weapons, recently sales have concentrated on the southeastern coast (Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina), Minnesota and Maryland.
From January to March 2022, according to the report of the Nasgw observatory quoted by armimagazine.it, the arms market in America substantially had the same turnover as the average of the first quarter of the last three years; in fact, it is settling on slightly higher levels than in the two-year period marked by covid-19. The turnover of the first quarter of 2022 is substantially equal to the three-year average (-1.05%), heavily influenced by the last two years: with 780.15 million dollars, the increase compared to the numbers of 2019 is evident. 20.47%) compared to the first quarter of 2021 which closed with € 980.96 million collected. The market has therefore absorbed the leap in quality of the last two years.
There is another particularly significant fact. The ammunition market continues to grow decisively, which in the first quarter of 2022 was worth 114.92 million dollars, + 23.03% on last year (93.41 million) and even + 53.76% on the three-year average (74 , 74 million). It means that in the United States weapons are not only bought but also used. And always more frequently.
The words used hotly by President Joe Biden reopen a debate that cyclically returns to question parties, public opinion and consciences in the United States. The president calls the Texas elementary school massacre “another massacre” and calls for stricter gun laws because it is “time to act”. Biden wonders: “How many dozen children, who have witnessed what happened, see their friends die as if they were on a battlefield? As a country we must ask ourselves: when, in the name of God, will we oppose the lobby of weapons?”.
The question takes you back in time, to a culture and a tradition that no one has really managed to scratch. And we must start from the Federal Constitution of 1789, in particular from the second amendment. “The Second Amendment gives citizens the right to bear arms” (Bill of Rights, 1789). That approach is based on the conviction that weapons are not only defense weapons but also a guarantee instrument for citizens, enabled to rebel, obviously with the use of arms, in the event that the government does not respect them. There are, in the second amendment, all the layers of the dross of European colonialism and the spirit of the struggle for American independence.
But we are not just talking about history. The second amendment of the American Constitution is still today the factor that legitimizes the arms industry, the lobbies it expresses and also the conviction of a large part of the electorate and, consequently, the connivance of politics.
Anyone who has been to the United States knows how easy it is to walk into a store, or even a supermarket, and walk out with guns and ammunition. It is much more difficult for anyone under 21 to have access to a club and it is much easier to lose your driving license for a simple traffic offense. Laws differ from state to state, but there is a federal procedure that must be followed. Basically, to buy a firearm in a store, you just need to fill in a form, with your personal data and a self-certification on the criminal background, the use of drugs and your mental health condition. A preventive check follows with the databases of the Authorities and the go-ahead for the sale arrives. The same procedure, however, jumps in the sale between private individuals and also in the fairs that are regularly held in many States.
In short, there is a regulatory vacuum that is added to a cultural setting, to a speculation that has deep historical, political, social and economic roots. The result is the continuous updating of crazy massacres, such as the one that just happened at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
By Fabio Insenga
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