Gun Control - facts and figures

What do you know about gun control in the US?

Weapons have played a major role in US history. They are also visible everywhere in films, TV series, video games and public places.

The US still has a strong tradition of individualism. Even today, a number of Americans are still suspicious of centralized power and do not trust the Federal government. Possessing a weapon is a way of protective oneself against an oppressive state

Even if the number of people who possess weapons is decreasing, the US still remains a very rural country with a formidable culture of hunting and shooting. A vast majority of Americans believe that carrying a weapon is an inalienable right inscribed in the Constitution by the Founding Fathers, and thus sacred.

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution stipulates: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

However, the interpretation that the 2nd Amendment gives people the right to bear arms to defend themselves and hunt is in fact recent. The ambiguous phrasing of the Amendment has caused many debates about whether it really guarantees an individual right to bear arms. Until the 1960s, it was understood as a collective right reserved to local militias created by the States in the 18th century. But in the 1970s, conservative allies of the powerful gun lobby, the NRA, imposed another interpretation: for them, the word “people” means “citizens”, so the Amendment grants every individual to right to carry a weapon.

In 2008, the Supreme Court confirmed this interpretation (in District of Columbia vs. Heller) when it struck down a ban in Washington DC on individuals having handguns in their homes.

So now, the debate is about how broad this right is and what restrictions are legal under the Constitution.

To think that the right to bear arms is unlimited and an absolute right like the right to vote, is wrong. There is a great number of gun control laws in the US, but they all vary from state to state.

The right to bear arms is recognised in 44 of the 50 US State Constitutions. The law specifying that each state can decide for itself is quite vague. Some states, like Texas and Virginia, are quite flexible as regards this issue, while others, like Maryland and New York have laws that restrict the right to carry a weapon in many cases.

The most common restrictions are the background checks (= an act of reviewing confidential information to investigate a person’s history, more precisely his/her criminal record and mental health = “vérification des antécédents / de casier judicaire).

Legislation regarding the open carry of handguns varies by state; local governments can enact regulations banning guns in a specific area within its jurisdiction, as long as management posts signs alerting patrons to the rules.

Open carry is far more restricted than concealed carry: more and more states are authorizing individuals to carry a gun on the condition that it be concealed.

It is estimated that over 300 million weapons are in circulation in the US, which equals about one for each inhabitant.

Surveys show that fewer and fewer Americans are favourable to laws controlling weapons, they say in the name of their individual rights.

The government seems powerless to do sth about this phenomenon and is most often reduced to taking positions.

In 2013, Obama failed to win support in Congress for tougher background checks for gun purchases and new limits on assault weapons.

What about gun control in the UK ?

In 1997, after the Dunblane massacre (a school shooting in Scotland where 16 children were shot dead), handguns were banned / prohibited. Britain passed a law requiring civilians to surrender almost all privately owned handguns to the police. More than 160,000 handguns and 1.5 million pounds of ammunition were "compulsorily surrendered" / handed in to the police for destruction by February 1998.

And the statistics bear that out: the number of per capita gun murders in the US in 2012 - the most recent year for comparable statistics - is nearly 30 times that in the UK, 2.9 per 100,000 compared with just 0.1. Of all the murders in the US, 60% were by firearm, compared with just 10% in the UK.

What about gun control in Australia?

In Australia, after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 in which 35 people were killed, the Australian government subsequently introduced the National Firearms Agreement — legislation that outlawed automatic and semi-automatic rifles, as well as pump-action shotguns. A nationwide gun buyback scheme also saw more than 640,000 weapons turned in to authorities. Gun-related homicides decreased 7.5 percent per year following the reforms, while firearm-related suicides have also fallen.