His wife, Jill, beside him a moved Joe Biden, implores America: "When for God's sake are we going to face the gun lobby?" In Texas, an 18-year-old killed 19 children and two teachers on May 24. This mass killing, which causes 0.13% of firearm deaths, revives the recurring debate on gun control. “It is time to turn pain into action,” added the American president. Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, immediately expressed concern about a "politicization of the debate", denouncing calls to "attack the Second Amendment from law-abiding citizens".
According to a study by UCLA and Harvard, a shooting causes a 15% increase in gun law proposals within a year. Mainly to make the conditions more flexible. For its supporters, the bearing of arms is above all a constitutional right provided for by the second amendment. The "National Rifle Association" and its 4 million members also put forward, in addition to the historical argument of a nation based on the armed conquest of territories, a slogan: "How do you stop a bad guy with a gun? With a good guy armed with a gun. Finally, according to her, each year, the arms trade brings in 8.5 billion dollars and creates 10,000 jobs.
Its opponents, like Michael Moore and his famous documentary Bowling for Columbia, denounce a correlation between the circulation of firearms and shooting murders. They also regret the large number of weapons in the United States, estimated at nearly 300 million. According to the “Small Arms Survey”, a Swiss think tank, American citizens own 40% of the world's civilian arms stock. Finally, opposition to the influence of a lobby like the NRA finds a significant audience in the Democratic electorate, which has traditionally favored greater regulation.
Legally, the Second Amendment of the Constitution provides that "a well-organized militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms must not be infringed". For the detractors of the carrying of weapons, only the "militiamen" could therefore carry a weapon and not every citizen, which his supporters strongly reject. In 2008, the Heller Supreme Court decision clarified that "the Second Amendment protects the individual right to possess a firearm unrelated to militia service and to use that firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as home self-defense.
However, criminals and the mentally ill cannot wear them, adds the Supreme Court. Possession of a weapon is also prohibited near certain places, such as administrative buildings. At the local level, however, the legislation differs. Some states openly liberalize the carrying of weapons, such as Texas in 2021, which allows anyone over the age of 21 to carry a weapon in public places, without a permit. Conversely, other states have, for example, banned the manufacture of weapons with 3D printers, to fight against "ghost weapons", without serial numbers and therefore almost untraceable.
To combat this phenomenon Joe Biden has tightened the regulations on the purchase of spare parts, subjecting them to the same requirements as the weapons already mounted. In 2019, the president then campaigning, promised to restore the ban on assault rifles, applied from 1994 to 2004, this time accompanying it with a buy-back program in order to "rid" the United States of these "weapons of war". A decision applied and then suspended by the courts in California.
"The possession of firearms is a cultural fact", deciphers André Kaspi for Le Figaro. On the side of the pro-weapons lobbies - therefore on the side of the Republican Party - it is unthinkable that we can limit the freedom to possess weapons”. In addition to a partisan division, the subject deeply divides the United States. Thus, Barack Obama, despite a majority in Congress, failed to modify the law. During his second term, no less than a hundred bills were refused.
To pass a law, a majority of 60 votes out of 100 is necessary but the Senate is shared halfway with the Republicans. Moreover, some Democrats are not unfavorable to the carrying of weapons. Moreover, the adoption of such a law would no doubt be challenged before the Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority. Joe Biden can therefore only modify the right to bear arms at the margin and by decree. The debate on the carrying of weapons therefore remains open.
