“I am furious that these shootings continue, these children are innocent, the guns should not be easily accessible to all”, deplores Lydia Martinez Delgado, aunt of Eva Mireles, teacher shot dead while trying to protect her students of the shooting at a school in Texas which killed 21 people, including 19 children on Tuesday, May 24. “When for the love of God are we going to face the gun lobby?, reacted for his part Joe Biden speaking the same evening, on his arrival at the White House. Do not tell me that we cannot have an impact on this carnage”.
“Too much is too much,” Vice President Kamala Harris got carried away, calling for “action” in the face of gun violence, a national scourge. But Congress remains powerless to legislate despite the tragedies. Because carrying a firearm is a fundamental right, enshrined in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. The powerful firearms lobby in the United States, the National Rifle Association (NRA) created in 1871, ensures the status quo of American law on this subject.
5 million members
Chuck Norris, Tom Selleck, Chris Pratt… The list of NRA members is long. It must be said that if the number of militants registered within the association has never been officially communicated, it is estimated at around 5 million people, for an annual fee of 40 dollars.
In 2018, the washington post calculated that since 2004, the group has recorded an annual average of approximately $128 million in total revenue from its members. But that figure ranged from $72 million in 2006 to $228 million in 2007. Membership revenue apparently spikes when the country is hit by a mass shooting, the US daily analyzes, citing the peak in 2007, for example. year a gunman murdered 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus.
$300 million annual budget
In addition, the NRA would generate an annual budget of 300 million dollars, can we read in The Nation Armed. Guns at the Heart of American Culture, by André Kaspi, historian specializing in the history of the United States. A budget that serves as funds for its lobbying activities with American elected officials. Because if it was indeed created in 1871, the association which was initially an organization bringing together hunters and shooting enthusiasts, got involved in politics from 1975, says TF1 News.
Thus, 5 million are devoted to its lobbying activities as such, according to the organization specializing in electoral financing, Center for Responsive Politics, spotted by The echoes. An envelope which increases considerably during the election period, reaching 420 million dollars in 2016, specifies the specialized daily. In 2018, the New York Times released a list of every member of the US Congress who received money from the NRA.
More than 30 billion dollars to support Trump
The NRA then invests millions of dollars in the campaigns of candidates, particularly the Republican party.
Among them, former Republican President Donald Trump received tens of millions of dollars from the NRA for his two presidential campaigns. A sum estimated at 31.2 million dollars, recalls The world. During Trump’s successful 2016 election campaign, the powerful lobby shelled out $19.7 million to attack Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
A few years prior, in 2012, $16 million in campaign funds were provided by the NRA during the midterm parliamentary elections.
139 million rifles produced in the two decades 2000
U.S. gunmakers have produced more than 139 million commercial firearms over the past 20 years, including 11.3 million in 2020, according to a Justice Department report released May 17. .
71 million guns were imported over the same period, compared to only 7.5 million guns exported, a sign of the flood of weapons available in the country which has fueled a surge in gun violence, murders and suicides, according to the government study.
Between 270 and 400 million weapons circulate in the United States
Despite the multiple tragedies that affect the United States each year, the country remains massively armed. Nearly 90% of the 321 million citizens own a firearm, noted CNN in 2015. Difficult to have a precise figure but several associations against firearms estimate that between 270 and 400 million rifles, pistols and others circulate in the country. In 2013, this figure was estimated at 300 million for 318 million inhabitants, or an average of one weapon per inhabitant.
The Department of Justice report shows that while Americans have a preference for semi-automatic weapons, which are used in many shootings, they have mainly purchased the 9mm semi-automatic pistol, considered cheap, accurate and easy to use and similar to the weapon used by the police.
16,963 firearm manufacturing companies
The arms industry has indeed exploded: while in 2000 the country had only 2,222 active arms manufacturing companies, in 2020, there are 16,963. The annual production of firearms intended for commercial sales also jumped, from 3.9 million in 2000 to 11.3 million firearms in 2020, peaking at 11.9 million in 2016.
The authorities are also faced with an increase in so-called “ghost weapons”, kit weapons that can be made at home for a few hundred dollars and parts of which can be purchased online or produced by a 3D printer. In April, US President Joe Biden tightened the regulations surrounding this type of weapon, with in particular the obligation for the dealers of such kits to carry out a background check on potential buyers or to include a serial number on the constituent parts.
222nd shooting in 144 days of 2022
Since the beginning of 2022, there have been more shootings than days elapsed, according to calculations by The Trace, which defines itself as a nonprofit news site “striving to shed light on America’s gun violence crisis.” Ten days before the school shooting in the town of Uvalde, a racist attack perpetrated by 18-year-old Payton Gendron in Buffalo, upstate New York, shocked America. Ten black people were murdered. On May 15, a man also opened fire in a church in California, frequented by the Taiwanese-American community, killing one and injuring five.
In addition, the number of firearm deaths in the United States recorded a “historic” increase in 2020, potentially caused by the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic and poverty, according to a report by American health authorities published may’s beginning.
The country thus counted 19,350 homicides in 2020, an increase of nearly 35% compared to 2019, and 24,245 suicides, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC). The homicide rate stood at 6.1 per 100,000 population in 2020, a record for more than 25 years.