The tightening of U.S. gun laws always comes to the fore when school shootings shock Americans. However, there are always strong opponents to tightening demands.
At least 19 schoolchildren and two teachers were killed in a school shooting on Tuesday in Uvalda, Texas. The suspected shooter also died in a firefight with police.
According to CNN, the shooting in Texas was already the thirtieth year of shooting in elementary school or high school in the United States. According to the NGO Gun Violence Archive, there have already been a total of 212 mass shootings this year.
Attention has once again drawn to loose gun laws. President Joe Biden has long called for action to reduce armed violence. He reiterated his demands in a speech on Tuesday night after the Texas massacre.
We listed the main reasons why tightening gun laws in the United States is so difficult.
1. Carrying a weapon is an old constitutional right
The constitution guarantees the right to carry a weapon and to defend oneself and the country with it. This right is not easy to change.
The U.S. Constitution gives the right to keep and carry a gun. The second addition to the constitution was made as early as 1791. It, like the U.S. constitution in general, is extremely difficult to change.
ThoughCo (switch to another service) lists that constitutional law was first tested in 1837. At the time, Georgia tried to ban small arms, but found it unconstitutional. Since then, restrictions have been attempted several times, but arms laws have tightened only to a limited extent. The tightening has affected, for example, concealed weapons and automatic weapons.
The U.S. arms debate often escalates after events that shock the people. According to ThoughCon, the bigger situation was first raised in 1963 John F. Kennedyn after the assassination. Since then, school and mass shootings, among others, have intensified the debate from time to time. Usually, the conversation subsides quickly.
2. Republicans oppose blackmail
Democrats support extensions to arms laws but do not receive the necessary support from Republicans.
The right to bear arms is deeply at the heart of American freedom. Weapons are symbols of freedom in cities but especially outside them.
Republicans are more likely to support Democrats, for example, for people to be able to carry concealed weapons in most places and for teachers and officials to be able to take weapons to elementary schools.
However, supporters of both major parties are relatively in agreement that access to weapons should be restricted to those with mental health problems and that background checks should be carried out.
Foreign policy researcher Maria Annalan according to him, it is currently very difficult for Biden to carry out the reform.
– The biggest problem is that it is now quite impossible to achieve anything in Congress, because the party political situation has reached a dead end, Annala says in a telephone interview.
The lower house currently has a slight Democratic majority, while the upper house again has a slight majority of Republicans.
3. Arms lobbyists are influential
Many decision-makers get to thank gun lobbyists for their position. The National Rifle Organization specifically supports Republican politicians.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) is a major defender of weapons. The association is influencing the election by supporting pro-arms candidates with up to tens of millions of dollars. The organization opposes stricter arms laws.
The association was founded in 1871 to strengthen American shooting skills, but in the 1970s it grew into the most influential lobbyist in the United States.
The NRA is abruptly interfering in the political debate. After three years ago, the then president of the United States Donald Trump advocated a more detailed examination of the backgrounds of arms suppliers, the association strongly opposed it.
4. Not everyone believes that mass shootings will be reduced by cutting weapons
Americans have the most weapons in the world, but only a few believe it is the cause of hundreds of mass shootings.
The guns are mostly owned by whites and men who live in rural and southern states, says the Pew Research Center. Self-defense and hunting are the main reasons to own a gun.
Americans think it’s anything but self-evident that restricting weapons would reduce mass killings. According to the Pew Research Center, only about half believe the restrictions would work. Nearly one in ten believe that there would be even more mass shootings if the availability of weapons were restricted.
When 130 people died in the terrorist attack in Paris in 2015, Trump hinted that the attacks could have been prevented with looser weapons.