A minor skirmish

A minor skirmish

This document is an article, whose author we don’t know, issued in the Economist on March 17th 2018. It is entitled “a minor skirmish” which means a minor fight and deals with the NRA wanting to sue Florida for banning arms in the State, this is why we can say the title is ironic and an attenuation because arms are a topical and very controversial subject in the United States.

After a man killed 17 people in Florida, President D.Trumps declared that selling arms to minor wasn’t responsible and raising the legal age limit for gun ownership was necessary, and most Americans agreed with that. But a week later, just after the NRA gave their opinion, he changed his mind. The president turned over his coat and must have been corrupted. By now the NRA is suing Florida because they believe banning arms violate the 2nd and the 14th Amendment, which are inalienable.

Most American citizens have no objection to ban weapons to minors because they think they are still immature, more likely to be mentally unstable or tigger-happy. One of the NRA’ S argument is that banning arms could affect women. In fact they are responsible for fewer shootings and apparently need more protection, the NRA claimed that it would be unfair to take away their right to self-defence. The NRA seems to be losing in court, however gun ownership is part and parcel of American history so even if they lose the case it’s almost hopeless for the population to change the way they live. And even if the NRA fail in Florida other States still are gun-rights activists. In the States of Kentucky there is 1.34 weapon pair citizen.

To conclude we can say that banning guns is a double edged decision, the government will have to weigh the pros and the cons. This article remind us that the NRA has been successful plenty of times in the past and in addition to this they “wagering (...) that popular sentiment for tighter gun laws will wane as soon as the most recent massacre recedes from memory” which means that as soon as the previous bloodbath will be forgotten everything will come back to normal. In other terms they seem to be really pessimist about the situation, to disarm the population won't be an easy task.

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