Gun violence in the USA

Last week, fourteen persons were shot in California. Unfortunately, slaughters are not uncommon in the United States of America. Indeed, the United States of America is the fifth country in the world with regard to the number of homicides with guns. We may wonder whether the right of the second Amendment to carry a gun is a good thing, or a dangerous thing for the American society. We will enhance this argument by referring to three documents. The first one is an article published two months ago in The Times about the debates concerning gun control. We also have two videos: one from AJ+, a branch of Aljazeera TV, and one from teleSUR English, an independent media. They give us details, testimonies and figures about gun violence in the United States of America. To understand the various debates concerning gun control, we are going to show the current facts about gun violence in the United States of America, and then we will show the bills.

The number of gun owners around the world is estimated at 650 millions. Of these 650 millions, 270 millions are American. If many Americans affirm that their weapon is just an object for self-defence, a minority of gun owners questions the right to bear arm. Indeed, we cannot fail to take into account the fact that the United States of America has the fifth most important rate of gun homicides. In 2013, twenty-six persons, including young children, were shot at Sandy Hook, a school in Connecticut. This kind of events gives us a lot to think about: is the right to buy an arm a measure of protection or does it intensify the danger? To buy a gun (or any weapon) is very easy in the United States of America, even if gun laws vary according to the state. Josh Karrasch, boss of The Gun Dude, a weapons shop, explains that buying a gun in Virginia is a very simple process. When a citizen wants to buy a weapon, he just has to write a little information about himself (name, address, age, weight, history). Moreover, there is a loophole in the system and some people can buy a gun without giving this information. In the United States of America, there are ninety guns for everyone hundred citizens, and different studies show that gun violence and gun ownership increase together. Tina Wilson-Cohen, shooting instructor, supports the idea that you should have to learn shooting before buying a weapon. This idea is indeed defensible: too many accidents happen because too many people have not practice enough. The shooting instructor is right when she compares shooting to driving: it is irresponsible to use a gun when you do not have learnt shooting, just as it is impossible to use a car when you have not learnt driving.

Tina Wilson-Cohen, like many Americans, would like to put in place gun laws in the whole country. Indeed, slaughters are provoking more and more anger. Each time several innocent people die but there is no change. Of course, forbidding completely the right to bear an arm appears unthinkable because this right is in the second Amendment of the Constitution, and also because some lobbies are really powerful. But, we have to consider also the fact that the authorities do not inform citizens well about gun alternatives and crime figures. A recent poll showed that seventy percent of the respondents (508 persons interviewed) did not knew or believe the official figures which say that a gun owner is twenty-two times

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