The manufacture and import of weapons have exploded in the last twenty years in a country plagued by the violence of firearms, murders and suicides.
Le Monde with AFP
The attraction of Americans for firearms cannot be denied. Weapons manufacturers in the United States have produced more than 139 million to trade over the past twenty years, including 11.3 million for the year 2020, according to a report from the Ministry of Justice published Tuesday, May 17.
Over the same period, 71 million firearms were imported, against only 7.5 million exported weapons, a sign of the surge of weapons available in the country which has fueled a flambé of violence by Firearms, murders and suicides, according to the government’s study.
The armament industry exploded: while in 2000 the country had only 2,222 business manufacturing companies in 2020, there are 16,963, according to the same Source.
The annual production of firearms intended for commercial sale also jumped, from 3.9 million in 2000, to 11.3 million firearms in 2020, with a peak at 11.9 million in 2016.
increase in kit weapons
The document shows that if the Americans have a preference for semi-automatic weapons, used in many shootings, they mainly bought the 9mm semi-automatic pistol, considered inexpensive, precise and easy to use and similar to The weapon used by the police.
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 some parts can be purchased online or produced by a 3D printer.
Contrary to the weapons produced in the factory, they do not have a serial number and, since they are not considered weapons throughout the sales process, do not require to have a Weapon or submitting the buyer to control of the judicial and psychiatric history. According to the report, in 2021 the police recovered 19,344 weapons called “ghosts”, against 1,758 in 2016.
In April, American President Joe Biden hardened the regulations surrounding this type of weapons, with in particular the obligation for resellers of such kits to carry out an auditorial of potential buyers or even include a number as standard on the constitutive pieces.
“We can face the current outbreak of violence only if we have the best information available and we use the most effective tools and studies to feed our efforts,” said number two of the US ministry of Justice, Lisa Monaco, in a press release. 2>
weekend of violence
The publication of this report occurs after a weekend of acute violence in the United States with two shootings: one of a racist nature in Buffalo in New York State, where ten African-American were killed , and the other in Los Angeles in California where one person died and five others were injured.
The number of fire-by-arms deaths in the United States recorded a “historic” increase in 2020, potentially caused by the effects of the COVVI-19 epidemic and poverty, according to a report by the American health authorities published Last week.
The country thus counted 19,350 homicides in 2020, an increase of almost 35 % compared to 2019, and 24,245 suicides, according to the prevention and combat centers (CDC). The homicide rate was 6.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, a summit for more than 25 years.