An 18-year-old boy opened fire at an elementary school in Texas, USA, killing 21 people, including 19 school children. After this incident, President Joe Biden lashed out at the gun lobby and said that the time has come to stand against this lobby. Gun firing incidents in America have increased rapidly in recent years. The reason for this is believed to be the gun culture there. Buying guns in America is the easiest in the world and America has the largest number of civilian guns in the world.
Buying a gun is like buying fruits and vegetables in America
The history of gun culture in America is about 230 years old. Under the Second Amendment to the Constitution in 1791, American citizens were given the right to keep and buy arms. This culture started in America when the British ruled there. At that time there was no permanent security force, that’s why people were given the right to keep weapons for the safety of themselves and family, but this law of America continues even today.
Gun culture in America is one of the most notorious in the world. It is believed that buying a gun here is like buying vegetables and fruits. There are hundreds of stores, shopping outlets, and small shops in the US that sell guns. Gun exhibitions are held every weekend across America. These guns are sold from the stores of big companies like Walmart to small shops.
Any common man can easily buy a gun in America. There is no investigation in this open transaction of arms. The investigation is done only when the gun is bought from the shop. While purchasing a gun, the buyer has to provide name, address, date of birth and citizenship in a form. The US intelligence agency shares the information of the buyer of the gun seller with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which conducts background checks of the gun buyer.
According to The Gun Control Act (GCA) of America, the minimum age to buy a rifle or any small weapon should be 18 years and the minimum age to buy other weapons such as handguns is 21 years. Not only to buy weapons there, but the seller should also be above 21 years of age.
In America only people dangerous to society, fugitive, intoxicated, mentally ill and sentenced to more than 1 year in prison and more than 2 years are not allowed to buy guns.
US alone has 46% of the world’s civilian guns
America is at the forefront of the world in terms of civilian possession of guns. According to the report of Small Arms Survey (SAS) of Switzerland, out of 857 million civilian guns in the world, there are 393 million civilian guns in America alone. The US accounts for 5% of the world’s population, but 46% of the world’s civilian guns are in the US alone.
According to a Gallup survey in October 2020, 44% of American adults live in a home with guns, of which a third of adults have guns.
There are only three countries in the world where having a gun is a constitutional right. America, Guatemala and Mexico. However, people in Guatemala and Mexico have significantly fewer guns than in the US. Also, there is only one gun store in the whole of Mexico, which is controlled by the Army.
More civilian guns than the population there in America
According to the SAS report, more civilians have guns, ie civilian guns, than the population of America. The population of America is about 33 million and there are about 400 million civilian guns.
There are 120 guns available for every 100 people in the US. In 2011, this number was 88 guns per 100 people. Yemen is second in this matter after America, where 53 guns are available for every 100 people.
According to reports, from January 2019 to April 2021, 7.5 million adults in the US bought a gun for the first time. With this, guns reached the homes of 11 million people in America for the first time, including 5 million children. During this period, half of first-time gun buyers were women, while about 40% of guns were bought by blacks.
Gun culture becoming deadly in America
According to reports, more than 1.5 million people have died in the past 50 years due to gun violence in America. This number is more than the total number of soldiers killed in all wars of America in the last nearly 250 years since America’s independence in 1776.
According to the report of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on average 53 people die every day in America due to gun. According to this report, 79% of murders in America are caused by guns.
