The Right to Bear Arms in America

In the United States, 30,000 people die from bullets each year. A world record! It is ten times the number of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The right to possess and to carry a firearm was put in place in 1791 by the Second Amendment to the American Constitution. More than two centuries later, this right remains inalienable for the majority of the population and firearms continue to proliferate throughout the country. Today, the count is at 300 million, almost one firearm for every citizen.

This free circulation of firearms, particularly of assault rifles and weapons of war, facilitates the committing of terrorist acts and acts by those that are psychologically unwell. Regularly, mass shooting traumatise the country. Newtown in Connecticut, Aurora and Columbine in Colorado or more recently San Bernardino in California and Roseburg in Oregon, each time these tragedies bring the firearm debate back under the spotlight and divide more and more the American people.