With each mass shooting in the United States, like the very recent one in Uvalde, Texas, the reaction process is the same: we make statistical assessments. 300 such shootings have taken place in the past five years, killing 17,200 in 2022, according to a compilation by the Gun Violence Archive. Then, we go to a great so-called explanatory couplet which deplores this cult of firearms, which would come from the mythical Wild West or the sacrosanct Constitution. Americans are said to have a gun culture imbedded in their DNA. After the balance sheet, culture and legislation, we then deplore the inaction of American elected officials.
But our understanding must go further: the bottom line is that this gun cult is an organized phenomenon and has little to do with an eternal DNA. It has to do above all with the phenomenon of American lobbies and with the system of financing political parties.
In the United States, there are no restrictions on funding a political organization […], and only disclosure limits donors’ scope of action. It is an almost cosmetic restriction, the weakest of Western countries…
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has a budget of almost 300 million per year. With this money, she finances senators and parties that are favorable to her. Thus, in 2016, the NRA contributed 54 million to Trump’s election to the White House. A politician like Mitt Romney received 13.5 million during his career, according to a compilation by Agence France-Presse. All these donations are public.
In sum, if US elected officials passed laws restricting contributions to candidates, it is certain that we could then envisage a loss of power of the NRA on American politics and a real gun control reaction. Since these are the weapons that are also found on our streets in Quebec, the question is of interest to us.
To see in video