Firearms are the leading cause of infant mortality in the United States. Weapons – including accidental deaths, suicides and homicides – have been the main cause of the death of children and adolescents since they surpassed car accidents in 2020. That year, 4,357 children died in voluntary or accidental shootings, close to 5.6 per 100,000 children. Since then, the number has not stopped growing. Despite this, there are many who still believe that what must be defended is the second amendment, the right to bear arms. To do this, the National Rifle Association (NRA) held a convention last weekend, during which the boys and girls in attendance could be photographed with assault rifles, pistols, automatic weapons and more.
The United States arms lobby turned its annual meeting this Friday into a campaign event ahead of the 2024 elections, where the main Republican candidates, including former President Donald Trump, participated in defense of the right of citizens to bear arms.
The defense of this supposed right, however, clashes with reality: in just three and a half months, at least 520 boys and girls between the ages of 0 and 17 have lost their lives due to firearms, while 1,262 have been killed. wounds.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) brought together at the Indianapolis convention center, in the state of Indiana, both those conservatives who have already run for President, as well as others who have not yet taken the plunge but that appear in all the pools.
“On the first day of my new term, I will stop Joe Biden’s war against legal gun owners,” said Trump, keynote speaker at the so-called Leadership Forum and a staunch supporter of “people being able to defend themselves.”
In that predicted return to the White House, the former Republican leader pointed out that, in order to protect the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which grants citizens the right to keep and bear arms, he will pass laws that protect “the absolute right to self-defense with federal fines for fiscal abuse”.
“If you put me back in the White House, America will be a free nation again,” said Trump, who accused the Democrats of “destroying the country” and “wanting to take the guns away from the people while they open the doors of jail and free bloodthirsty criminals”.
The NRA meeting was the subject of strong criticism from Democratic legislators, who reproach the top staff of the Republican Party for having attended that event despite the continuous flow of shootings in the country.
So far this year, as of this Friday, according to The Gun Violence Archive, which documents acts of gun violence in the country, there have been 150 mass shootings in the United States, a term that includes a minimum of four people injured. or deceased, without counting the aggressor.
Despite this, the analysis remains just as simplistic, reductionist and dangerous: “There is not a weapons problem. There is a mental health problem, a social, cultural and spiritual problem,” Trump alleged in his speech.
African-American Senator Tim Scott, who on Wednesday announced the creation of an exploratory committee to analyze his options for the 2024 elections, also intervened electronically, as did Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, seen as the main opponent of Trump although he has not yet run.
