Les Américains et leurs armes

The toll claimed each year by gun violence in the US has been a source of growing concern in the past decades—but the debate on gun control is still in a deadlock and the legislation remains quite permissive. This is often explained by the power of money in American politics. Such an explanation, however, bypasses the fact that the visceral attachment of an active minority to “the right to bear arms” is consistent with the mainstream ideology shared by a majority of Americans. Studying the rhetoric of the NRA as well as the response of public opinion and the evolution of the gun control movement, this paper aims to show that, even though public awareness has been raised by the series of recent rampages, the right of the Americans to possess firearms, including handguns, remains as unchallenged as ever

Criminology · Deadlock · Gun control · Ideology · Legislation · Mainstream · Political science · Politics · Politics of the United States · Power (physics · Public opinion · Rhetoric · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Gun Ownership and Violence Research · History · Law