Joe Biden has made the prevention of “mass shootings”, these killings which regularly afflict the United States, his hobbyhorse. The administration of the American president announced on Thursday August 31 a strengthening of the regulation of the firearms trade in order to oblige sellers to verify the profile of buyers. The regulations issued by the Department of Justice aim to close loopholes in a law enacted in June 2022 following a series of deadly shootings.

These rules are meant to clarify the definition of persons “involved in the dealing” of arms. Today, federal law only requires background checks of the approximately 80,000 registered gun dealers. However, many weapons are acquired outside specialized stores, on online sales sites, from individuals or on stands at fairs. Sellers who thus often escape the legislation, on the grounds that the sale of weapons is not their main activity.

Under the new provisions, anyone who profits from the firearms trade will have to acquire a license that will require them to check the criminal and psychological backgrounds of their buyers. The New York Times called it “the broadest expansion of gun background checks in decades.”

“Combating the epidemic of gun violence”

The new legislation also increases control over the trade in collectible guns and in theory allows the government to better track the journey of registered guns from one owner to another.

“It’s a matter of common sense, because we know that background checks are one of the best tools available to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals,” the White House spokeswoman said. , Karine Jean-Pierre. The Biden administration “will continue to do everything possible to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our families, our communities, and our country apart,” she said.

The Democratic president has promised to fight for a better framework for weapons, but he comes up against the opposition of conservatives, fierce defenders of the constitutional right to have weapons, who oppose any significant legislative tightening. The new law should not come into force for several months, even if Joe Biden says he hopes for rapid application.

The United States has more individual weapons than inhabitants, partly because of the ease with which Americans have access to them. One in three adults owns at least one weapon and almost one in two adults lives in a household where there is a weapon.

This proliferation goes hand in hand with a very high rate of death by firearm in the United States, without comparison with that of other Western countries.

According to the NGO Gun Violence Archive, which documents these deaths, 44,374 people were killed by firearm in 2022 in the United States, with a slight decline this year, to 28,793 deaths for the first eight months of 2023. suicides account for nearly 55% of firearm deaths.