Inside Marilyn Bragg’s car in Texas: her late husband’s five guns. “I don’t want that at home, I don’t even know how to shoot,” says the retiree before handing them over to the authorities.
In this American state, bruised by shootings, initiatives are multiplying to offer residents a chance to get rid of their pistols, rifles, and semi-automatic weapons, in complete safety.
“I have grandchildren, I don’t want them to have access to that,” insists Marilyn Bragg from the metropolis of Houston, where a long line of cars winds its way, to an arms dump site in fire.
At the end of the queue, drivers are asked to leave their weapons in their trunk or on the back seat, for inspection.
Specialized police then approach and check that the weapons are unloaded and registered.
They often find more than a dozen weapons in the vehicle.
“I think it’s a great program,” says Stuart Wolf, 11 guns in the back of his truck. “There is really no other safe way than this to part with it,” said the sixty-year-old.
A total of 793 weapons will be handed over to law enforcement during the day on Saturday.
In exchange, participants are given vouchers: 50 dollars for a weapon that no longer works, 100 for a rifle, and 200 for a semi-automatic rifle, the weapon used in so many shootings in the United States.
“We already have enough weapons, and there are some that we put down that we don’t need,” says Kenneth Blackmon, alongside his wife, Loretta.
“So why keep them? Get rid of them,” the 69-year-old pleaded, handing over seven weapons. Especially since thefts of firearms are recurrent, and dangerous, he insists.
“Gun thefts have increased 16% over the past 10 years,” said Rodney Ellis, a county official surrounding Houston.
In Texas, shootings are a daily occurrence.
“Since 2009, more people have died in deadly shootings in Texas than in any other US state,” Rodney Ellis said.
According to figures from the federal police, the FBI, in 2020, the state’s violent crime rate – 446.5 cases per 100,000 population – was significantly higher than the national average, which is 398.5.
One example, among many others: a few days ago, a person was killed and three others injured by bullets during an altercation in a shopping center in El Paso, a city bordering Mexico.
The tragedy happened just steps away from where a young white supremacist killed 23 people at a popular Hispanic supermarket in 2019.
Texas will be forever marked by the appalling Uvalde massacre, when an American, just of age, caused a bloodbath in an elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers.
This huge state of 30 million people is also one of the easiest to get a gun.
The carrying of weapons is authorized there without restriction, in the name of the second amendment of the American Constitution.
But for Rodney Ellis, the county official, the framers of the Constitution — written in the 18th century — could never have imagined the modernity of today’s firearms.
“So until we manage to change mentalities and arrive at a reasonable regulation of firearms in this country, this type of initiative is the kind of thing that we have to do.”
02/19/2023 19:46:18 – Houston (United States) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP