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One of the key issues on US voters’ minds during the upcoming midterm elections will be gun control. Around 40,000 people die from gun violence in the country each year. After every mass shooting, the same questions are asked about whether to restrict access to weapons. In the weeks following the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Congress managed to pass a bipartisan bill on gun control. The Uvalde shooting is now pushing Democrats to field candidates for local office, but they face a highly divided electorate in Texas. Our correspondents Pierrick Leurent and Valérie Defert report, with Wassim Cornet.
Flowers, toys and crosses by the hundreds: for more than five months, the grounds outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas have become a memorial for lives taken too soon. On May 24, an 18-year-old gunman entered the school and killed 19 children and two teachers, leaving a community reeling. The assault rifle used in the massacre was an AR-15, purchased legally. As the midterm elections approach, Uvalde, the third-deadliest school shooting in US history, has reignited the heated debate over gun access.
Despite the tragedy, the pro-gun Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is opposed to gun control. He is running for a third term. During a meeting with Democratic candidates, parents of victims of the Uvalde shooting express their anger and frustration. One of their demands is to raise the legal age to purchase an assault weapon from 18 to 21. As for Javier Cazares, he lost his daughter Jacky that fateful day. After the shooting, he decided to run for local office.
The threat of ‘ghost guns’
But in Texas and across much of the country, gun culture isn’t going anywhere. Darwin Boedeker, an entrepreneur, has been collecting rifles since he was a teenager. For 22 years now, he has organised gun shows. Business is booming: according to a firearms trade organisation, the arms industry is worth $5 billion in Texas alone.
Of course, these figures do not even include the black market, or what’s known as ghost guns. Often more lethal, they are built from scratch, using homemade kits or 3D printers purchased online. Crucially, they have no serial number that would allow police to trace them.
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