In the United States, certain categories of people suffering from mental disorders will also be able to visit the country's numerous gun shops to legally purchase a pistol or a rifle. The decision comes directly from new President Donald Trump, and forms part of a policy aimed at dismantling the decisions taken by the previous occupant of the White House, Barack Obama. Obama had, in fact, imposed restrictions on the purchase of firearms, on the grounds that the many episodes of violence are also attributable to their excessive (and casual) proliferation.

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The ban in force since the end of Obama's term

Obama had introduced the measure — by means of a presidential act that did not require a vote in Congress — in the wake of the San Bernardino massacre in 2015, but its entry into force had to wait until last December, that is, the end of his term. The law required the national health service to communicate information on the mental health of anyone wishing to buy a firearm to the federal body responsible for issuing clearances.

According to the Republican Party, such restrictions were too stringent, as they included, for example, people deemed unfit to manage their personal finances and consequently placed under guardianship. Obama had, however, indicated that the number of people affected by the measure was relatively low: around 75,000 across the entire country. In any case, the rule had ended up — a rare occurrence — in the sights of both the National Rifle Association (NRA, the powerful gun industry lobby) and those of the ACLU, one of the leading organisations engaged in defending civil rights. This was because, according to activists, the rule risked discriminating against those suffering from mental illness.

Gun purchase laws easy to circumvent in the US

Despite this step backwards, US law will continue to prohibit sales to people who have previously been declared mentally incompetent and to those admitted to psychiatric hospitals. On paper, at least: the problem is that across the vast territory of the United States, regulations are not always applied uniformly. Each individual federal state may choose whether or not to transmit information on individual citizens to the FBI. Without forgetting that different rules apply to showrooms and to online purchases. The result is that in the United States, every year, thousands of "at-risk" individuals manage to purchase pistols and rifles legally. The case of the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 is emblematic in this respect, given that the perpetrator should not have been permitted to own firearms. As is that of Sandy Hook: in that case the killer, who shot dead 27 people at a school, used weapons belonging to his mother (who was also killed). Who, it would appear, possessed an arsenal because she was preparing for the end of the world…

Donald Trump's military policy

In the meantime, Donald Trump has also announced a historic increase in military spending, of the order of 54 billion dollars (51 billion euros). This will bring total US appropriations to over 600 billion dollars in 2018, compared to 583 billion this year.