(Adm. Giuseppe De Giorgi) The volume of international arms exports in the period between the 2013 and the 2017, confirming the upward trend that began at the beginning of the 2000 years, was 10% higher than that of the 2008-2012. These data emerge from a study published by the International Peace Research Institute in Stockholm (SIPRI), highlighting, in particular, the considerable increase in the flow of arms to the Middle East and India (respectively 32% destinations and of 12% of total purchases globally). A doubled flow in the last 10 years linked to the fact that most of the states in the region were directly involved in conflicts in the period between the 2013 and the 2017. In spite of the concerns about human rights have led, recently, heated political debates on the limitation of arms sales, today, the United States and Europe remain the main arms exporters in the Middle Eastern region (with a percentage, for example, of over 98% of weapons exported to Saudi Arabia).
The five largest arms exporters in the world are the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China, with Italy in the ninth place of this particular classification. For example, during the first year of the Trump administration, 82,2 billions of dollars from the sale of arms by the United States notified to Congress were over 30, with an increase in revenues of 76,5% compared to 2016 billion dollars of Obama administration of XNUMX, especially regarding the bombs and missiles category, following important missile defense agreements reached with Saudi Arabia, Poland, Romania, Japan and United Arab Emirates.
Russia for its part in the 2016 has exceeded the 15 billions of dollars of arms delivery, exporting to 52 countries, not only India and China, countries that are supplied with armaments long since by the Kremlin government, but also the Syrian regime : "Despite the unprecedented pressures of a number of Western countries and the unfair methods of competition they use, we have managed to penetrate new foreign markets", specified the director of the Rosoboronexport agency in charge of exports of military equipment. And despite some international sanctions, following the annexation of Crimea, and a law passed last summer by the US Congress to ban trade relations with 39 Russian armament company, Russia has been able to push ahead with its arms race, especially in these last 15 years, so much so that Putin himself presented, a few days before the elections, the new Russian armaments, including a new version of the multi-head Sarmat intercontinental missile, a nuclear-powered cruise missile and a submarine drone faster than any torpedo built up to date.
In addition to Russia, China too today challenges the military supremacy of the United States and its allies and the rate at which it is swelling its army could be translated into a "systematic process of preparation for war" (according to some experts from the International Institute for the Strategic Studies, IISS, in the annual Military Balance 2017 report) with, at the plane level, the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighters scheduled in operation from the 2020 and long-range air-to-air missile units PL-15 equipped with electronic scanning radar and, at sea level, the launch in the last 15 years of corvettes, frigates, destroyers and submarines of Japan, India and South Korea combined. To stay back at the technological level is, in fact, a threat as great as strongly felt by the great powers and the arms race, as the data just quoted suggests, seems today a shared choice and perpetrated by many states in the world wishing to acquire, according to their intentions, greater weight on the world balance in a trend that does not find rest will tend to fall shortly.
Meanwhile in America, following the latest school massacre (the eighteenth since the beginning of the year), something seems to be about to change: in the meantime, especially the interest of the public, especially of young people, in the future probably a true It is a close grip on the sale of firearms with some proposals, even controversial ones such as that of President Trump, of arming specially trained teachers who make the debate debate and inflame.
Meanwhile in Florida, where the latest massacre took place, a law was promulgated that introduces the first restrictive measures against firearms, including the increase in the minimum age for purchasing from 18 to 21 years, a three-day waiting period for those who buy rifles or automatic weapons and the ban on trade for the "Bump Stock" that is a mechanism of about 100 dollars that, mounted on the weapon, transforms a normal semi-automatic rifle, in which you have to press every time the trigger to fire a single shot, in a full-fledged machine gun in which pulling the trigger once and holding it down fires a burst that only runs out when the rounds in the magazine run out. With this booster, a rifle can fire up to 400-800 rounds per minute, although normal magazines go up to 30, subject to change. The decisions made by the state of Florida, however, were immediately attacked by the lawyers of the National Rifle Association. (NRA) who immediately opened a lawsuit against the US state for having created a "dangerous precedent" with a provision considered unconstitutional which, according to the lawyers, would violate the II and XIV amendments of the American Constitution, namely the one on the right to possess weapons and on the right to protect oneself. Rights that are part of American history and that many citizens, until today, have strongly defended. While it is true that the NRA pays record levels of money with each election (about $ 4,1 million for lobbying in 2017), the figure is lower than that of other groups. The influence of the association therefore derives not only from lobbying but from the large number of activists of a group that has over 145 years of history and probably more than 5 million active members ready to mobilize and engage in politics in case of need. The Parkland high school massacre, however, gave rise to a popular movement led by students capable of changing the American political equation on firearms here too, which until now, massacre after massacre, always resulted in the victory of the National lobby. Rifle Association, contrary to any regulation.
However, Florida is not the only turning point. In recent days, Oregon had become the first state to pass a new restrictive law on the spread of weapons prohibiting the purchase and possession of firearms by people with a history of domestic violence or stalking. These are always partial measures that do not satisfy the proponents of real reforms but are, in my opinion, the important sign of a change taking place. So things could really change, albeit very slowly, especially with the differentiation of the future electorate, made up of ethnic minorities that could become the majority by the middle of the next century and with a new vision on the part of young people who are already fewer today. interested in the carrying of arms than the elderly and more in favor of gun control to prevent certain massacres from happening again. But in the meantime, as it is being talked about and discussed, in America and the rest of the world, the sale of arms increases every day.