Anthropologist Patrick Teklerk at the “School of Snipers” in Arizona – rts.ch

A few weeks after Woldeaugh’s shooting that killed 21 people at an elementary school, the reporting / ratio of Americans’ guns continues to be questioned. With a population of 335 million, the country has between 380 million and 400 million weapons in circulation.

>> Read more: Strict gun laws are on the streets in the United States

Anthropologist Patrick Teklerk, December 2012 Photo taken here. [Kristof van Accom – AFP]

Patrick Teklerk, anthropologist, philosopher and writer, spent many weeks training snipers in the Arizona desert. In Tout un monde, he described his observations in the field, which led him to publish the book “Sniper in Arizona” on May 5, 2022, published by Buchet Chastel, which allows him to better understand this particular relationship. Americans in arms.

Anthropology of the American sniper

Deep in the United States, in the southern states, from anthropological studies in White America, the researcher tells us, “the assassins trained in these private schools are far away – because that is the sniper – the training subcontracted by the U.S. military”.

It was a massacre school

“This is a massacre school. We are tested on human-shaped steel statues, of which we shoot when we select the target element at a distance of 1.1 km,” says Patrick Teklerk. Ex-servicemen, private mercenaries, gunmen, this is an unusual educational profile of the participants. Classes are taught by ex-Marines from wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The most accurately measured sniper

“All of my fellow sniper students were mostly Donald Trump fanatics. And the same political situation I saw on television on January 6, 2021, the same fascination with armed and truly insane America,” the anthropologist explains. Attack on Capitol in early 2021.

All of my fellow sniper students are mostly Trump fanatics.

According to him, “things are very clear from a political point of view. Rightly, Democrats are trying to restrict access to weapons and the frantic purchase of automatic ammunition. Republicans and their members are very close to the National Rifle Association (NRA)” and are demanding the right to own a firearm.

Socio-psychological and economic profile

Calling themselves “true Americans” because of their “deep distrust” of non-Americans, “obvious repulsive racism”, racism and calling themselves “real Americans”, New York called them “Harlem” because they hated New York in particular. Anthropologist evokes the nickname given to this city in the middle: “New York People’s Republic”, “their worst dream”, he mentions.

The People’s Republic of New York is their worst nightmare

According to Patrick Teklerk, “they do not understand anything about the modern world, they feel excluded from it, and they are excluded from it. They have very little education. Most of the people there come from poor and marginalized backgrounds.

Childhood teaching?

The anthropologist also condemns the demand, even for the allure made by arms dealers on small children.

In one of the gun shops he visited, near the cash register was a statue of a boy “about 8-10 years old, with real weapons and a statue of a cowboy dressed.

Finally, Patrick Declerck concludes in these parts of the southwestern United States, “Teaching children to shoot with pistols is fashionable: it’s like a starting ceremony.”

Interview with Blandine Levite

Web Adaptation: Julian Farrer