The Ameriguns

Of all the firearms in the world held by private individuals for non-military, half of them are in the United States of America. In number, they exceed the country's population: 393 million for 328 million inhabitants. This is not a coincidence, nor a simple question of market: it is rather a question of tradition and constitutional guarantee. This is the story of the Second Amendment, ratified in 1791 to reassure the inhabitants of the territories newly independent that their federal government could not, one day, abuse his authority over them. Two hundred and fifty years later, the second amendment is still embedded in every aspect of American life and this book frames its current status through what are considered four core American values: family, freedom, passion and style. Photographer Gabriele Galimberti has traveled to all corners of the United States United from New York to Honolulu to meet proud gun owners in fire and see their gun collections. He photographed people and firearms in their homes and neighborhoods, including in places where no one would expect to find such collections. These portraits, often disturbing, as well as the accompanying stories of the owners and their firearms based on interviews, provide a unusual and unexpected insight into what the institution really is today of the Second Amendment. Gabriele Galimberti is an award-winning Italian photographer who works on long-term documentary photography projects in the around the world, several of which have become books, including Toy Stories, In Her Kitchen, My Couch Is Your Couch and The Heavens. He has exhibited at trade fairs from all over the world, notably at the Rencontres de la Photographie (Arles), at the Festival Images (Vevey, Switzerland) and at the V&A London. Gabriele recently became National Geographic photographer and works regularly for the magazine. Gea Scancarello is an Italian journalist and author whose work has were published in Italian and foreign media, including Business Insider (where she is a major contributor to the Better Capitalism pages), SportWeek, GQ, Heidi, Pagina99, Vanity Fair. She has published two books "Mi fido di te" (Chiarelettere, 2015) and “Addicted” (Hoepli, 2020).