AMERICA'S love affair with guns dates back to the Revolutionary War of 1776 and is enshrined in the second amendment of the US bill of rights, guaranteeing that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".

Despite decades of political effort to curtail the spread of military-style "hunting" weapons, the powerful gun lobby, represented by the 4.2 million members of the National Rifle Association, has successfully resisted outright bans or meaningful limitations on ownership of an estimated 350 million privately-held firearms.

There are more guns than people in the US (population 295 million) and 46 states allow the carrying of concealed weapons for selfdefence. In Texas, husbands retain the right to shoot another male found in a compromising situation with their wives, a law introduced in the Wild West era and never repealed.

Official figures show that the average American has 27 times more chance of being murdered by gunshot than the average Briton. There are an average of 37.3 firearms murders per million people in the US, compared to 1.35 per million in the UK.

Armed citizens protect their lives and homes against criminals in the US an average of a million times a year, although in 98-per cent of cases they merely brandish a weapon or fire a warning shot.

The 2-per cent who actually shoot their assailants kill between 2000 and 3000 people annually, three times the number slain by police officers responding to incidents, according to a study compiled by Florida State University's criminology department.

Nationwide statistics show that only 2-per cent of civilian shootings involve innocent victims mistaken for intruders. The error rate for the police is 11-per cent, more than five times higher.

Legislators are now considering bills to allow judges and lawyers to carry guns in court after a spate of recent shootings inside courthouses in Texas and Georgia and the murder of a judge in Chicago.