House Republican Mike Bayham Jr has issued a staunch defence of gun laws in America.

Firearms are a point of contention in America with many calls for guns to be outlawed.

A US surgeon general even declared this week that firearm violence is a public health crisis.

But speaking on GBN America, Bayham Jr said it’s important US citizens are still able to protect themselves.

“It’s an issue that has been discussed at great length”, he said.

“We feel that it’s important people have a right to defend themselves. The police response time to violent crimes is absurd.

“It’s dangerous to the people of our communities and people have a right to protect themselves.

“I understand the culture is very different between the United States and the United Kingdom, there’s obviously a cultural difference.

“To be brutally honest, in America there is more guns than people here and gun control simply doesn’t work.

“Some of the highest crime areas in the United States have some of the strictest gun control laws. We feel that because of the inadequate response times by police, people need to be able to protect themselves first.

“This is why we adopted this law.”

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the rate of firearm-related deaths reached a near three-decade high in 2021.

This is said to have been driven by spikes in gun homicides and firearm suicides, according to a 40-page advisory.

It is noted that in 2022, 48,204 people died from firearm-related injuries, including suicides, homicides and unintentional deaths.

The National Rifle Association hit out at the advisory in a statement shared to X, formerly Twitter.

“This is an extension of the Biden Administration’s war on law-abiding gun owners,” Randy Kozuch, the executive director of the National Rifle Association of America’s Institute for Legislative Action, its lobbying arm, said.

“America has a crime problem caused by criminals”, he added.

“The reluctance to prosecute and punish criminals on the part of President Biden and many of his allies is the primary cause of that. That’s a simple fact.”