Why America should make it harder to buy guns

為什么美國應(yīng)該讓人們更難購買槍支

Perhaps make it a bit harder to buy one?

也許這會讓你更難買到一個?

The motives for mass murder vary. The teenager in Buffalo who on May 14th shot and killed ten people, most of them black, was driven by racial paranoia. The 68-year-old who killed one and injured five on May 16th in a Californian church hated X people. What impelled Salvador Ramos to kill at least 21 on May 24th in and around a school in Texas may someday become apparent, though Mr Ramos is no longer alive to explain himself.

大規(guī)模屠殺的動機(jī)各不相同。5月14日，布法羅的一名少年因種族偏執(zhí)槍殺了10人，其中大部分是黑人。一位68歲的老人因憎恨x人于5月16日在加州教堂殺死1人，打傷5人。5月24日，薩爾瓦多·拉莫斯在得州一所學(xué)校及其周圍殺害了至少21人，盡管拉莫斯已經(jīng)不在人世，無法為自己的行為做出解釋，但其動機(jī)有朝一日可能會變得明顯起來。

What these horrors have in common, though, is the murder weapon. Guns are simple, reliable tools for killing. A man with a gun and plenty of ammunition can kill more people, more quickly and with far less physical effort than he can with a knife, a blunt object or his bare hands. The weapon Mr Ramos used—a military-style assault rifle with high-capacity magazines—allowed him to keep shooting until someone shot him. That most of his victims were children makes the crime unusually horrific. But it resembles countless other American tragedies in that the easy availability of guns made it deadlier than it might have been.

然而，這些恐怖事件的共同之處在于兇器。槍支是簡單可靠的殺人工具。一個有槍和大量彈藥的人可以比用刀、鈍器或徒手殺死更多的人，而且速度更快，耗費的體力也少得多。拉莫斯使用的武器是一種帶有大容量彈夾的軍用突擊步槍，可以讓他一直射擊，直到有人射中他。他射擊的大多數(shù)受害者都是兒童，這使得這起犯罪異?？膳隆５c美國其他無數(shù)悲劇相似的是，容易獲得槍支使“這些悲劇”比原本可能的更具致命性。

A robber who carries a gun is more likely to kill. Domestic quarrels are more likely to end in death if a firearm is handy. Suicide attempts with guns usually succeed. Police in England and Wales shot and killed only two people in 2021; American cops killed 1,055. The main reason for this vast disparity is not that English cops are gentler or less racist. It is that American Police face a heat-packing public. Most of those they kill are armed; many of the rest are mistakenly believed to be so. The abundance of guns is also the main reason why the murder rate in America is four or five times higher than in a typical rich country.

帶槍的強(qiáng)盜更有可能殺人。如果手邊有槍，家庭爭吵更有可能以死亡告終。用槍自殺通常會成功。英格蘭和威爾士的警察在2021年只槍殺了兩人；美國警察殺死了1055人。造成這種巨大差異的主要原因并不是英國警察更溫和或種族歧視更少。而是因為美國警察面對的是藏槍的公眾。他們殺死的大多數(shù)人都攜帶武器；其余的許多人則被誤以為攜帶武器。槍支的豐富性也是美國謀殺率比典型發(fā)達(dá)國家高出四到五倍的主要原因。

By one estimate, Americans own 400m guns. If they were evenly distributed, each family of five would have six. In 2020 more than 45,000 people in America died from firearm-related injuries. Guns now kill more young people than cars do.

據(jù)估計，美國人擁有4億支槍支。如果這些槍支平均分配，每個五口之家將會有六支槍。2020年，美國有超過4.5萬人死于與槍支相關(guān)的傷害行為。如今，槍支殺死的年輕人比車禍導(dǎo)致的情況還多。

The Economist believes it should be hard to own a gun. Farmers need them for pest control; hunters and other hobbyists may use them for sport. But each gun should be licensed and registered. Each owner should have to pass stringent background checks, and the process should be slow—no one should be able to buy a gun while in a fit of rage. Also, there is no good reason to let civilians own guns that fire rapidly, or magazines that let them kill a room full of people before reloading.

《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》認(rèn)為擁有槍支應(yīng)該要是件難事。農(nóng)民需要它們來控制害蟲；獵人和其他愛好者可能會把它們用于娛樂。但每把槍都應(yīng)該得到許可和注冊。每個持槍者都應(yīng)該通過嚴(yán)格的背景審查，而且審查過程應(yīng)該緩慢些——沒有人可以在憤怒的時候買到槍。同樣，也沒有理由讓平民擁有快速射擊的槍支，或者讓他們在重新上膛前殺死一屋子人的彈夾。

In America such strict gun control is unthinkable. The Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms, and the National Rifle Association promotes a maximalist interpretation of it. Politicians who hint that they might make it a little bit harder to obtain a firearm face a well-organised bloc of single-issue voters. In Republican primaries, especially, few dare offend the gun lobby.

在美國，如此嚴(yán)格的槍支管制是難以想象的。第二修正案保障攜帶武器的權(quán)利，美國全國步槍協(xié)會提倡對其進(jìn)行最高限度的解釋。那些暗示他們可能會讓槍支更難獲得的政客們面對的是一個組織良好的單一議題選民集團(tuán)。尤其是在共和黨初選中，很少有人敢冒犯槍支游說團(tuán)體。

Hence the steady loosening of rules in places like Texas, where 21-year-olds can carry a handgun in public without training or a permit (both of which are needed to cut hair); and where 18-year-olds can buy a handgun if they come from a violent home (to defend themselves against abusive relatives); and where almost any adult can buy a rifle with minimal hassle. Mr Ramos bought two assault rifles legally as soon as he turned 18, and shot his grandmother before heading for the local elementary school.

因此，在像得州這樣的地方，規(guī)則逐漸放松，在那里，21歲的年輕人可以在公共場合攜帶手槍，而不需要經(jīng)過訓(xùn)練或獲得許可證(這兩項都需要理發(fā))；在那里，來自暴力家庭的18歲的孩子可以買到手槍(以保護(hù)自己免受虐待的親戚的傷害)；在那里，幾乎所有成年人都能輕而易舉地買到一支步槍。拉莫斯一滿18歲就合法購買了兩支突擊步槍，并在去當(dāng)?shù)匦W(xué)上學(xué)前射殺了他的祖母。

This is not what most Americans want. Hefty (but dwindling) majorities favour some commonsense curbs, such as denying weapons to the mentally ill, creating a database to track all gun sales, and banning both assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. Congress is unlikely to deliver such things, thanks to the Senate filibuster. So cities and states should step in, though guns will always flow illicitly from lax jurisdictions to stringent ones. Voters should reward politicians who think a gun licence should be at least as hard to obtain as a driving licence. Not all gun deaths are preventable, but many could be.?

這不是大多數(shù)美國人想要的。相當(dāng)多(但正在減少)的多數(shù)人贊成一些常識性的限制，例如禁止向精神疾病患者提供武器，創(chuàng)建一個跟蹤所有槍支銷售的數(shù)據(jù)庫，以及禁止攻擊性武器和大容量彈匣。由于參議院的阻撓議事，國會不太可能做出這樣的事情。因此，城市和州應(yīng)該介入，盡管槍支總是會從寬松的司法管轄區(qū)非法流入嚴(yán)格的管轄區(qū)。選民應(yīng)該獎勵那些認(rèn)為獲得槍支許可證至少應(yīng)該像獲得駕照一樣困難的政客。并非所有的槍擊死亡都是可以預(yù)防的，但多數(shù)情況是可以的。