匈牙利《欧洲论坛》报8月18日报道:美国是当今世界唯一的超级大国,同时也是标榜自由、民主及人权的国家。有个例子说明该国对“生命权”的重视:最高法院今年6月24日推翻了1973年罗诉韦德案(Roev. Wade)判决,女性堕胎权不再受宪法保护。赞成推翻该案判决的法官认为这是以“禁止堕胎”来维护宪法所主张的“生命权”。事实上,州法律还有比之更甚者,比如,德克萨斯州就有非常极端的“心跳法案”,认为胎儿一旦有了心跳,就被认定为具有人的权利。如果堕胎的话,母亲要被追究法律责任;帮助堕胎的医生要判99年徒刑,比杀人犯的刑期还长。
然而,在另外一件饱受社会争议的事件上,美国似乎将团体利益、经济利益置于个体的生命之上,这是颇令人费解的。美国国内的枪支泛滥导致枪击案频发,以至于一条条活生生的无辜生命丧生于枪口之下。据美国枪支暴力档案室网站公布的资料显示,在2018年美国共发生了涉枪案件57103件,导致14717人死亡、28172人受伤,其中未成年人死伤3502人。
枪支泛滥有多么严重?确切数据恐怕令美国之外的世界咂舌。据相关调查显示,该国民间拥有枪支数量约为3.93亿支,而美国目前总人口约为3.27亿,平均下来每个美国人拥枪1.2支。在人均持枪率如此之高的背景下,美国本土枪击案件数量一直居高不下,甚至比欧洲各国的总和还多。
美国枪枝暴力问题远不只有引人关注的大规模枪击案。根据非营利研究组织“枪支暴力档案”(GunViolence Archive),美国今年截至目前已有1.93万人命丧枪支暴力,当中超过半数死于自杀。
既然美国如此重视人权,如此重视生命,为何眼看着枪支泛滥导致无辜生命受到威胁与摧残而放任自流?既然枪支泛滥,难道就无法控制私人拥枪这根本性问题吗?这么多年来,每当发生一起恶性枪击案件后,政府与民间团体及热心人士都会站出来大声呼吁“控枪”;然而,局面却难以得以扭转。因为其背后有极其复杂的背景与根源。
一、美国政治“动不得”
《华盛顿邮报》指出,现任总统拜登呼吁国会采取行动紧缩枪支法律,和十年前康乃狄州珊迪虎克小学(Sandy Hook Elementary)发生枪手杀害20名儿童及6名成人事件后,奥巴马总统所做的呼吁一样。当年奥巴马委托时任副总统的拜登领导推动紧缩枪支法律,受到“全国步枪协会(NRA)”领导的游说团体影响,两党法案在参院被击败。这十年来,美国政治一直处于瘫痪状态,大规模枪击事件却一场接一场发生,造成10人死亡的水牛城枪击案和乌瓦德杀戮事件,相隔仅十天。
二、《宪法修正案》“动不得”
美国宪法第二修正案赋予了人们佩戴枪支的权利。当时的美国确实出门需要有枪支,因为环境比较险恶。现在美国早已是高度发达的国家,依然按照两百多年前的规定,没有办法禁枪,其实就是在“刻舟求剑”。拜登今年5月25日发表讲话,指宪法第二修正“并非绝对”,并再次呼吁他所谓的“常识”枪支立法,强调不会对修正案权利产生负面影响。
然而,支持枪支管制的一方,敦促当局进一步限制或完全禁止突袭步枪;反对方则寻求把大规模枪击案主要症结归咎于心理健康上,而非武器。
美国民众大多支持提高枪支管制,但多数共和党议员的反对向来是难以做出重大改革的一大障碍。
三、利益集团“动不得”
《华尔街日报》分析,虽然枪击案的发生让反枪组织获得支持增加,但是以华府政治圈的影响力来看,还是比不上“全国步枪协会”。
而且,不只是联邦层面没能采取行动让潜在杀手更难拥有和使用枪支,各州还更加朝相反方向发展。为防止枪支暴力成立的吉福兹法律中心(The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence)报告指出,2021年美国有十几个州颁布法律“阻止执行美国适度枪支法”;多个州废除枪支拥有者须取得携带隐藏武器许可证的法律;有21州允许在没有任何背景调查或安全培训情况下,购买和携带武器进入公共场所。
该报表示,任何法律都无法制止一切犯罪,但美国在枪支方面的问题既独特又突出。长期以来,公共舆论一直支持采取更多限枪行动,但共和党政客却向基本盘中声音最大的那群人低头;不论那些声音是来自普通公民、全国枪支协会或枪支制造商,他们都将任何限制措施视为是迈向没收枪支的一步。
四、利益团体反向宣传
印第安那州购物中心今年7月17日发生枪击案,枪手是当地一名20岁男子萨皮尔曼,在枪杀三人后,两分钟内被一名见义勇为的22岁持枪年轻人狄肯击毙。案件发生后,美国社会宣导拥枪自由的利益集团再次高喊平民拥枪的重要性。 “全国步枪协会”发推文说:“我们再说一遍,阻止坏人持枪的唯一方法就是让好人持枪。”
美国联邦调查局今年5月的一份报告显示,在2021年的61起类似枪击案中,只有两起在“公民与枪手交战”时结束,旁观者很少能阻止正在进行杀戮的枪手。 《纽约时报》一项分析也指出,自2000年以来的433起大规模枪击事件中,只有22名枪手被旁观者枪杀。
然而,在利益团体的操弄下,这些冰冷的数据又能起多大作用?事实不是明摆着的吗?
(陈兴)
Why do so manypeople die in shootings in the United States which values the ‘right to life’?
EUROP’S TRIBUNE WEEKLY :
TheUnited States is the only superpower in the world today, and it is also acountry that prides itself on freedom, democracy and human rights. One exampleof the country's emphasis on the ‘right to life’ : On June 24, the SupremeCourt overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that no longer protected awoman's right to an abortion. The justices who ruled in favor of overturningthe case argued that the ban on abortion upheld the constitutional right tolife. In fact, state laws go even further. Texas, for example, has an extreme ‘heartbeatlaw’ that recognizes a fetus as having human rights once it has a heartbeat.The mother would be held legally responsible if she had an abortion; Doctorswho perform abortions get 99 years in prison, longer than convicted murderers.
However,in another controversial issue, the United States seems to place corporate andeconomic interests above individual lives, which is quite inexplicable. Theflood of guns in the United States leads to frequent shootings, so that a stringof innocent lives are killed by guns. According to data released by the GunViolence Archive website, in 2018, 14,717 people were killed and 28,172 injuredin 57,103 gun-related incidents in the United States, including 3,502 minors.
Howbad is the gun epidemic? The exact numbers may surprise the rest of the world.According to the relevant survey, there are about 393 million guns in privateownership in the country, and the current population of the United States isabout 327 million, which means that each American has 1.2 guns. With gunownership rates so high per capita, the number of shootings in the UnitedStates has remained stubbornly high, even higher than in all of Europecombined.
Theproblem of gun violence in America goes far beyond high-profile mass shootings.According to the GunViolence Archive, a nonprofit research group, 19,300 peoplehave been killed by GunViolence in the U.S. so far this year, more than half ofthem by suicide.
Ifthe United States attaches so much importance to human rights and lives, why dowe let it stand while innocent lives are threatened and destroyed by theproliferation of guns? Given the proliferation of guns, is it impossible tocontrol the fundamental problem of private gun ownership? Over the years, aftera vicious shooting, the government and civil society and activists have comeout loud to call for ‘gun control’; However, the situation is difficult toreverse. Because it has a very complex background and roots.
A. American Politics 'Stuck inlimbo'
TheWashington Post noted that President Biden called on Congress to act to tightengun laws, echoing President Barack Obama's call a decade ago after a gunmankilled 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School inConnecticut. A bipartisan bill was defeated in the Senate under the influenceof lobbying groups led by the National Rifle Association (NRA), after Mr Obamaasked Mr Biden, then his vice-president, to lead a push for tighter gun laws.In a decade of political paralysis in the United States, mass shootings havefollowed one another, with the Buffalo shooting and the Ouvad killings, whichleft 10 people dead, occurring within 10 days of each other.
B. The Amendment to theConstitution 'cannot be moved'
TheSecond Amendment to the US Constitution gives people the right to bear arms.You did need a gun to go out in the United States at that time, because theenvironment was more dangerous. Now the United States is already a highlydeveloped country, still according to the regulations of more than 200 yearsago, there is no way to ban guns, in fact, is ‘to carve a boat to seek a sword’.In a May 25 speech, Biden referred to the Second Amendment as ‘not absolute’and renewed his call for what he called ‘common sense’ gun legislation, stressingthat it would not negatively affect amendment rights.
Thepro-gun control side, however, has urged authorities to further restrict or banassault rifles altogether; Opponents have sought to blame mental health, notweapons, as the main culprit in mass shootings.
TheAmerican public largely supports increased gun control, but opposition frommost Republican lawmakers has been a major obstacle to making significantchanges.
C. Interest groups 'can'tmove'
TheWall Street Journal said that although anti-gun groups gained more supportafter the shooting, they were still less influential than the National RifleAssociation in Washington.
Andnot only has the federal level failed to act to make it harder for would-bekillers to own and use guns, states have moved in the opposite direction. TheGiffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a group set up to Prevent GunViolence, reports that in 2021, more than a dozen states enacted laws that ‘Preventenforcement of America's moderate Gun laws’; Several states repealed lawsrequiring gun owners to obtain permits to carry concealed weapons; Twenty-onestates allow the purchase and carrying of weapons into public places withoutany background checks or security training.
Nolaw can stop all crime, the paper said, but America's problem with guns is bothunique and salient. Public opinion has long been in favour of more gun control,but Republican politicians have bowed to the loudest voices in their base;Whether those voices come from private citizens, the NRA or gun manufacturers,they see any restrictions as a step toward confiscating guns.
D. Interestgroups are counter-propagating
Indianashopping center on July 17 this year, the gunman is a local 20-year-old manSapirman, after shooting three people, was shot dead by a volunteer gunman22-year-old Deacon within two minutes. After the case happened, the interestgroup advocating the freedom of gun ownership in the American society onceagain shouted the importance of civilian gun ownership. The NRA tweeted: ‘Onceagain, the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.’
Only two of 61 similar shootings in 2021 ended when ‘citizensengaged the shooter,’ according to an FBI report in May, with bystanders rarelyable to stop a gunman in the process of killing. The analysis of The New YorkTimes also noted that of 433 mass shootings since 2000, only 22 shooters wereshot by bystanders.
Buthow useful are cold data when manipulated by interest groups? Isn't the truthobvious?
(ChenXing)