By Nie Shuyi
聂舒翼
4月12日，纽约地铁发生枪击事件。图为民众逃离发生枪击事件的地铁列车。（图/路透社）
当地时间4月12日，美国纽约市布鲁克林区一地铁站发生枪击案，目前已致29人受伤，其中10人直接受到枪伤。讽刺的是，前一天美国总统拜登刚刚宣布了最新控枪措施，誓言“打击日益泛滥的幽灵枪”。这一次，纽约地铁回响的枪声和车厢地板上的血迹，昭示着枪支暴力早已深深根植于美国社会的肌体中，成为难以割除的“毒瘤”。
On April 12, local time, gunshots rang out at a subway station in Brooklyn, New York City, USA, wounding 29 people, with 10 suffering direct gunshot wounds. Ironically, the day before, the Biden administration just announced new gun control measures, vowing to curb the proliferation of “ghost guns". The resounding gunshots at the New York subway station and the bloodstains on the floor of the subway train are demonstrating that gun violence has long been deeply rooted in American society and become a "malignant tumor" difficult to remove.
枪支暴力在美国已经成为了“家常便饭”般的存在。据美国“枪支暴力档案”（GVA）网站统计，截至4月13日，美国今年以来已经发生大规模枪击事件131起，造成143人死亡、数百人受伤。美国疾病预防与控制中心主任瓦伦斯基2021年8月在接受美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）采访时称，枪支暴力已经成为美国“严重的公共卫生威胁”，“我们必须对此采取措施。”
Gun violence has become a "routine" in the US. According to statistics from the US Gun Violence Archive (GVA) website, there have been 131 mass shootings in the US this year as of April 13, resulting in 143 deaths and hundreds of people wounded. In an interview with CNN in August 2021, Rochelle P. Warrenski, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, declared that gun violence has become a "serious public health threat" in the US, and "something has to be done about this."
然而，美国多届政府在枪支暴力问题上“有心限枪但无力回天”。以拜登11日宣布的控枪措施为例，其主要针对的是近年来在美国日益引起关注的“幽灵枪”问题。尽管美国司法部长加兰称，新规将使不法分子更难获得幽灵枪，也有助于执法人员获得枪击案的线索，但这项新规仍遭到持枪团体和政客的质疑，美国全国步枪协会（NRA）领导人称这是“（民主党人）又一项空洞的计划”。考虑到此前民主党政府和一些民主党州颁布的众多涉枪行政令不是被共和党政府废除，就是在最高法院被判违宪，拜登这项行政令到底能走多远已经被打上一个大大的问号，更不用说民主党进步派其他雄心勃勃的控枪措施。
However, multiple US governments have been "willing but unable to limit gun ownership" on the issue of gun violence. For instance, the new gun control measures announced by the Biden administration on April 11 mainly target the proliferation of "ghost guns" that has attracted increasing attention in the US in recent years. According to the US Attorney General Merrick Garland, "this rule will make it harder for criminals and other prohibited persons to obtain untraceable guns, and help ensure that law enforcement officers can retrieve the information they need to solve crimes." Nevertheless, the new rule is still under question by gun owners and politicians, as pointed out by a leader of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), "the president unveils yet another hollow plan (by the Democrats)." Considering that numerous gun-related executive orders issued by Democratic administrations and some Democratic states have either been repealed by the Republican administrations or found to be unconstitutional in the Supreme Court, a big question mark has been placed on how far the Biden's plan can go, not to mention other ambitious gun control measures proposed by the progressive Democrats.
枪支暴力频发的背后是美国的日益严峻的枪支泛滥问题，而这个问题可以说是导致美国社会撕裂、政治极化的根源。美国是全球少有的“枪比人多”的国家，持枪权更是被写入美国宪法，这意味着如果要从根子上解决美国的枪支泛滥问题，必须先从法律层面入手。然而，这在美国几乎是一个不可能任务。一方面，美国修宪的门槛非常高。美国原最高法院大法官斯卡利亚曾计算过，在美国当前体制下，只要2%的美国人就可以阻止一项宪法修正案通过。这意味着，尽管在历次民调中都显示，多数美国人都支持更严厉的控枪，但几乎不可能通过修宪废除自由持枪权。
Gun proliferation, a problem getting increasingly serious in the US, is what lies behind the frequent gun violence crimes, and can be described as the root cause of societal breakdown and political polarization in the US. The US is one of the few countries in the world with "more guns than people", and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is an individual constitutional right in the US. This means that if the problem of gun proliferation is expected to be fundamentally solved in the US, the first step should be the legislative change l. However, it is almost impossible to accomplish the task in the US. On the one hand, the threshold for the constitutional amendment is particularly high in the US. As calculated by the US late Supreme Court Justice Anton in Scalia, the negative votes from only 2% of Americans could be powerful enough to prevent a constitutional amendment from being passed under the current US system. As a result, despite polls showing that most Americans support tougher gun control measures, it is almost impossible to amend the Constitution to abolish gun ownership for all citizens.
另一方面，控枪问题早已不是一项关乎人命的安全问题，却变成一个“政治问题”。美国民主共和两党对此分歧极大，也令控枪立法变得极为困难。比如，2021年3月11日，民主党控制的众议院通过了两项控枪法案，但却未能跨过参议院这道难关。可以说，在美国社会持续撕裂、政治对立加剧的情况下，面对愈演愈烈的枪支暴力，美国政府注定只能沦为表面的“裱糊匠”，难以从根本上解决这一问题。
On the other hand, gun control has no longer been a safety issue related to human life; instead, this has become a "political issue". The US Democrats and Republicans have been deeply divided on this, having made gun control legislation extremely difficult. For instance, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed two gun control bills on March 11, 2021, which ultimately failed to get approved by the US Senate. It has been clearly shown that as the American society continues to tear apart and political confrontation keeps intensifying, the US government is destined to act as a “paperhanger” who covers surfaces, instead of fundamentally solving problems.
一个极具讽刺意味的现实是，在4月11日公布管控“幽灵枪”措施当天，拜登还宣布提名前俄亥俄州检察官史蒂夫·德特尔巴赫出任美国烟酒枪炮及爆炸物管理局（ATF）局长一职，如果这一提名获得参议院批准，将是ATF自2015年来首次拥有正式局长。作为美国管控枪支重要行政机构的ATF长期没有正式领导人，这种尴尬也正是美国难以控枪的缩影。
The reality of high irony is that on April 11 when the measures to control the "ghost guns" were announced, Biden also announced the nomination of former federal prosecutor Steve Dettelbach to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). If the nomination is approved by the Senate, Steve Dettelbach will be the first full-time director of the ATF since 2015. As an important administrative agency for gun control in the US, the ATF has not had an official head for a long time, which also reflects the epitome of the difficulty in US gun control.
美国土地上不断回荡的枪声表明，枪支早已不是“捍卫自由的武器”，而是无情收割生命的“镰刀”。美国人还要付出多少代价，才能彻底割除这颗巨大的“毒瘤”？
The gunshots constantly echoing on American soil show that guns have no longer been a "weapon for defending freedom"; instead, it is a "scythe" that ruthlessly cut people's lives. How much will the American people have to pay to completely cut off the huge "malignant tumor"?
Editor’s note: This article is originally published on haiwainet.cn, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
