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“TAKE a sticker,” urges the woman from Ambush Firearms. “We are giving away two free guns every day to people wearing them.” What your correspondent would do with an semi-automatic rifle, let alone one that also comes in pink, was not obvious. Welcome to the annual convention of the National Rifle Association (NRA)—this year held in St Louis, Missouri. It is a yearly celebration of freedom, the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and, above all else, a festival of guns. Seven acres, to be precise, of guns and gear.
“拿張貼紙，”一名伏擊步槍后的女人催促到?！拔覀兠刻煜蚺宕鞔速N紙的人免費發(fā)放兩支槍”。我們不清楚一名記者拿著一把半自動步槍有何用處，更何況這槍式粉紅色的。歡迎來到全國步槍協(xié)會的年度盛會，今年在密蘇里州的圣路易斯市舉行。憲法第二修正案允許公民持槍，這不僅是一場自由的慶祝會，更是各色槍支的盛會。更確切地說，整整七英里都擺放著各種槍支和配件。
Americans like firearms. According to a report from the Congressional Research Service there were 294m guns in the country in 2007, up from 192m in 1994. More guns might be expected to mean more influence for the NRA, except that the number of households with guns has actually declined fairly consistently since 1973. The people who buy guns, it seems, are usually those who already own them. One probable cause of this decline is a shift to urban living. Moreover, safety-conscious Americans are increasingly aware that, statistically, a gun is a far greater risk to friends and family than it is of potential use in self-defence.
美國人喜歡擺弄槍支。根據(jù)國會研究服務報道，美國2007年擁有2億9400萬支槍，而在1994年才僅有1億9200萬支。盡管槍支數(shù)量的增加可能讓人覺得全國步槍協(xié)會的影響力不斷增加，但實際上擁有槍支家庭的數(shù)量從1973年開始一直大幅下降?？雌饋?，買槍的是那些已經(jīng)有槍的人。持槍家庭數(shù)量下降的一個可能原因是居民生活的城市化。而且，人們逐漸意識到：據(jù)統(tǒng)計，槍支給家庭和朋友帶來的風險遠遠大于槍支用于自衛(wèi)的用途。
Nonetheless, some Americans hang on to their weapons because they enjoy hunting or target practice, or live in places with too many wild animals or too few policemen. The right to gun ownership is enshrined in the constitution and is regarded by many as an issue of civil liberty—something that Europeans struggle to understand. So even as outrage is sparked over shootings such as that of Trayvon Martin in Florida and former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, there is little appetite for gun-control legislation.
盡管如此，一些美國人還是喜歡配槍，因為他們要么喜歡打獵或打靶，要么住在野生動物多或者警察太少的地方。持槍權利被寫入憲法，而且被許多人視為公民自由。然而歐洲人對這卻難以理解。盡管人們對福羅里達州的Trayvon Martin槍擊案和前國會女議員Gabrielle Giffords槍擊案極其憤怒，這也沒有引發(fā)槍支管制的立法。
Quite the opposite. Behind the march of pro-gun laws across America (such as “stand your ground” ordinances that allow for the use of force in self-defence, without any obligation to attempt to retreat first, now in effect in more than half the states) is the NRA and its lobbying arm, the mildly-named Institute for Legislative Action. The NRA’s influence on introducing legislation has been remarkable. The debate about guns is no longer over whether assault rifles ought to be banned, but over whether guns should be allowed in bars, churches and colleges.
恰恰相反，全美贊成持槍法案（如“堅守陣地”法案允許使用槍支自衛(wèi)，在防衛(wèi)撤退中不負任何責任，這一法令在超過半數(shù)的州中生效）的游行隊伍中是支持全美贊成持槍法案的是“全國步槍協(xié)會”及其游說分支—名字看上去很溫和的“立法行動學院”。全國步槍協(xié)會在立法運動中的影響極其顯著。人們對于槍支的爭論點不再是是否應該禁止使用沖鋒槍，而是在酒吧、教堂和大學里是否應該禁止攜帶槍支。
