Reaching out across the Web .. ...分享 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/u/zuojun Zuojun Yu, physical oceanographer, freelance English editor

博文

Time to read (Feb 12, 2019)

已有 4615 次阅读 2019-2-13 07:01 |个人分类:From the U.S.|系统分类:海外观察| 英语阅读


美国的枪杀案,应该是全世界臭名昭著的。支持“枪的拥有权“的人,常常是振振有词。也许,这篇短文可以帮助你了解这个美国社会的癌症。

 

BAN THE THINGS. BAN THEM ALL

By Molly Ivins

 

March 16, 1993

AUSTIN -- Guns. Everywhere guns.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1993/03/16/ban-the-things-ban-them-all/74d9d23b-b786-455a-bb50-d7c9e57eb81f/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.19a3df9e23be

 

Let me start this discussion by pointing out that I am not anti-gun. I'm pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife.

In the first place, you have to catch up with someone to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.

As a civil libertarian, I of course support the Second Amendment. And I believe it means exactly what it says: "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Fourteen-year-old boys are not part of a well-regulated militia. Members of wacky religious cults are not part of a well-regulated militia. Permitting unregulated citizens to have guns is destroying the security of this free state.

I am intrigued by the arguments of those who claim to follow the judicial doctrine of original intent. How do they know it was the dearest wish of Thomas Jefferson's heart that teenage drug dealers should cruise the cities of this nation perforating their fellow citizens with assault rifles? Channeling?

There is more hooey spread about the Second Amendment. It says quite clearly that guns are for those who form part of a well-regulated militia, i.e., the armed forces including the National Guard. The reasons for keeping them away from everyone else get clearer by the day.

The comparison most often used is that of the automobile, another lethal object that is regularly used to wreak great carnage. Obviously, this society is full of people who haven't got enough common sense to use an automobile properly. But we haven't outlawed cars yet.

We do, however, license them and their owners, restrict their use to presumably sane and sober adults and keep track of who sells them to whom. At a minimum, we should do the same with guns.

In truth, there is no rational argument for guns in this society. This is no longer a frontier nation in which people hunt their own food. It is a crowded, overwhelmingly urban country in which letting people have access to guns is a continuing disaster. Those who want guns -- whether for target shooting, hunting or potting rattlesnakes (get a hoe) -- should be subject to the same restrictions placed on gun owners in England -- a nation in which liberty has survived nicely without an armed populace.

The argument that "guns don't kill people" is patent nonsense. Anyone who has ever worked in a cop shop knows how many family arguments end in murder because there was a gun in the house. Did the gun kill someone? No. But if there had been no gun, no one would have died. At least not without a good footrace first. Guns do kill. Unlike cars, that is all they do.

Michael Crichton makes an interesting argument about technology in his thriller "Jurassic Park." He points out that power without discipline is making this society into a wreckage. By the time someone who studies the martial arts becomes a master -- literally able to kill with bare hands -- that person has also undergone years of training and discipline. But any fool can pick up a gun and kill with it.

"A well-regulated militia" surely implies both long training and long discipline. That is the least, the very least, that should be required of those who are permitted to have guns, because a gun is literally the power to kill. For years, I used to enjoy taunting my gun-nut friends about their psycho-sexual hangups -- always in a spirit of good cheer, you understand. But letting the noisy minority in the National Rifle Association force us to allow this carnage to continue is just plain insane.

I do think gun nuts have a power hangup. I don't know what is missing in their psyches that they need to feel they have the power to kill. But no sane society would allow this to continue.

Ban the damn things. Ban them all.

You want protection? Get a dog.

Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 1993, Creators Syndicate, Inc.




https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-306792-1161885.html

上一篇:如何写好科技英语300字短文:Part II (Feb 11,2019)
下一篇:如何写好科技英语300字短文:Part II (Feb 12, 2019)
收藏 IP: 66.8.235.*| 热度|

0

该博文允许注册用户评论 请点击登录 评论 (0 个评论)

数据加载中...
扫一扫,分享此博文

Archiver|手机版|科学网 ( 京ICP备07017567号-12 )

GMT+8, 2024-4-26 13:18

Powered by ScienceNet.cn

Copyright © 2007- 中国科学报社

返回顶部