WRITTEN BY ANNALISA MERELLI FEBRUARY 22, 2018
https://qz.com/1212809/compare-us-mass-shootings-and-gun-control-to-germany-china-russia-switzerland-and-australia/
Yesterday, Donald Trump met with a group of students, teachers, and parents to discuss last week’s school shooting massacre in Parkland, Florida and the uniquely American epidemic of school shootings. Referring to the shootings, Trump asked his guests, “Does anyone have any ideas for how to stop it?”
The White House’s selected guests suggested a variety of areas to troubleshoot: Mental illness, bullying, FBI negligence, gun-free zones (which the president has publicly blamed for attracting “maniacs”), censorship, partisanship, lack of relatedness, obsession with identity, lack of expert “consultants,” lack of safety training for students, and even the absence of armed, undercover police in schools. But as 18-year-old Parkland survivor Sam Zeif pointed out, one well-known idea has already been consistently proven to stop mass shootings: Stricter gun laws.
Research shows that countries with fewer guns have lower homicide rates. Even US states with fewer guns have fewer homicides; in a landmark 2002 study, analysis of data from 1988 to 1997 showed that states with “high” gun ownership had three times the rate of homicide than states with few guns. A decade later, a 2013 study found that every percentage point increase in gun ownership corresponded to a 0.9% higher risk of gun homicide. Countries and states that legally limit overall gun ownership simply have fewer gun deaths.
Of course, mass shootings do occur in other countries. Germany, China, Russia, Switzerland have all suffered mass shootings in recent years. Unlike the US legislature, German and Swiss lawmakers responded to massacres by changing the law to prevent such shootings from happening again.
- In Germany, automated and semi-automated firearms were banned in 2008 (with the exception of hunting and sport-shooting, which require permits), in response to the 2002 Erfurt massacre, when a 19-year-old killed 17 at school.
- In Switzerland, a country with similar attitudes toward gun ownership as the US, the law was changed in 2008 to require stricter ammunition storage after a man killed 14 and injured 14 more in a regional parliament in 2001.
China and Russia’s governments are also tightening the law on who may own guns, and what kinds of guns.
- China, which already has very strict gun laws but is experiencing a rise in gun ownership, has taken further steps, including outlawing hunting rifles, very common in rural areas.
- In Russia, licenses are needed to purchase guns, and amongst the requirements are medical certificates. To control unauthorized gun ownership, the government is discussing a law to punish doctors who issue inauthentic health reports to people applying for gun ownership.
The United States stands out among countries for the frequency with which its mass shootings occur. But last year, after the US witnessed its most fatal mass shooting in history at Las Vegas, the Trump administration made it easier—not harder—for people with mental illness to buy guns. (That decision rolled back Obama-era restrictions that had been passed in the wake of Sandy Hook.)
Back in 1996, it took only 12 days after a mass shooting for Australia to pass the National Firearms Agreement, which banned automatic and semi-automatic weapon for “personal defense.” The country created a temporary buyback program for guns that had become illegal. Stricter background checks were enforced. As Zeif pointed out yesterday, there have been no school shootings in Australia since.
As the televised meeting in the White House continued, thousands of other US teenagers walked out of their high schools, echoing his call for gun control.
Read next: A two-year timeline of FBI and police failures to stop the Parkland school shooter
看看人中国怎么控枪！美媒终于忍不住说这话了！
京港台：2018-2-24 07:17| 来源：环球网 | 评论( 31 )条
[环球时报-环球网报道 记者白云怡]最近发生在美国佛罗里达州的校园枪击(专题)惨剧让整个世界都唏嘘不已，但让美国本国民众最不满的是，尽管大规模枪击惨剧一再上演，但美国政府却始终没有出台什么真正有效的措施。尤其当禁枪在美国已经被和自由和所谓的公民权利等“政治正确”的概念紧密联系在一起时，枪支管控也越来越成为了美国社会一个解不开的死结。
在21日举行的一次会面中，美国总统特朗普(专题)在白宫向数名学生、教师和家长代表询问，“你们有谁对如何阻止这类事件有什么想法吗？”对于这个疑问，美国时下最火的新媒体之一Quartz 22日给他们支了这样一个招——借鉴一下中国等其他国家。文章称，中国有着非常严格的枪支管控法律，而且还在采取进一步措施，控制农村地区的猎枪拥有量。“研究表明，枪支拥有率越低的国家凶杀率也越低。”
在这篇题为“亲爱的美国，这是其他国家怎样阻止大规模枪击案的”的文章中，Quartz这样写道：“白宫的特邀嘉宾们（对减少枪击案）提出了许多需要解决的问题：精神疾病、校园欺凌、FBI的疏忽、无枪区、审查制度、党派偏见、缺乏专家顾问、对学生安全培训不到位，甚至是学校里没有带枪的便衣警察…但正如一名18岁的幸存者扎伊夫提出的，一个众所周知的想法已经被证明能够阻止大规模枪击案的发生，那就是更严格的枪支法。”
Quartz援引一项研究结果称，枪支较少的国家也有着更低的凶杀率，即使在美国国内来看，枪支较少的州，凶杀案也较少。2002年发布的一项研究显示，枪支拥有率高的州的凶杀率是拥有率低的州的三倍。而十年后2013年的一项研究则发现，枪支拥有率每上升一个百分点，枪击杀人的风险就会增加0.9%。
在这篇文章的作者看来，大规模枪击案也曾在其他国家发生过，但这些国家都汲取了教训，对自己的枪支管控法律作出了改善，而这些值得美国借鉴的国家分别是：德国、瑞士、中国和俄罗斯。报道称，中国和俄罗斯政府正在收紧有关枪支拥有和枪支类别的法律规定。“中国已经制定了非常严格的枪支法律，而面对枪支拥有率上升的情况，中国也已采取进一步措施，其中包括取缔在农村地区非常普遍的猎枪。”Quartz称，而在俄罗斯，购买枪支则需要医疗证明等许可证。为了控制非法持有枪支，俄政府也正在讨论一项法律，以惩罚那些向枪支持有申请者出具不真实的健康报告的医生。
至于德国和瑞士，和美国立法机构不同，这两个国家的法律制定者们在屠杀事件发生后都对相关法律进行了修改，以防止枪击事件再次发生。在德国，2002年古腾堡中学枪击案发生后，自动和半自动火器在2008年被禁止使用；而在曾对枪支拥有权持和美国类似态度的瑞士，在一场造成14日死亡的地区议会袭击案发生后，相关法律也得到修改，对弹药储存的管制变得更为严格。
“在一众国家中，美国大规模枪击案的发生频率显得尤其突出”，Quartz写道，然而，在去年拉斯维加斯发生历史上最致命的一次枪击事件后，美国政府却反而让精神疾病患者购买枪支更容易了。“而当白宫里的会面还在进行之时，数千名美国年轻人已走出校园，请求对枪支进行管控”。
