英语新闻丨美国大选前枪支销量大幅增长

In the first four months of this presidential election year, nearly 5.5 million legal firearms were purchased in the US, according to FBI data, while the candidates from both major parties have starkly different positions on gun control.根据联邦调查局的数据，2024年上半年，美国购买了近550万支合法枪支，而民主党和共和党的两方候选人在枪支管制方面的立场截然不同。Vice-President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, advocates stricter regulations, while Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump is pro-gun rights. These contrasting stances are already resonating differently with likely voters.民主党候选人副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯（Kamala Harris）主张制定更严格的规定，而共和党候选人、前总统唐纳德·特朗普则支持枪支权利。双方立场在选民中引发了不同反应。David Liu, owner of Arcadia Firearm & Safety in Arcadia, California, serves a predominantly Asian community 30 minutes from Monterey Park, where a tragic mass shooting during a Chinese New Year Festival left 11 dead and nine injured last year.大卫·刘（David·Liu）是位于加利福尼亚州阿卡迪亚枪械与安全公司的所有者，该公司为其附近的亚裔社区提供服务。而在2023年中国新年期间发生的悲剧性大规模枪击事件造成11人死亡，9人受伤。"I'm a Trump supporter. And it's not because (Republicans) support guns that I vote for them. Because I look overall on the candidates. I prefer Trump's overall policy," Liu said. "I will not vote for a guy just because he said he supports guns. That's not the point of voting for the president."大卫·刘表示：“我是特朗普的支持者。我投票给他并不是因为（共和党人）支持枪支，而是因为我更喜欢特朗普的整体政策。我不会仅仅因为一个人说他支持枪支就投票给他，这并不是总统大选的意义所在。”Liu said that over the past two months, his sales have been slow, attributing it to a new 11 percent tax on gun sales and ammunition imposed in July by California's Democrat-controlled legislature to fund violence prevention. This is in addition to the existing federal tax of 10 or 11 percent on firearms.在过去的两个月里，大卫·刘的枪支销售趋于平缓，这是由于加州由民主党控制的立法机构于7月对枪支销售和弹药征收了11%的新税，以此预防暴力行为，这也是对现有枪支10%-11%联邦税的补充。About 16.7 million firearms were sold in the United States last year, a 4 percent decline from 2022, according to SafeHome.org, which analyzed the FBI's national instant background-check data.根据SafeHome.org的数据，去年美国售出约1670万支枪支，较2022年下降了 4%，该数据分析了FBI在全美背景下的调查数据。The National Shooting Sports Foundation found that firearm sales to Asian Americans rose by 43 percent in 2020 compared with 2019, a response to a rise in hate crimes against the community during the pandemic.美国国家射击运动基金会（National Shooting Sports Foundation）表示，与2019年相比，2020年向亚裔美国人出售的枪支增长了43%，这是针对疫情期间社区仇恨犯罪增加所给予的回应。The US has more guns than people, with estimates ranging from 425 million to 475 million in a country of 333 million people as of 2022.美国的枪支数量已超过其人口，截至2022年，美国人口近3.33亿，枪支数量在 4.25亿至4.75亿之间。A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in June found that only 4 percent of likely voters considered gun violence the most important issue in choosing a president, with the economy taking precedence.昆尼皮亚克大学（Quinnipiac University）6月进行的一项民意调查发现，只有 4%的潜在选民认为枪支暴力是选择总统时最重要的问题，大部分选民认为经济优先。Nearly half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents own a gun, compared with 20 percent of Democrats and those who lean liberal, Pew Research Center found.皮尤研究中心（Pew Research Center）发现，近半数共和党和倾向共和党的独立人士拥有枪支，而民主党人和倾向于枪支自由的人仅占20%。Carl Bogus, a law professor at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, told China Daily that the Republican Party considers the gun lobby to be an "essential" part of its political coalition.罗杰·威廉姆斯大学（Roger Williams University）的法学教授卡尔·博格斯（Carl Bogus）在接受《中国日报》采访时表示，共和党认为枪支游说是其政治联盟的“必不可少”的一部分。Trump has called himself "the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House". He told an audience in February at the National Rifle Association's Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that "no one will lay a finger on your firearms" if he wins.特朗普称共和党是“枪支拥有者在白宫有史以来最好的朋友”。今年2月，他在宾夕法尼亚州哈里斯堡举行的全国步枪协会（National Rifle Association）美国户外展上对观众说，如果他赢得本次总统选举，“没有人会对你的枪支动手脚”。In his administration, Trump reversed a law that restricted people with mental illness to purchase a gun, and banned bump stocks that can convert semiautomatic weapons into a machine gun-like weapon. In June, the Supreme Court lifted the ban, citing the Second Amendment of the Constitution.在其共和党政府中，特朗普推翻了限制精神疾病患者购买枪支的法律，并禁止将半自动武器转化为类似机枪武器的撞枪托。6月，最高法院援引宪法第二修正案解除了禁令。Harris, head of the first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, has repeatedly discussed more gun control on the campaign trail and held a summit against gun violence in Atlanta in June.哈里斯是第一届白宫枪支暴力预防办公室的负责人，她在竞选过程中多次讨论加强枪支管制，并于6月在亚特兰大举行了反对枪支暴力的峰会。On Wednesday, after four people were killed in a school shooting in Georgia, Harris addressed gun violence at schools.在佐治亚州发生校园枪击事件造成4人死亡后，哈里斯谈到了校园枪支暴力问题。"It's just outrageous that every day in our country ... that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive," she said. "It doesn't have to be this way."“在我们国家，父母需要每天送孩子上学，担心他们的孩子是否能活着回家。”哈里斯表示，“事情本不该是这样的。”This year, there have been at least 384 mass shootings — defined as a shooting involving at least four victims, dead or wounded — across the US, and at least 11,557 people have been killed in firearms violence this year in the country, according to the Gun Violence Archive.根据枪支暴力档案（Gun Violence Archive）的数据，今年美国至少发生了384 起大规模枪击事件（涉及至少4名受害者、死亡或受伤的枪击事件）。2024年该国至少有11557人死于枪支暴力。