美国是一个允许公民持枪的国家，他们只要通过合理的渠道进行申请，便能够获得相关资格。不仅如此，在美国境内，枪支交易是允许被存在的，虽然这一法规可能会导致枪击案的发生，但从另一方面来看，人们却能够在遇到危险的时候保护自己。美国有关部门周二表示，发生在佐治亚州首府及最大城市亚特兰大按摩院和水疗中心的大规模枪击事件已造成8人死亡，其中很多是亚裔女性。就在几小时之后，一名21岁的男子在佐治亚州西南部被捕。

What connects America’s mass shootings? Easy access to guns.

The United States is a violent society, and has been since the first Europeans stepped foot on its shores. Millions of Native Americans — we will never know the true number — were killed as Europeans colonized the continent. Slavery lasted for more than 240 years, and it was practiced with a grotesque brutality. Viewed in this way, our ongoing gun-violence death toll is just another facet of our violent history. But it’s one we could bring to an end, if only we chose to. Our homicide rate dwarfs that of any other comparably advanced nation.

In the United States, there are so many firearms in circulation that there is more than one per every American. No surprise, 4 out of every 10 of us say we are personally acquainted with someone who has been shot. Nations with looser attitudes toward gun ownership experience more gun violence than those without. While mass shootings garner the most attention, our day-to-day death toll is staggering. Even as mass-fatality events plunged in 2020, likely because of the covid-19 lockdowns, gun violence is up significantly in many cities.

Murder rates in big cities throughout the United States increased by more than one-third last year, with many cities seeing particularly startling increases: Homicides in Chicago increased by more than 50 percent, New York by 40 percent. The vast majority of this surge was murders committed with firearms.

文本选自：The Washington Post（华盛顿邮报）
作者：Helaine Olen
原文发布时间：20 Mar. 2021

Sergio Díaz De Rojas - Ich bin Himmel, wenn ich den Himmel liebe

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

知足是人生在世最大的幸事。