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发帖数: 1814 | 1 自从巴黎恐怖袭击以来，最近几周买枪的美国人数刷新了历史记录。黑五当天FBI就做
了18万多的枪支背景调查。当白宫官员表示，这么多人买枪是个“悲剧”，他们无法解
释。
President Obama’s spokesman said Thursday that the record number of
Americans seeking to buy guns in recent weeks is “a tragedy” that the
White House is at a loss to explain.
“The more that we see this kind of violence on our streets, the more people
go out and buy guns,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “
That is both ironic and tragic.”
The FBI conducted 185,345 firearms background checks on Black Friday, the
most ever during a single day. The record number of gun sales came two weeks
after the Islamic State’s terrorist attacks in Paris, but before the
terrorist massacre in San Bernardino, California.
Asked why he thinks so many Americans are buying guns, Mr. Earnest replied,
“I don’t know, I really don’t.”
“In some cases these are individuals who believe that they need to buy a
gun so that they can better protect themselves,” he said. “In some cases
because it’s Black Friday, they probably are going and purchasing a gift
for a friend or a loved one who is a gun enthusiast. I’m just pointing out
that there are already an astonishing number of guns on the streets of
America and far too many innocent Americans who are being killed by them.”
At a vigil this week for victims of the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown,
Connecticut, presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett said Mr. Obama has ordered
his aides to quickly finalize gun control recommendations for executive
action. White House aides said the proposals will be aimed at keeping guns
out of the hands of people with criminal records, likely meaning expanded
background checks, and preventing people who are mentally ill from owning
firearms.
Gun Owners for Gun Control, a progressive group, responded with praise to
the news that Mr. Obama is readying executive action on background checks.
“We applaud President Obama for reportedly preparing to expand background
checks on gun sales without waiting for Congress,” the group said in a
statement. “As gun owners, we wholeheartedly support executive action to
strengthen background checks as a necessary first step to address the
epidemic of gun violence in America.”
Mr. Earnest said America “is awash in guns.”
“It’s tragic that in the immediate aftermath of a series of high profile
mass shootings, that people feel like they have to go out and purchase a gun
,” he said. “That ready access to guns and that proliferation of violent
weapons of war has not led to fewer gun deaths. It’s tragic that even in
the situation where we have lots of guns on the streets that lead to lots of
innocent Americans being killed, that the response to that is that a whole
lot more guns end up on the streets. That’s tragic and ironic.”
Mr. Obama has called on Congress to ban semiautomatic “assault” rifles and
to ban people who are on the government’s “no-fly” terrorist watch list
from purchasing guns. Mr. Earnest said Thursday that he isn’t aware of any
perpetrators of mass shootings in the U.S. who were on the no-fly list. |
