我曾在拉斯维加斯酒店合法持枪

 

 

上星期天晚，拉斯维加斯发生了大规模的乱枪杀人事件。一名武装到枪手能将一挺机关枪及20多支枪支和弹药带进繁忙的旅游城市的曼德勒酒店32层的一间客房, 大开杀戒，让该城市血流成河。该枪案再次引起美国控制枪支议题的激烈辩论，也使美国的持枪文化再次成为全球关注之焦点。拉斯维加斯所处的内华达州，长期以来是美国枪支管理最松的一个州。

The deadly mass shooting in Vegas on Sunday night has caused bloodshed and shocked the city of global tourist destiny in the core. Armed to the teeth, a lone gunman was able to bring a stockpile of over 20 firearms, including automatic weapons, into the 32th floor of Mandalay Bay hotel, a four-star hotel in a busy tourist destination. The incident has renewed heated debate over American gun control law, and put American gun culture under the global spotlight. Nevada the state that Vegas is in, has long had the most relaxed gun laws in the country. 

除了机场、学校等一些公共场所外，在内华达州，法律允许人们公开携带枪支。只要经过简单的背景审查，大多数人都可以通过申请获得隐藏携带枪支许可。美国的枪支文化之如此普遍，以至于我去年去拉斯维加斯旅游时，一名住在内华达州的朋友向我展示了他合法拥有多年的手枪。握着那把手枪的我当时离曼德勒酒店只有几英里远， 显然对一年后将发生的这场大规模，高杀伤力的惨案毫不知情，也根本不会想到血泊中倒下的还包括象我这样到这个城市造访的加国游客。

It's legal to openly carry a gun almost anywhere in Nevada, except for some public buildings such as airports and schools. Concealed carry permits will be issued to most applicants who pass basic background checks. This gun culture was so prevalent that in my last year’s visit to Vegas, a friend of mine from the state showed me a handgun that he had legally possessed for years. Holding that gun in my hand at the time, at a hotel that was only a few miles away from Mandalay, I never expected such devastating tragedy will happen nearby at such scale and velocity a year later, with several victims being Canadians visiting the city just like me. 

在拉斯维加斯惨剧发生后，虽然我那手枪在握的情景时常闪现在我的脑海中，但这与我记忆中90年代发生在加拿大蒙特利尔市的康科迪亚大学的枪杀案相比根本算不了什么。当时的我作为一名留学生在那所大学读书。1992年8月一个炎热夏天的午后，一位计算机工程师系的副教授在公文包的遮掩下把三把枪和弹药带到系里，在我所上课的楼层大开杀戒，谋杀了四名同事和一名系里的工作人员。

While the image of me holding the handgun in Vegas hotel has repeatedly appeared in my mind after the mass shooting, it paled in comparison with the memories of the gun violence that I witnessed at Concordia University in Montreal when I came to Canadian as a Visa student in the 1990s. On a hot summer afternoon in Aug. 1992, an associate professor at the department of computer engineer who was denied tenure carried three guns and ammunition in his briefcase and went on a shooting rampage on my floor, killing four of his colleagues and wounding a staff member. 

这起谋杀事件让我和许多同学挥之不去的噩梦，给受害者的家属及他们亲人们造成的打击也无法言表。谁会相信三名教授会在这个以和平著称的加拿大，在一个即将下班与家人团聚的美丽夏日，死在同事的枪口之下？

While the incident has haunted many us students at the time, its devastating impact on the family members and their loved ones were beyond description. Who could possibly expect that the three professors would not make home from work on a beautiful afternoon in such a great and peaceful country, Canada?

星期天晚上的大屠杀让拉斯维加斯哭泣，它将永远给受害者家属和亲人的生活成阴影，其中许多人将生活在悲剧的噩梦中,无法面对这残酷的现实。杀人凶手用机枪不分青红皂白地打死了59人，造成500人受伤，造成现代北美历史上最严重和最可怕的大屠杀，其规模和伤害胜过北美以往任何一次枪击案。

The Sunday night massacre has left Vegas reeling, and will forever cast a dark shadow on the lives of the victims’ families and loved ones, many of whom are living in the nightmare and struggling to process the tragedy.  With access to fully automatic weapons, the shooter randomly killed 59 and wounded 500, creating the worst and the most horrific massacre in modern North American history, with impact far more severe and widespread than any one happened in the past. 

美国是发达国家中枪杀犯罪最严重的国家，也是人们最容易拥有枪支的国家，而且，美国还是宪法保护拥有枪支的少数几个国家之一。毫不惊奇的是，美国持枪杀人的事件是加拿大的六倍，是德国的16倍。美国虽然只占全世界4.4％的人口，但美国百姓拥有枪支数量是全球平民拥有枪支总数的一半。

When it came to gun crimes, the US is the most violent among the developed nations. Firearm access is also the easiest in America, and US is one of the few countries in which the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected. As a result, America has six times as many firearm homicides as Canada, and nearly 16 times as many as Germany. With only 4.4 percent of the world’s population, the country has almost half of the civilian-owned guns around the world.

美国警方说，他们发现了凶手巴道克拥有42支武器，其中23支放在酒店的房间，19支留着家里。这些武器包括由自动步枪或半自动步枪非法改装的枪支。只要扣动扳机，这些全自动步枪就可以连续射击，直到弹匣里的子弹全部打完。

Police said they recovered a total of 42 weapons belonging to Mr. Paddock, the Vegas shooter, including 23 from the hotel room and 19 at his home. Some were automatic weapons or semi-automatic rifles illegally modified into fully-automatic weapons. With a fully automatic weapon, one trigger pull can unleash continuous rounds until the magazine is empty.  

显然，我在拉斯维加斯酒店房间里所握的那只手枪从杀伤力来说与凶手所用的机枪不能相提并论。但是美国这种广为泛滥枪支文化使大规模屠杀一次又一次地发生，从2012年的纽敦康涅狄格州的暴力到2016年的佛罗里达州奥兰多惨案，最终发生了星期天晚上维加斯内华达州的最残酷的血腥屠杀。

Undoubtedly, the handgun that I had a chance to hold in that Vegas hotel room was nowhere close to the automatic firearms used by the gunman in killing power. But it is this widespread gun culture that has fueled mass shooting incidents in the US one after another, from Newtown Conn in 2012 to Orlando Florida in 2016 to Vegas Nevada on Sunday night.