2019年经济学人 新西兰枪支管制:让悲剧不再重演（在线收听）

Gun control

枪支管制

Never again

让悲剧不再上演

New Zealand’s parliament bans semi-automatic rifles

新西兰议会宣布禁持半自动枪支

Attempts to strengthen New Zealand’s gun-control laws have failed in parliament four times over the past 20 years. That was before a white supremacist laid siege to two mosques in the city of Christchurch on March 15th, killing 50 people. This week a bill to ban the kind of high-powered semi-automatic weapons that he used was introduced; every MP but one supports it. It should sail into law in days.

在过去二十年里，新西兰枪支管制法的法律试图加强，四次都没有通过议会。然后，在克赖斯特彻奇市，一名白人至上主义者包围了两座清真寺，杀害了50人。本周，一项禁止使用大功率半自动武器的法案出台，这种武器正是凶手使用的武器；只有一名议员反对，其余所有议员都支持这项法案。它应在几天内成为法律。

New Zealand has one of the world’s highest rates of gun ownership, with 26 guns per 100 people. That puts it 20th out of the 230 countries and territories ranked by the Small Arms Survey, a research institute. Despite this, it ranks only 172nd out of 195 countries in terms of deaths per person from firearms, according to data from the University of Washington. Total killings with guns are typically in the single digits each year, out of a population of 4.8m.

新西兰是世界上枪支持有率最高的国家之一，每100人就有26名持枪者。“轻武器调查”研究所对230个国家和地区的持枪率进行了排名，新西兰位列第20名。尽管如此，根据华盛顿大学的数据，在195个国家中，新西兰的人均枪支死亡人数仅排在172位。在480万人口中，每年用枪杀人的总数通常只有个位数。

The already low rate of killings with guns is one reason why it will be hard to discern the new law’s effectiveness. Australia adopted similar legislation in 1996 after a mass shooting in the state of Tasmania. The Australian government banned semi-automatic rifles, created a national gun registry and bought firearms from citizens, as New Zealand intends to. The stock of licensed guns fell by about a third.

枪支杀人率本来就很低，这也是很难看出新法律有效性的原因之一。澳大利亚在塔斯马尼亚州大规模枪击事件后，于1996年通过了类似的法律。澳大利亚政府禁用半自动步枪，创建了全国枪支登记制度，从公民手中购买枪支，新西兰正打算这样做，登记过的枪支存量下降了三分之一。

Firearm-related suicides and homicides fell after the legislation passed. But firearm deaths had already been falling before 1996, and the pace did not notably accelerate. Moreover, gun violence was declining in many other rich countries, few of which had adopted stricter gun laws. 

此项法律通过后，与枪支有关的自杀和他杀都有所减少。但在1996年以前，枪支致死人数已经在下降，而且通过法律后速度没有明显加快。此外，枪支暴力在许多其他富裕国家也在减少，这些国家中很少采用更严格的枪支法。

Australia’s gun reforms almost entirely eliminated mass shootings. Between 1980 and 1996 there were 13 incidents in which five or more victims were shot to death. There has been just one since. But until Christchurch, New Zealand had not seen any mass shootings in over 20 years, despite the many semi-automatic rifles.

澳大利亚的枪支改革几乎完全消除了大规模枪击事件。在1980年至1996年期间发生了13起枪击事件，5名甚至更多受害者被枪杀。从那之后就只有一起事件。但在克赖斯特彻奇市事件之前，新西兰尽管有许多半自动步枪，但在过去20多年里从未发生过大规模枪击事件。

This suggests that social norms have been New Zealand’s best defence against mass shootings. But as Philip Alpers of the University of Sydney notes, the killer in Christchurch would simply not have been able to buy such deadly weapons in his home country, Australia.

这表明，社会规范一直是新西兰对大规模枪击事件的最佳防御。但是正如悉尼大学的菲利普·阿尔珀指出的那样，克赖斯特彻奇市事件的凶手根本无法在他的祖国澳大利亚买到如此致命的武器。