美国国家公共电台 NPR Millennials Are No More Liberal On Gun Control Than Elders, Polls Show

 

SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

In the days since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., there have been calls for more gun control from high school students around the country. There's a lot of polling that indicates young people skew more liberal on social issues than their elders with one notable exception, and that's guns. Young adults are no more liberal than their parents or grandparents when it comes to gun control. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang has more.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN 1: How are you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN 2: We're going to start the sign-in sheet this week. So if you want to come over...

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE¹: Every week, inside a red brick building at the University of Delaware, there's a gathering² of young advocates of the Second Amendment³.

JORDAN RIGER: My name is Jordan Riger. I'm 22, and I'm the treasurer⁴ of the Students for the Second Amendment club here at UD.

WANG: Riger is keeping attendance on her laptop which shows off a yellow NRA bumper⁵ sticker with the words don't tread on my gun rights. On tonight's meeting agenda is a discussion about the gunman who killed 17 high school students and staff in Parkland, Fla.

RIGER: That's a violation⁶ of the Second Amendment. That's not what it was intended for, in my own personal view.

WANG: Riger was 18 when she took an NRA course on pistol shooting. She sees guns as self-defense tools, but she thinks many of her millennial⁷ peers don't.

RIGER: We are living in a time right now where we're seeing a lot more of these mass casualties. So I think when people don't know that much about firearms, when they see it on the news used in a horrible fashion, that's like all they associate it with.

FRANK NEWPORT: The question is, should gun laws in the U.S. be made more strict, less strict or kept as they are now?

WANG: That's what Frank Newport's polling organization, Gallup, has asked the under-30 crowd over the past three years. What they found was millennials feel pretty much the same about gun control as their elders. But Kim Parker, who leads social trends polling at the Pew Research Center, says millennials are more conservative than older generations when it comes to two gun control proposals.

KIM PARKER: The biggest gap that we see is on banning assault-style weapons.

WANG: And on banning high-capacity ammunition⁸ magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Pew's polling last year found that a greater share of millennials, both Republicans and Democrats⁹, are more conservative when it comes to those bans compared to older generations.

PARKER: What we're hearing now in the immediate¹⁰ aftermath of Parkland might not be representative of what a whole generation feels.

WANG: To be clear, some demographers¹¹ argue that millennials make up one part of today's generation of young people. They say that millennials include people born in the '80s and all the way through 2000 and that the teenaged high school activists¹² who have been organizing since the Florida shooting are part of a separate group some call Generation Z. Still, for 19-year-old Abigail Kaye, who considers herself a millennial, the polling results about her peers come as a shock.

ABIGAIL KAYE: I think that's surprising because I feel like we're a more progressive generation.

WANG: Kaye said says she remembers hearing about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School when she was growing up about a couple hours away. Fellow University of Delaware student Cahlil Evans is 20 and says he doesn't need a gun. And he can understand why people would want hunting rifles and handguns, but assault-style rifles?

CAHLIL EVANS: There's no need for these high-caliber¹³ rifles that pierce through walls. And people can say they use them for hunting or whatever. But why do you need a weapon with such high caliber that'll pierce through the animal and like eight trees behind it?

JEREMY GRUNDEN: I base what we need off of what the military has.

WANG: Jeremy Grunden is 22, president of the students for the Second Amendment at the University of Delaware. And he says he's encouraged to hear that millennials are less likely to support banning assault-style weapons.

GRUNDEN: When it comes comes like the Second Amendment, we're supposed to be a well-armed and well-maintained militia¹⁴ and all that. Quite frankly¹⁵, I feel like we need that and plus more.

WANG: Many of the high schoolers organizing next month's march for our lives in Washington, D.C., say what the country needs is more gun control. But pollsters say it's unclear right now if they really represent the voice of Generation Z. Why? Well, pollsters generally don't count the views of those under 18. So we probably won't have national polling on that until more of them are officially adults. Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News, Newark, Del. 

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

3 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

4 treasurer   

n.司库，财务主管

参考例句：

• Mr. Smith was succeeded by Mrs.Jones as treasurer.琼斯夫人继史密斯先生任会计。
• The treasurer was arrested for trying to manipulate the company's financial records.财务主管由于试图窜改公司财政帐目而被拘留。

5 bumper   

n.(汽车上的)保险杠；adj.特大的，丰盛的

参考例句：

• The painting represents the scene of a bumper harvest.这幅画描绘了丰收的景象。
• This year we have a bumper harvest in grain.今年我们谷物丰收。

6 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

7 millennial   

一千年的，千福年的

参考例句：

• Both Russia and America looked to the future to fulfill their millennial expectations. 俄国和美国都把实现他们黄金时代的希望寄托于未来。
• The millennial generation is celebrating the global commons every day, apparently unmindful of Hardin's warning. 千禧一代显然对哈丁的警告不以为然，每天都在颂扬全球“公地”。

8 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

9 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

11 demographers   

n.人口统计学( demography的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Demographers, however, point out that the'single" trend will have a profound effect on American institutions. 不过，人口学家们指出，“单身”趋势将对美国的公共机构产生深远的影响。 来自时文部分
• Selectivity of human migration long been the focus of demographers and economists. 人口迁移的选择性一直以来都是人口学家和经济学家关注的焦点。 来自互联网

12 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 caliber   

n.能力；水准

参考例句：

• They ought to win with players of such high caliber.他们选手的能力这样高,应该获胜。
• We are always trying to improve the caliber of our schools.我们一直在想方设法提高我们学校的水平。

14 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

15 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。