美国国家公共电台 NPR Sharp Increase In Gun Suicides Signals Growing Public Health Crisis

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

All right. Here in the U.S., when we talk about gun violence, we usually talk about homicides. But two-thirds of gun deaths in this country are caused by suicide, by people deliberately¹ harming themselves. As North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann reports, even many pro-gun activists³ say something has to be done to make gun culture less dangerous.

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE⁴: When Dorothy Paugh was 9, her father bought a pistol and started talking openly about ending his life. Her mother was terrified but didn't know what to do.

DOROTHY PAUGH: She called our priest, and she called his best friend. And they came, and they talked to him. And they didn't ask to take his gun away.

MANN: Her father killed himself when he was just 51 years old. Then, six years ago, Paugh's son, Peter, bought a pistol. He walked to a nearby park and shot himself. He was 25 years old when he died.

PAUGH: It was so shattering, so catastrophic. He made a 911 call to the police because he said he didn't want any children to come upon the gun and his body.

MANN: We're hearing Dorothy Paugh's story because this happens a lot in America. Using the latest data, the Centers for Disease Control found that over a single decade, nearly 220,000 Americans shot themselves to death. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., with firearms accounting⁵ for half of those fatalities⁶.

PAUL NESTADT: As I looked into suicide more and more, it became very clear that access to lethal⁷ means, specifically guns, was one of the most important risk factors that we could address.

MANN: Paul Nestadt is a psychiatrist⁸ and suicide researcher at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He says suicide attempts are fairly common in the U.S. Having a gun in the home or workplace makes them far more likely to succeed.

NESTADT: So a firearm ends in death in a suicide attempt about 85 percent of the time compared to something like poisoning, which only ends in death about 2 percent of the time.

MANN: Suicide is almost always a really impulsive⁹ act, Nestadt says. Research shows that if you limit access to firearms, even for a short time, people usually don't go looking for other ways to harm themselves. Also people who survive one suicide attempt rarely try again. He and other researchers have found that people most at risk tend to be white men in America's small towns.

NESTADT: Since it tends to be more rural, more white, definitely more male, somewhat older that have more firearms, they also have the higher suicide rate by firearms.

MANN: People in gun culture don't dispute these statistics. But for years, they've downplayed the risks, arguing that guns actually make you safer if they're in the hands of good people. But the reluctance¹⁰ to acknowledge the danger for average law-abiding gun owners - that's starting to change.

ALAN GOTTLIEB: It's touched close to me.

MANN: Alan Gottlieb is founder¹¹ of one of the oldest gun rights groups in the U.S., the Second Amendment¹² Foundation based in Washington state. He says one of his employees shot and killed himself.

GOTTLIEB: We, of all people, would like to solve this problem, you know, more than anybody. It would surely help us in the gun debate from our side and, likewise, would save a lot of lives.

MANN: Gottlieb opposes most gun control efforts. He thinks education is the way to curb¹³ the more than 20,000 firearm suicides each year.

GOTTLIEB: Our hunter safety manual now talks about suicide prevention in it. Our concealed-weapon permits - when people get renewals¹⁴ in the state of Washington, there'll be messages on suicide prevention.

MANN: After her son's death in 2012, Dorothy Paugh emerged as a leading gun control activist² in Maryland. She wants the message to gun buyers to be even more blunt.

PAUGH: I really wanted to shake that notion, which is marketing¹⁵ hype, that guns make people safer because the vast majority of the time, that it is just not true.

MANN: But Paugh does credit gun rights groups for doing more to raise awareness¹⁶ and says they've shown flexibility¹⁷ when it comes to suicide prevention. She points to a so-called red flag law that she helped push through Maryland's legislature this year. These laws allow police to temporarily confiscate¹⁸ guns from people who may be at risk.

PAUGH: The state NRA did not oppose what finally came out. And the governor had spoken up, and he's a Republican, you know? Let's get this done.

MANN: These efforts to curb gun suicide are new and still untested. With so many firearms already in American homes, the truth is that no one knows whether modest measures, like education and red flag laws, will put a serious dent¹⁹ in a suicide rate that continues to rise.

Brian Mann, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MARIA HOLLOWAY'S "RAIN")

1 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

2 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

3 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》

4 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。

5 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

6 fatalities   

n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运

参考例句：

• Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. 有几个人受伤，但没有人死亡。
• The accident resulted in fatalities. 那宗意外道致多人死亡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

8 psychiatrist   

n.精神病专家；精神病医师

参考例句：

• He went to a psychiatrist about his compulsive gambling.他去看精神科医生治疗不能自拔的赌瘾。
• The psychiatrist corrected him gently.精神病医师彬彬有礼地纠正他。

9 impulsive   

adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的

参考例句：

• She is impulsive in her actions.她的行为常出于冲动。
• He was neither an impulsive nor an emotional man,but a very honest and sincere one.他不是个一冲动就鲁莽行事的人，也不多愁善感.他为人十分正直、诚恳。

10 reluctance   

n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿

参考例句：

• The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
• He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。

11 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

12 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。

13 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

14 renewals   

重建( renewal的名词复数 )； 更新； 重生； 合同的续订

参考例句：

• Number of circulations excluding renewals. 7th out of 10 libraries. 借阅数目（不包括续借）。在10间图书馆中排行第七。
• Certification Renewals shall be due on July 1 of the renewal year. 资格认证更新在更新年的7月1日生效。

15 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

16 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

17 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

18 confiscate   

v.没收(私人财产)，把…充公

参考例句：

• The police have the right to confiscate any forbidden objects they find.如发现违禁货物，警方有权查扣。
• Did the teacher confiscate your toy?老师没收你的玩具了吗？

19 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。