美国去年底发生的校园枪击案骇人听闻。俺很关心，而且觉得应该做点什么。在网友牧人（这老兄该回来了吧？还有医生）的建议下，俺到白宫网站登记注册，投票支持对枪支实行严格管制。
最近收到了白宫发来的两封电子邮件，一封是2012 年12月21日，解释了奥巴马政府在枪支控制方面的立场，希望继续支持。另一封是2012年1月16日收到的。标题是If not now, when? （现在不行动，更待何时？）解释了奧巴馬总统今天宣布的一项计划内容，并呼吁民众进一步的支持。在倾听了各界人士的意见后，奥巴马政府决定优先解决一些关键性问题，诸如查堵购枪者背景审查方面存在的漏洞、禁止售卖军用进攻性武器，加强学校安全措施、增加心理健康服务等。
这封信仍然承认，持枪是宪法赋予每个美国公民的权利，每一个守法、负责任的美国人都有权携带武器。奥巴马可能有意继续推动更严格的枪械控制，但这需要国会立法。因此奥巴马决定优先解决一些容易解决的问题，包括查堵背景审查漏洞、禁止出售军用进攻性武器，加强学校安全措施、增加心理健康服务等。
本人曾在美国生活过几年， 虽然并未受过枪支之害，但看到体育用品商店、沃尔玛商店、甚至Yard Sale 都卖枪，还是觉得这个社会枪支太泛滥了，终究不是什么好事。美国人在垦荒时代要求拥枪的权利是为了自卫，抵抗暴政。但美国民主制度经过几百年的发展，已经走向成熟。守卫国土靠军队，维护社会治安靠警察，普通公民有什么必要持枪自卫？因此，我支持在社会上完全禁枪。
顺便把这两封信贴在下面。我觉得这种互动方式很有用。据我所知，中国一些地方政府也有在网上与民众互动的，不知效果如何。
Hello –
Today President Obama announced a plan to help protect our kids and communities from gun violence. You’re going to hear a lot about it, but I wanted to make sure you got a chance to get the facts, straight from me.
After hearing from Americans from across the political spectrum, we decided to focus on some key priorities: closing background check loopholes, banning military-style assault weapons, making our schools safer, and increasing access to mental health services.
The ideas we sent to President Obama are straightforward. Each of them honors the rights of law-abiding, responsible Americans to bear arms. Some of them will require action from Congress; the President is acting on others immediately. But they’re all commonsense and will help make us a little safer.
Now is the time for all of us to act.
Here’s what we’ve put together:
We’re calling for requiring background checks for all gun sales and closing the loopholes that allow dangerous individuals to make their purchase without going through one of these checks.
We’re asking for a new, stronger ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that allow a shooter to fire dozens of bullets as quickly as he can pull a trigger. And we’re asking Congress to help protect law enforcement by make it illegal for members of the public to possess armor-piercing bullets.
We’re going to give law enforcement more tools and resources to prevent and prosecute gun crimes, and we’re going to end the freeze on gun violence research that prevents the Center from Disease Control from looking at the causes of gun violence.
We’re calling on Congress to help make schools safer by putting up to 1,000 school resource officers and mental health professionals in schools and ensuring they have comprehensive emergency management plans in place.
And we’re going to increase coverage so that students and young adults can get access to the mental health treatment they may need.
We know that no policy we enact or law we enforce can prevent every senseless act of violence in our country. But if we can save the life of even one child, we have a deep responsibility to act.
Now is the time to come together to protect our kids. Learn about the plan, then add your name alongside mine:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/now-is-the-time
Thanks,
Vice President Joe Biden
A Message from President Obama about Your Petition on Reducing Gun Violence
By Bruce Reed, Chief of Staff to Vice President Biden
In the days since the tragedy in Newtown, Americans from all over the country have called for action to deter mass shootings and reduce gun violence. Hundreds of thousands of you have signed petitions on We the People.
I’m writing you today to thank you for speaking up, to update you on an important development, and to encourage you to continue engaging with the White House on this critical issue.
First, you should know that President Obama is paying close to attention to the public response to this tragedy. In fact, he sat down to record a message specifically for those of you who have joined the conversation using We the People. Watch it now:
On Wednesday, the President outlined a series of first steps we can take to begin the work of ending this cycle of violence. This is what he said:
“We know this is a complex issue that stirs deeply held passions and political divides. And as I said on Sunday night, there’s no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence in our society. We’re going to need to work on making access to mental health care at least as easy as access to a gun. We’re going to need to look more closely at a culture that all too often glorifies guns and violence. And any actions we must take must begin inside the home and inside our hearts.
But the fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing. The fact that we can’t prevent every act of violence doesn’t mean we can’t steadily reduce the violence, and prevent the very worst violence.”
Vice President Biden has been asked to work with members of the Administration, Congress, and the general public to come up with a set of concrete policy proposals by next month — proposals the President intends to push swiftly. The President asked the Vice President to lead this effort in part because he wrote and passed the 1994 Crime Bill that helped law enforcement bring down the rate of violent crime in America. That bill included the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004.
As the Vice President’s Chief of Staff, I’m going to do everything I can to ensure we run a process that includes perspectives from all sides of the issue, which is why I wanted to respond to your petition myself. Two decades ago, as domestic policy adviser in the Clinton White House, I first worked with Joe Biden as he fought to enact the Crime Bill, the assault weapons ban, and the Brady Bill. I will never forget what a key role the voices of concerned citizens like you played in that vital process.
The President called on Congress to pass important legislation “banning the sale of military-style assault weapons,” “banning the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips,” and “requiring background checks before all gun purchases, so that criminals can’t take advantage of legal loopholes to buy a gun from somebody who won’t take the responsibility of doing a background check at all.”
An issue this serious and complex isn’t going to be resolved with a single legislative proposal or policy prescription. And let’s be clear, any action we take will respect the Second Amendment. As the President said:
“Look, like the majority of Americans, I believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. This country has a strong tradition of gun ownership that’s been handed down from generation to generation. Obviously across the country there are regional differences. There are differences between how people feel in urban areas and rural areas. And the fact is the vast majority of gun owners in America are responsible — they buy their guns legally and they use them safely, whether for hunting or sport shooting, collection or protection.
But you know what, I am also betting that the majority — the vast majority — of responsible, law-abiding gun owners would be some of the first to say that we should be able to keep an irresponsible, law-breaking few from buying a weapon of war. I’m willing to bet that they don’t think that using a gun and using common sense are incompatible ideas — that an unbalanced man shouldn’t be able to get his hands on a military-style assault rifle so easily; that in this age of technology, we should be able to check someone’s criminal records before he or she can check out at a gun show; that if we work harder to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be fewer atrocities like the one in Newtown — or any of the lesser-known tragedies that visit small towns and big cities all across America every day.”
The President said it best: “Ultimately if this effort is to succeed it’s going to require the help of the American people — it’s going to require all of you. If we’re going to change things, it’s going to take a wave of Americans — mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, pastors, law enforcement, mental health professionals — and, yes, gun owners — standing up and saying ‘enough’ on behalf of our kids.”
So let’s continue this conversation and get something meaningful done. If you have additional ideas and are interested in further engagement with the White House on this issue, please let us know and share your thoughts here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/share-your-thoughts-reducing-gun-violence
Thank you for speaking out and staying involved.
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