Americans need to ask themselves, WHY this sort of things always seems to be happening in the U.S.?
校園喋血事件未必能改變美國槍枝管制現狀
（中央社記者林琳紐約十七日專電）美國維吉尼亞理工學院昨天發生的校園喋血事件，行兇的槍枝是兇手合法購買的武器。槍枝管制的問題成為今天美國電子媒體新聞討論的重點。不過，新聞的討論未必能改變現狀。
美國各州對於槍枝管制的寬嚴不同，而維吉尼亞州是屬於管制寬鬆地區。東岸的紐約及西岸的加州是管制較嚴的州，紐約市長彭博也一直積極遊說各州支持追蹤黑槍以抑制犯罪率。在地廣人稀的阿拉巴馬及西部的懷俄明和蒙太拿州就傾向寬鬆的槍枝管制。
曾經有歷史學者分析，「槍枝文化」成為美國社會文化的一部份，因為從殖民地年代的狩獵為生及持槍自保代表了美國的拓荒精神。不過，歷史學者麥可．貝勒希爾在兩年前出版的一本書「國家槍枝文化的根源」也從歷史事證指出，其實美國的拓荒者未必都擁槍自重。
雖然在每一次發生重大喋血事件時都會引發主張槍枝管制管制及反對者的激烈論戰，全面嚴格管制槍枝的法案在美國國會卻難得到眾多的支持。
根據公眾團體中心的資料，美國國會的遊說團體有一百四十五個是和支持個人擁有槍枝有關，其中勢力最大的就是「全國槍枝協會」。這個有數百萬會員的協會每年花在國會遊說的金額高達一百五十萬美元。支持個人擁有槍枝的國會遊說團體數目是主張嚴加管制的遊說團體的三倍。二零零六年，主張有用槍權的團體用於遊說的金額是三百萬美元，而主張嚴加管制的團體卻只有九萬美元。
「全國槍枝協會」強調，個人擁有槍枝是美國憲法賦予每一個國民的權利。基本上，共和黨籍的國會議員多傾向支持，而比較傾向管制的民主黨內意見則相當分歧，因為一些南部及西部州選出的民意代表必須考慮到他們選民的想法。
由於槍枝管制的寬鬆，發生類似昨天的校園喋血悲劇，「槍枝文化」總會被提出來檢驗。不過，支持個人擁有槍枝權利的共和黨籍聯邦參議員賴瑞．克瑞格就認為：即使通過法令嚴格管制，如果碰到喪心病狂執意要行兇的人，法令也保護不了。
警方的調查顯示，行兇的南韓裔學生趙承熙的確有反社會的傾向。也因此，喋血慘案主要是人的因素的說詞可能也會被接受。有關槍枝管制的討論，新聞的報導及專家的分析未必能改變現狀。 960417
U.S. gun laws draw heat after massacre
By PAISLEY DODDS
2 hours, 49 minutes ago
LONDON - The Virginia Tech shootings sparked criticism of U.S. gun control laws around the world Tuesday. Editorials lashed out at the availability of weapons, and the leader of Australia — one of America's closest allies — declared that America's gun culture was costing lives.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the government hoped Monday's shootings, allegedly carried out by a 23-year-old South Korean native, would not "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation."
While some focused blame only on the gunman, world opinion over U.S. gun laws was almost unanimous: Access to weapons increases the probability of shootings. There was no sympathy for the view that more guns would have saved lives by enabling students to shoot the assailant.
"We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country," said Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who staked his political career on promoting tough gun laws after a gunman went on one of the world's deadliest killing sprees 11 years ago.
The tragedy in a Tasmanian tourist resort left 35 people dead. Afterward, Australia's gun laws were changed to prohibit automatic weapons and handguns and toughen licensing and storage restrictions.
Handguns are also banned in Britain — a prohibition that forces even the country's Olympic pistol shooting team from practicing on its own soil. In Sweden, civilians can acquire firearm permits only if they have a hunting license or are members of a shooting club and have no criminal record. In Italy, people must have a valid reason for wanting one. Firearms are forbidden for private Chinese citizens.
Still, leaders from Britain, Germany, Mexico, China, Afghanistan and France stopped short of criticizing President Bush or U.S. gun laws when they offered sympathies to the families of Monday's victims.
Editorials were less diplomatic.
"Only the names change — And the numbers," read a headline in the Times of London. "Why, we ask, do Americans continue to tolerate gun laws and a culture that seems to condemn thousands of innocents to death every year, when presumably, tougher restrictions, such as those in force in European countries, could at least reduce the number?"
The French daily Le Monde said the regularity of mass shootings across the Atlantic was a blotch on America's image.
"It would be unjust and especially false to reduce the United States to the image created, in a recurrent way, from the bursts of murderous fury that some isolated individuals succumb to. But acts like this are rare elsewhere, and tend to often disfigure the 'American dream.'"
Police started identifying the victims Tuesday. One was a Peruvian student identified as Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, according to his mother Betty Cuevas, who said her son was studying international relations.
Professors from India, Israel and Canada also were killed.
Liviu Librescu, 76, an engineering science and mathematics lecturer, tried to stop the gunman from entering his classroom by blocking the door before he was fatally shot, his son said Tuesday from Tel Aviv.
"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said. His father, a Holocaust survivor, immigrated to Israel from Romania, and was on sabbatical in Virginia.
Indian-born G.V. Loganathan, 51, a lecturer at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was also among the dead, his brother G.V. Palanivel told Indian media.
"We all feel like we have had an electric shock. We do not know what to do," Palanivel said.
Canadian Jocelyn Couture-Nowak, a French instructor, also died in the shootings, said her husband Jerzy Nowak, head of the university's horticulture department. "We're mourning," Nowak said.
The killings also hit a nerve for Virginia Tech alumni abroad.
"I think if this does prompt a serious and reflective debate on gun issues and gun law in the States, then some good may come from this woeful tragedy," said British Home Office Minister Tony McNulty, who graduated in 1982.
Britain's 46 homicides involving firearms last year was the lowest since the late 1980s. New York City, with 8 million people compared to 53 million in England and Wales, recorded 590 homicides last year.
"If the guns are harder to get a hold of, fewer people will do it," said Michael Dent, a 65-year-old construction worker in London. "You can't walk up to a supermarket or shop and buy a gun like in the States."
But even in Germany, where gun-control laws are strict, a teenager in 2002 shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer at a high school. The shooter was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.
"The instant I saw the pictures and heard the commentary, it immediately brought back our own experience," Gutenberg high school director Christiane Alt said of the Virginia Tech killings.
The Swedish daily Goteborgs-Posten said without access to weapons, the killings at Virginia Tech may have been prevented.
"What exactly triggered the massacre in Virginia is unclear, but the fundamental reason is often the perpetrator's psychological problems in combination with access to weapons," it wrote.
The shootings drew intense media coverage in China, in part because the school has a large Chinese student body.
"This incident reflects the problem of gun control in America," Yuan Peng, an American studies expert in China, was quoted as saying by state-run China Daily.
Only 7 percent of the more than 26,000 students at Virginia Tech are foreign, according to the school Web site. But Chinese make up nearly a third of that.
In Italy, there are three types of licenses for gun ownership: for personal safety, target practice and skeet shooting, and hunting. Authorization is granted by the police. To obtain a gun for personal safety, the owner must be an adult and have a "valid" reason.
Italy's leading daily Corriere della Sera's main story on the shootings was an opinion piece entitled "Guns at the Supermarket" — a critical view of the U.S. gun lobby and the ease with which guns can be purchased. State-run RAI radio also discussed at length what it said were lax standards for gun ownership in the United States.
"The latest attack on a U.S. campus will shake up America, maybe it will provoke more vigorous reactions than in the past, but it won't change the culture of a country that has the notion of self-defense imprinted on its DNA and which considers the right of having guns inalienable," Corriere wrote in its front-page story.
Several Italian graduate students at Virginia Tech recounted how they barricaded themselves inside a geology department building not far from the scene of the shooting.
In Mexico, radio commentators criticized the availability of firearms in the U.S. Others renewed Mexico's complaint that most guns in Mexico are smuggled in from the United States.
The killings led newspapers' front pages, with Mexico City's Dario Monitor reporting: "Terror returns to the U.S.: 32 assassinated on university campus." The tabloid Metro compared Mexico's death toll Monday from drug violence to the number of people killed at Virginia Tech, in a front-page headline that read: "U.S. 33, Mexico 20."
校園喋血事件未必能改變美國槍枝管制現狀
（中央社記者林琳紐約十七日專電）美國維吉尼亞理工學院昨天發生的校園喋血事件，行兇的槍枝是兇手合法購買的武器。槍枝管制的問題成為今天美國電子媒體新聞討論的重點。不過，新聞的討論未必能改變現狀。
美國各州對於槍枝管制的寬嚴不同，而維吉尼亞州是屬於管制寬鬆地區。東岸的紐約及西岸的加州是管制較嚴的州，紐約市長彭博也一直積極遊說各州支持追蹤黑槍以抑制犯罪率。在地廣人稀的阿拉巴馬及西部的懷俄明和蒙太拿州就傾向寬鬆的槍枝管制。
曾經有歷史學者分析，「槍枝文化」成為美國社會文化的一部份，因為從殖民地年代的狩獵為生及持槍自保代表了美國的拓荒精神。不過，歷史學者麥可．貝勒希爾在兩年前出版的一本書「國家槍枝文化的根源」也從歷史事證指出，其實美國的拓荒者未必都擁槍自重。
雖然在每一次發生重大喋血事件時都會引發主張槍枝管制管制及反對者的激烈論戰，全面嚴格管制槍枝的法案在美國國會卻難得到眾多的支持。
根據公眾團體中心的資料，美國國會的遊說團體有一百四十五個是和支持個人擁有槍枝有關，其中勢力最大的就是「全國槍枝協會」。這個有數百萬會員的協會每年花在國會遊說的金額高達一百五十萬美元。支持個人擁有槍枝的國會遊說團體數目是主張嚴加管制的遊說團體的三倍。二零零六年，主張有用槍權的團體用於遊說的金額是三百萬美元，而主張嚴加管制的團體卻只有九萬美元。
「全國槍枝協會」強調，個人擁有槍枝是美國憲法賦予每一個國民的權利。基本上，共和黨籍的國會議員多傾向支持，而比較傾向管制的民主黨內意見則相當分歧，因為一些南部及西部州選出的民意代表必須考慮到他們選民的想法。
由於槍枝管制的寬鬆，發生類似昨天的校園喋血悲劇，「槍枝文化」總會被提出來檢驗。不過，支持個人擁有槍枝權利的共和黨籍聯邦參議員賴瑞．克瑞格就認為：即使通過法令嚴格管制，如果碰到喪心病狂執意要行兇的人，法令也保護不了。
警方的調查顯示，行兇的南韓裔學生趙承熙的確有反社會的傾向。也因此，喋血慘案主要是人的因素的說詞可能也會被接受。有關槍枝管制的討論，新聞的報導及專家的分析未必能改變現狀。 960417
U.S. gun laws draw heat after massacre
By PAISLEY DODDS
2 hours, 49 minutes ago
LONDON - The Virginia Tech shootings sparked criticism of U.S. gun control laws around the world Tuesday. Editorials lashed out at the availability of weapons, and the leader of Australia — one of America's closest allies — declared that America's gun culture was costing lives.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the government hoped Monday's shootings, allegedly carried out by a 23-year-old South Korean native, would not "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation."
While some focused blame only on the gunman, world opinion over U.S. gun laws was almost unanimous: Access to weapons increases the probability of shootings. There was no sympathy for the view that more guns would have saved lives by enabling students to shoot the assailant.
"We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country," said Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who staked his political career on promoting tough gun laws after a gunman went on one of the world's deadliest killing sprees 11 years ago.
The tragedy in a Tasmanian tourist resort left 35 people dead. Afterward, Australia's gun laws were changed to prohibit automatic weapons and handguns and toughen licensing and storage restrictions.
Handguns are also banned in Britain — a prohibition that forces even the country's Olympic pistol shooting team from practicing on its own soil. In Sweden, civilians can acquire firearm permits only if they have a hunting license or are members of a shooting club and have no criminal record. In Italy, people must have a valid reason for wanting one. Firearms are forbidden for private Chinese citizens.
Still, leaders from Britain, Germany, Mexico, China, Afghanistan and France stopped short of criticizing President Bush or U.S. gun laws when they offered sympathies to the families of Monday's victims.
Editorials were less diplomatic.
"Only the names change — And the numbers," read a headline in the Times of London. "Why, we ask, do Americans continue to tolerate gun laws and a culture that seems to condemn thousands of innocents to death every year, when presumably, tougher restrictions, such as those in force in European countries, could at least reduce the number?"
The French daily Le Monde said the regularity of mass shootings across the Atlantic was a blotch on America's image.
"It would be unjust and especially false to reduce the United States to the image created, in a recurrent way, from the bursts of murderous fury that some isolated individuals succumb to. But acts like this are rare elsewhere, and tend to often disfigure the 'American dream.'"
Police started identifying the victims Tuesday. One was a Peruvian student identified as Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, according to his mother Betty Cuevas, who said her son was studying international relations.
Professors from India, Israel and Canada also were killed.
Liviu Librescu, 76, an engineering science and mathematics lecturer, tried to stop the gunman from entering his classroom by blocking the door before he was fatally shot, his son said Tuesday from Tel Aviv.
"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said. His father, a Holocaust survivor, immigrated to Israel from Romania, and was on sabbatical in Virginia.
Indian-born G.V. Loganathan, 51, a lecturer at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was also among the dead, his brother G.V. Palanivel told Indian media.
"We all feel like we have had an electric shock. We do not know what to do," Palanivel said.
Canadian Jocelyn Couture-Nowak, a French instructor, also died in the shootings, said her husband Jerzy Nowak, head of the university's horticulture department. "We're mourning," Nowak said.
The killings also hit a nerve for Virginia Tech alumni abroad.
"I think if this does prompt a serious and reflective debate on gun issues and gun law in the States, then some good may come from this woeful tragedy," said British Home Office Minister Tony McNulty, who graduated in 1982.
Britain's 46 homicides involving firearms last year was the lowest since the late 1980s. New York City, with 8 million people compared to 53 million in England and Wales, recorded 590 homicides last year.
"If the guns are harder to get a hold of, fewer people will do it," said Michael Dent, a 65-year-old construction worker in London. "You can't walk up to a supermarket or shop and buy a gun like in the States."
But even in Germany, where gun-control laws are strict, a teenager in 2002 shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer at a high school. The shooter was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.
"The instant I saw the pictures and heard the commentary, it immediately brought back our own experience," Gutenberg high school director Christiane Alt said of the Virginia Tech killings.
The Swedish daily Goteborgs-Posten said without access to weapons, the killings at Virginia Tech may have been prevented.
"What exactly triggered the massacre in Virginia is unclear, but the fundamental reason is often the perpetrator's psychological problems in combination with access to weapons," it wrote.
The shootings drew intense media coverage in China, in part because the school has a large Chinese student body.
"This incident reflects the problem of gun control in America," Yuan Peng, an American studies expert in China, was quoted as saying by state-run China Daily.
Only 7 percent of the more than 26,000 students at Virginia Tech are foreign, according to the school Web site. But Chinese make up nearly a third of that.
In Italy, there are three types of licenses for gun ownership: for personal safety, target practice and skeet shooting, and hunting. Authorization is granted by the police. To obtain a gun for personal safety, the owner must be an adult and have a "valid" reason.
Italy's leading daily Corriere della Sera's main story on the shootings was an opinion piece entitled "Guns at the Supermarket" — a critical view of the U.S. gun lobby and the ease with which guns can be purchased. State-run RAI radio also discussed at length what it said were lax standards for gun ownership in the United States.
"The latest attack on a U.S. campus will shake up America, maybe it will provoke more vigorous reactions than in the past, but it won't change the culture of a country that has the notion of self-defense imprinted on its DNA and which considers the right of having guns inalienable," Corriere wrote in its front-page story.
Several Italian graduate students at Virginia Tech recounted how they barricaded themselves inside a geology department building not far from the scene of the shooting.
In Mexico, radio commentators criticized the availability of firearms in the U.S. Others renewed Mexico's complaint that most guns in Mexico are smuggled in from the United States.
The killings led newspapers' front pages, with Mexico City's Dario Monitor reporting: "Terror returns to the U.S.: 32 assassinated on university campus." The tabloid Metro compared Mexico's death toll Monday from drug violence to the number of people killed at Virginia Tech, in a front-page headline that read: "U.S. 33, Mexico 20."
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