美国国家公共电台 NPR--Another senseless act of gun violence hits an elementary school in Texas

Another senseless act of gun violence hits an elementary school in Texas

Transcript¹

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with David Hogg, a survivor² of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018, about ending gun violence in the U.S.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Second, third and fourth graders in a Texas elementary school were counting down the days until summer vacation. There were end-of-the-year celebrations planned this week with themed days. Kids would dress up. Yesterday's theme was Footloose and Fancy. And what started as a normal day ended in the killings⁴ of 19 children and two adults. Here's a mother recounting what happened yesterday when she was inside that school.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) I saw a bunch of kids that were full of blood. And I was trying to get my daughter, but I couldn't get her out because she was - she had to stay in school.

FADEL: This scene in Uvalde - it's all achingly familiar, especially for those who have lived through other school shootings, people like David Hogg. A gunman walked into his high school in Parkland, Fla., in 2018 and started shooting. He survived. Seventeen other people did not. Hogg is now one of the most prominent voices advocating for gun control in the U.S., and I spoke⁵ with him this morning.

So I just want to start with what's going through your head right now as you watch yet another mass killing³, this time in an elementary school.

DAVID HOGG: I'm horrified⁶. In the aftermath of Parkland, we went out there - I was 17 years old at the time - and we said, we're the kids. You're the adults. You need to do something. And those same adults said, well, you're about to be 18. You need to go out and vote, and we did. We voted at one of the highest rates in American history in 2018 for young people in a non-presidential midterm and played a critical role, amongst other factors, of course, in turning out - the highest youth voter turnout in American history in 2020. And despite the House changing, the Senate changing and the White House changing, not a single gun law - or any law for that matter around addressing gun violence, even not related to guns - has passed in the federal government. And it's horrifying⁷ because I think the assumption that we made when we started this work in 2018 is that our government was at least halfway⁸ competent at all in order to address, at minimum, the thing that is killing our kids, which is gun violence.

FADEL: I mean, the sad thing is is how familiar it all is, right? I mean, since the mass shooting that took so many people from your high school, there have been so many more.

HOGG: Right.

FADEL: You wrote a book at the time, "NeverAgain."

HOGG: Right.

FADEL: And it's happened many times since. What do you want the response to be today that was different than what it was when it happened to your school?

HOGG: You know, in the wake of what happened at my school, there was so much insane division that I think we saw, across the country, extreme polarization. And I think what we need in this instance - although I'm not from this community, of course, and I'm not from Buffalo⁹, too - which also just happened and, like, unfortunately isn't being talked about nearly as much, too.

FADEL: Less than two weeks ago.

HOGG: Right. We, as Americans, need to realize that, you know, Democrats¹⁰, Republicans, gun owners, non-gun owners - we have been debating this issue for decades, and this is where it has brought us is now over a dozen - I don't even want to call them kids. They're babies that have been eviscerated¹¹ by this issue in a way that doesn't happen in any other country in this matter, especially any high-income country. We have to - we know what we don't agree on. Let's focus on what we can agree on, even if tiny, even if just saves one life. I'm not saying it's going to completely eradicate¹² gun violence. But even if it just saves one life, we need to figure out what we can get Senate Republicans to agree on and people that are - at least claim to be Democrats, like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, and figure out what we can do. Again, it's not going to solve this issue entirely¹³, but we got to start somewhere.

FADEL: You said that after the shooting at your high school, there was extreme polarization. And, if anything, that's deepened today.

HOGG: Right.

FADEL: When you talk about the one thing that we can all agree on or that they can all agree on, what would that be? What is your message for lawmakers right now? What do you want them to agree on today that could make a difference?

HOGG: I mean, look, I think the No. 1 thing that we - that most of us can agree on as Americans is something as simple as universal background checks. Now, I don't know if it would - it's too early to tell, you know, if it would make a difference in this situation or a number of, you know, others. But the reality is, even if we can just save one life, it will be worth it. We have to figure out what we can agree on as Americans. And I believe that could be something like background checks. But I think it's important to highlight, as well, in the wake of Parkland, we passed gun laws in the Florida State Legislature despite it being entirely Republican-controlled. And the reason why we were able to do that is because we mobilized with young people and got in the rooms with the lawmakers and showed them just a small amount of the trauma¹⁴ and impact that this has on a community - by young teenagers, in our case, talking to those state legislatures. In this case, that's not possible because these kids are so young.

And I think what we need to address - you know, after Parkland, we raised the age to 21 to buy an assault rifle in the state of Florida. And on top of that, we created an extremist protection order law and we met Republicans in the middle. And there are some things in the bill that we passed that I do not agree with. But ultimately, we met and we actually did something. And it was something that saved lives. Did it eradicate gun violence entirely? Definitely not. But it did have a reduction. In an American democracy and a representative democracy like we have in our country, we do things through compromise and advocate for them, even if it's a reduction and not a total eradication¹⁵. We need to take a comprehensive, bipartisan, public health-based approach to addressing this issue and take just one step - just one. That's all I'm asking for.

FADEL: President Biden spoke to the country last night and asked why. Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? What's your answer to the president's question?

HOGG: I think the reason why we continue to let this happen is because we act like just letting our politicians - frankly¹⁶, both Democrats and Republicans. I personally believe that although Democrats have obviously, in my view, done more for this issue than Republicans have, I think both are complacent¹⁷. You know, both have been in power in the wake of these mass shootings, and both have failed to pass any gun law at the federal level in years. And what we, as Americans, need to do is hold them accountable and demand - and not let, frankly, the media and these politicians just move on from this and act like it's not going to happen again.

Because I will tell you right now, until we act in a comprehensive matter or just at all, period, on how to address gun violence, even just - if it's just what we can agree on and it's small, the next Sandy Hook, the next Parkland, the next Las Vegas, the next San Bernardino, the next San Diego, the next El Paso, the next Buffalo, the next, you know, Mother Emanuel Church, the - I could go on and on. It's going to happen, until we act in a comprehensive matter, even if just small in the first - in a first step, through something like background checks.

FADEL: David Hogg is a survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and a gun control advocate, and he joined us by Skype. Thank you so much for your time.

HOGG: Thank you. I appreciate it.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOM ASHBROOK'S "TACTUS")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

7 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

8 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

9 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

10 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》

11 eviscerated   

v.切除…的内脏( eviscerate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The censors eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive to the President. 审查员删去了该书的精华以取悦于总统。 来自辞典例句
• By the expulsion of surgery from the liberal arts medicine herself was eviscerated. 把外科排除于丰富的艺术之外，就使得医学本身去掉了内脏一样。 来自辞典例句

12 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

13 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

14 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

15 eradication   

n.根除

参考例句：

• The eradication of an established infestation is not easy. 根除昆虫蔓延是不容易的。
• This is often required for intelligent control and eradication. 这经常需要灵巧的控制与消除。

16 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。

17 complacent   

adj.自满的；自鸣得意的

参考例句：

• We must not become complacent the moment we have some success.我们决不能一见成绩就自满起来。
• She was complacent about her achievements.她对自己的成绩沾沾自喜。