美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump's Plan To Secure Schools Calls For Arming Teachers, Improving Background Checks

Trump¹'s Plan To Secure Schools Calls For Arming Teachers, Improving Background Checks

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Almost one month after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were killed, the White House is setting up a commission to study school safety. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will be the commission chair. Here she is speaking in a conference call with reporters.

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BETSY DEVOS: We've had to talk about this topic way too much over the years, and there's been a lot of talk in the past but very little action.

MARTIN: So what kind of action is likely? Let's get details from NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley. Hey, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE²: Good morning, Rachel.

MARTIN: What do we know about the administration's plans on this topic?

HORSLEY: Not a lot of action actually - don't be on the lookout³ for a speech from President Trump or any other sort of public event. That conference call last evening was kind of the extent of the White House rollout. And the plan leaves most of the heavy lifting to the states. Now, Trump is endorsing⁴ two pieces of federal legislation. One of those would improve background checks for gun sales, although it would not extend background checks to sales at gun shows or on the Internet. The other bill's designed to help schools spot and intervene with young people who show signs of violence early on.

Neither of those bills is controversial. The background check bill already has 62 co-sponsors in the Senate. So the president's not exactly going out on a limb here. In fact, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer dismissed this as baby steps designed to curry⁵ favor with the NRA. And then there's this commission that the White House is setting up. Ironically, announcement of the commission came just one day after the president at a campaign-style rally in Pennsylvania seemed to dismiss presidential commissions as sort of an excuse for policymakers who don't want to take action.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We can't just keep setting up blue-ribbon committees with your wife and your wife and your husband, and they meet, and they have a meal, and they talk, talk, talk, talk.

MARTIN: Almost like he didn't know that his own White House was about to set up a commission on gun violence. And he's done these before. I mean, this administration has set up commissions on voter fraud, opioid epidemic⁶. I mean, other administrations do this, but is there any sign that this particular commission is going to make more of a difference?

HORSLEY: There doesn't seem to be, you know, a real mandate⁷ for action here. The commission has no timetable to even produce a recommendation, although Education Secretary DeVos does say she is impatient to get something done, and she says there's no time to waste. Most of what the president is talking about here is just action at the state level. He has renewed his call to arm some teachers and other school staffers to act as volunteer marshals. And he's also endorsing the idea that states should adopt what's called risk protection orders. There are only a handful of states that do this now. Florida just joined their ranks.

Risk protection orders allow law enforcement to take guns away temporarily and bar the purchase of new weapons by people who are judged to be a danger to themselves or others. The White House did stress this would take place with some due process in contrast to something the president talked about a few weeks ago.

MARTIN: I mean, the president had also talked about raising the age requirement for people to buy some guns. Is he not talking about that anymore? I mean, is that off the table for the White House?

HORSLEY: That is the one initiative where Trump seemed to be willing to buck⁸ the NRA. But in the end, he backed down. Florida lawmakers did adopt legislation last week that raised the minimum age for buying long guns in that state from 18 to 21. The accused killer⁹ at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was 19 years old. That Florida legislation drew an immediate¹⁰ legal challenge from the NRA. The gun lobby opposes a higher age limit. At one time, the president seemed to express sympathy for the idea of raising the age limit, and in fact, he joked that lawmakers who didn't do so were simply kowtowing to the NRA. In the end, though, he is not proposing that, although the White House does say this presidential commission will consider the idea of a higher age limit.

MARTIN: All right. We'll see. NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley. Thanks, Scott.

HORSLEY: Good to be with you, Rachel.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 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。

3 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

4 endorsing   

v.赞同( endorse的现在分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• Yet Communist leaders are also publicly endorsing religion in an unprecedented way. 不过，共产党领导层对宗教信仰的公开认可也是以前不曾有过的。 来自互联网
• Connecticut Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman is endorsing Republican Senator John McCain. 康涅狄格州独立派参议员约瑟夫。列波曼将会票选共和议员约翰。麦凯恩。 来自互联网

5 curry   

n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革

参考例句：

• Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish.有咖喱的菜配米饭最棒。
• Add a teaspoonful of curry powder.加一茶匙咖喱粉。

6 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

7 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

8 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

9 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

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。