美国国家公共电台 NPR In Texas And Beyond, Mass Shootings Have Roots In Domestic Violence

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

We now know that the man who killed 26 people in a tiny Texas church on Sunday had been court-martialed and discharged from the Air Force for assaulting his wife and child. And authorities say that Devin Patrick Kelley sent threatening text messages to his mother-in-law, who was a parishioner at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. That fact makes the Texas killer¹ sadly typical. More than half of the mass shootings in the United States are related somehow to domestic violence. Our Health Desk has been part of the team covering this story, looking at domestic abuse and gun violence. And we want to turn first to NPR's health policy correspondent Alison Kodjak, who's in the studio. Hi, Alison.

ALISON KODJAK, BYLINE²: Hi, David.

GREENE: So research shows that people who commit mass shootings are likely to also be involved in domestic violence. How certain and strong is that link?

KODJAK: It's a pretty strong link. The advocacy and research group Everytown for Gun Safety did a study that shows 54 percent of mass shootings are related to domestic violence, meaning the shooter killed his wife, his girlfriend or had some history or even, you know, with another family member, a former partner. I spoke³ with Daniel Webster who runs the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University, and this is what he had to say about it.

DANIEL WEBSTER: Generally, it fits a pattern of easy access to firearms among individuals who have very controlling kind of relationships with their intimate partners and are greatly threatened when their control is challenged, basically.

KODJAK: So Webster says that only 10 percent of all shootings involve domestic violence, so it's really overrepresented in these mass shootings.

GREENE: Which is extraordinary because aren't there laws to keep people like Kelley from getting guns? There's a federal law that bans people convicted of domestic violence from buying guns, right?

KODJAK: Yeah. There are certainly these laws on the books. Clearly, Kelley was able to get a gun anyway. His domestic violence conviction was never listed in the national criminal investigator⁴ database. And that's an official - an official at the Pentagon told NPR's Tom Bowman that this mistake meant Kelley wasn't flagged as part of his background check to be ineligible⁵ to buy a firearm. So the laws can be effective, but Webster said they have some pretty big holes.

WEBSTER: The most glaring one is that in our federal law and in many state laws dating partners are not covered.

KODJAK: And that's known as the girlfriend loophole. He says a lot of couples, even in abusive relationships, stay together a long time and never get married. So unmarried women are at even higher risk and their abusers aren't going to make it onto any database to prevent them from buying a weapon.

GREENE: OK. So this link is pretty clear. We know that domestic offenders⁶ may be more likely to commit mass shootings. Are there other signs to help predict who might become more violent?

KODJAK: Well, so obviously the people in the most danger are intimate partners of domestic offenders. And Webster says mass shootings are so rare that it's really hard to develop a strong pattern. But he did say there are few signs that authorities could look out for if they want to try to flag certain people. Here's what he says.

WEBSTER: Individuals who are amassing⁷ a number of weapons and a large amount of ammo, that obviously is a red flag. Individuals whose violence generally extends beyond the family relationship also would be an indicator⁸ of greater danger.

GREENE: But I just think about the massive attack in Las Vegas at that concert. The shooter amassed⁹ this huge number of weapons. I mean, police found them in that hotel room. But beyond that, we don't know anything about him. I mean, no reports of domestic trouble, no history of violence that we're aware of - a mystery.

KODJAK: Yeah. And that - you know, that's really the issue. Webster points out that trying to predict who'll become violent isn't an exact science, and especially in these mass shootings, there are perpetrators that fit some patterns, but there's no perfect profile of a person who's going to take a gun and kill a large number of people.

GREENE: All right, talking there to NPR health policy correspondent Alison Kodjak in our studio. Alison, thanks.

KODJAK: Thanks, David.

1 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。

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 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。

4 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

5 ineligible   

adj.无资格的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The new rules have made thousands more people ineligible for legal aid.新规定使另外数千人不符合接受法律援助的资格。
• The country had been declared ineligible for World Bank lending.这个国家已被宣布没有资格获得世界银行的贷款。

6 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。

7 amassing   

v.积累，积聚( amass的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The study of taxonomy must necessarily involve the amassing of an encyclopaedic knowledge of plants. 分类学研究一定要积累广博的植物知识。 来自辞典例句
• Build your trophy room while amassing awards and accolades. 建立您的奖杯积累奖项和荣誉。 来自互联网

8 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

9 amassed   

v.积累，积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He amassed a fortune from silver mining. 他靠开采银矿积累了一笔财富。
• They have amassed a fortune in just a few years. 他们在几年的时间里就聚集了一笔财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》