国家领导人和倡导者就枪支暴力召开会议.
数据很清楚：枪支暴力仍然是美国独有的流行病。 但是，在全国每天发生的大约100起与枪支有关的死亡事件中，马萨诸塞州的枪支死亡率是美国大陆年复一年最低的。
On Monday, March 11, the 公共卫生学院 convened Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, and Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo for the Dean’s Seminar “应对枪支暴力”， a robust conversation on the Commonwealth’s unprecedented success with bipartisan gun safety legislation and the policy changes still needed to create safer environments in all US communities.
Cohosted by 更大 CitySpace and the 波士顿环球报, the panel also featured 制止手枪暴力 cofounder John Rosenthal, 波士顿环球报 columnist Nestor Ramos, Marjory Stoneman Douglas Parkland High School shooting survivor Sam Zeif, and 桑德罗·加利亚院长, and was moderated by 更大 senior correspondent Deborah Becker.
在两个小时的讨论中，小组成员审查了各州政策制定者和活动人士为领导国家制定合理的枪支政策所采取的步骤和策略。 马萨诸塞州目前的枪支死亡率为每10万人中有3.7人死亡，比比例最高的阿拉巴马州低6倍。
“Massachusetts has enacted a rich network of provision, laws, policies, and guidances that collectively lower the risk of 枪支 causing death,” Dean Galea said. But he noted it is difficult to pinpoint any one policy or action that can be broadly attributed to a reduction in gun deaths, because the effects of policy changes “vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.”
自从罗森塔尔于1994年与人共同创立“停止手枪暴力”以来，这个枪支安全倡导组织已经为制定更严格的枪支管制法律和法规铺平了道路，包括更新枪支许可证和登记，对私人销售进行犯罪背景调查，防止儿童接触安全储存法律，以及永久禁止军用攻击性武器和大容量弹匣。
Rosenthal, a gun owner himself, said the organization’s leaders achieved these goals by making it clear to other gun owners they had no intention of banning most weapons.
“We’re an urban state with the lowest gun death rate in the nation, and we’ve proven the NRA’s worst nightmare—that gun laws save lives and you don’t have to ban most 枪支 in order to do it,” Rosenthal said.
尽管马萨诸塞州取得了进展，但贝克州长强调，有必要继续澳门威尼斯人注册网站研究枪支暴力问题，以便制定与枪支暴力受害者之间存在的种族差异有关的有效政策，并为学校和社区提供适当的心理健康服务。
贝克说：“我们在枪支暴力问题上遇到的最大问题之一是缺乏可用的数据。” “随着时间的推移，有一件事已经得到了证明，那就是你可以利用数据来改善政策。”
特别是贝克 他说，需要更多的澳门威尼斯人注册网站研究来了解跨州非法贩运枪支的数量，这对马萨诸塞州来说是一个特别的问题，因为邻近的佛蒙特州和新罕布什尔州对背景调查和购买突击枪托的规定较少。
德莱奥强调，澳门威尼斯人注册网站研究人员和政策制定者需要超越对大规模枪击事件的主流报道，关注每天发生的枪击事件，特别是在有色人种社区发生的枪击事件。
德利奥说：“我们需要调查枪支暴力的根源，以扩大我们的预防工作，解决不成比例的有色人种受影响的问题，以及社会经济不平等和行为健康问题。”
Monica Cannon-Grant, CEO of 波士顿暴力事件, drew cheers when she interrupted the panel to protest the lack of priority paid to shootings in communities of color. “You need to talk to the people closest to the problem,” Cannon-Grant said. “None of you dodge bullets for a living.” 德克尔随后邀请加农-格兰特加入小组。
“There’s a missing piece to this conversation,” said Cannon-Grant once she sat onstage. “This is not an either/or—this is an and/also.”
几乎每位发言人都批评了全国步枪协会及其对美国国会议员支持枪支的游说力量。
希利说，归根结底，枪支暴力“是一个政治问题，国会并不总是为选举他们的人服务”。他指出，由于“为我们的生命游行”等团体的大规模公开抗议，全国步枪协会对候选人的捐款最终减少了。 “让人们去投票，然后你才能给他们支持。”
Zeif’s best friend, Joaquin Oliver, was killed in the Parkland shooting. Zeif said he believes Oliver would be alive today had he gone to school in Massachusetts due to the Commonwealth’s “common-sense policies and laws” such as the ban on military-style assault weapons. “I don’t know why rest of country isn’t on the same page,” he said. “There’s a lot more to be done, but you guys have the right mind.”
Ramos said the best thing Massachusetts can do is convince other states to adopt similar policies-但他注意到 Massachusetts’ low gun death rate “is not all about laws.”
“We have a lot of cultural advantages and healthcare advantages,” Ramos said, expanding upon Galea’s earlier points. “Our gun ownership rates and suicide rates are much lower, for reasons that have little to do with laws.”
During the Q&A, several audience members, including teenagers from the 青少年赋权中心, called on the panelists to focus “less on the 枪支, and more on the people.”
“Guns are objects, and we can’t really change objects,” said 16-year-old Gabriel Petit. “It’s the person we can change.”