拥有枪支是权力，枪法好坏是训练

个人拥有枪支在美国是受宪法保护的权力，只要没有犯罪记录的人都能购买枪支，没有眼神好坏枪法精准与否之类的要求。于是，长着扒拉眼的和长着千里眼的都能买支枪来把玩。美国人买枪后的一大乐趣就是结伴打猎，同伴猎手里混进个扒拉眼的枪手，那可真是够呛。

下面的故事说的就是这么一位:

LI man aims at duck, hits man, gets arrested

He meant to shoot the ducks. A Long Island man is facing charges including reckless endangerment and assault after he shot another hunter while out duck hunting on Saturday.

Nassau County authorities said the Brentwood man had his loaded shotgun pointed in the direction of the other man, then tried to raise the weapon to shoot some passing ducks.

The gun discharged, and the other hunter was hit in the arm.

这位来自纽约长岛的猎手，星期六和朋友结伴去打猎。他瞄准的是野鸭，打中的确是同伴。你说他的眼睛不是一双斜八字是什么? 

美国打野鸭时一般都用散弹枪，一次击发射出若干铁弹，很容易伤人。

这长着一对斜八字又爱好打野鸭的还大有人在，他们的代表人物就是敬爱的钱尼副总统。快三年前了(06年二月)，钱副总统打野鸭时，一枪轰倒了老友。老友差点送命，但钱副总统的公共声誉却一轰冲天。当时的新闻是这样的:

Dick Cheney's Hunting Accident

"Just before sunset Saturday, 78-year-old Austin [millionaire civil attorney] Harry Whittington pulled off 'a double': bringing down two quail with two successive blasts from his shotgun," Larry Elder and Sarah Coppola, wrote in the February 13, 2006, Austin American Statesman. "One of Whittington's hunting companions, Vice President Dick Cheney, wasn't as accurate."

"A few minutes later, Cheney accidentally shot Whittington, according to Pamela Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, who was hunting with the pair on the 50,000-acre Armstrong Ranch in South Texas ... [spraying] Whittington with birdshot across his face, shoulder and chest," Elder and Coppola wrote.

Whittington suffered a mild heart attack on Tuesday, February 14, 2006, "after a shotgun pellet in his chest traveled to his heart," according to doctors at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial. "Whittington was immediately moved back to an intensive care unit and will be watched for a week to make sure more pellets do not move to other vital organs. He was reported in stable condition."

其实这一群人打的是quail，就是鹌鹑。但美国人在说法上有些糊涂，有的说是Vice President's Birdhunting Accident，也有叫它是Vice President's Duck Hunting Accident。

pulled off 'a double'--连开两枪。这位做民事律师(civil attorney) 的百万富翁枪法不错，两枪打下两只。但轮到伟大领袖钱副总统举枪搂火时，一幕悲喜剧发生了。副总统击出的散弹，鸟没打着，但轰得律师朋友满脸满肩满胸。伤痕累累，惨不忍睹。

一颗铁弹还进了律师的血管向心脏游走，若不是医生及时抢救，可能就一命呜呼了。

当时的政治环境是，伊战陷入泥沼，废了候赛因，但作为美国发动伊战的理由--候赛因的大规模杀伤性武器，始终没有找着。伊战始作俑者的钱副总统面临巨大压力，民众和媒体齐声质问，大规模杀伤性武器在哪儿?

钱副总统一枪轰了老友，媒体立刻发声: 大规模杀伤性武器终于找着啦，就在钱尼自己手里。

拥有枪支是个人的权力，这本身没什么错。但枪法好坏是训练问题，从以上两例看，对缺乏训练的人是否应该有所管治约束，不该让他们任意使用枪支!  这就好比没有驾照的不该驾驶汽车一样。

副总统打猎伤人后，有媒体调侃说，钱尼打猎没有许可证，正如美国进入伊拉克没有许可证一样。


附记:  当今的国际政治术语里，有两种最时髦的武器，他们的英文缩写我们可以学一下。一个就是"大规
模杀伤性武器"，英文缩写是WMD，全称是Weapons of Mass Destruction；另一个是TMD，它的全称有两种，一种是Theater Missile Defense，即"区域导弹防御"，另一种是Ta Ma De，它是中文的拼音，写成汉字就是"他妈的"。看官别嫌我话粗，这不是我的发明，而是中国裁军谈判专家著名外交人士沙祖康的杰作，他是把美国的TMD和中国的TMD连在一起的第一人。