美国控枪 立法院和执法院背道而驰

控枪问题再成争议焦点，美国参议院和最高法院走向分裂

GLENN THRUSH 2022年6月24日

 

周四，最高法院前的一名电视台记者。此前最高法院推翻了纽约限制在公共场所携带枪支的法律，该法已有100年历史。这是多年来对枪支问题的最重大裁决。 HAIYUN JIANG/THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

华盛顿——在这个经常为政府的不作为之举充当背景板的首都，很少会看到像这样的情形：在同一天的两个小时内，这个国家最具争议的问题之一——枪支——令两个政府分支朝着完全相反的方向行进。

 

周四下午12点30分刚过，参议院将一项两党支持的控枪法案推进到下一环节，尽管只是微小的一步，但这仍然是几十年来最重要的枪支安全措施。上午10点30分，最高法院给枪支监管带来决定性的、具有鲜明党派立场的一击，可能令国家枪支政治在今后数年里保持右倾。

 

结果是枪权运动在法庭上取得了巨大的胜利，同时，那些要求对近期布法罗和得州尤瓦尔迪的大屠杀作出回应的人取得了重要的立法成就，尽管没有前者显著。在这个大规模枪击频发、犯罪率上升的时代，保守派正加紧推动扩大枪权和第二修正案的范围，令人对国家枪支政策的方向愈发感到困惑。

 

“真是不得了的一天，”吉福兹法律中心的首席法律顾问亚当·斯卡格斯说。该中心是国家枪支安全组织的法律部门，由前众议员加布里埃尔·吉福兹创建，他是亚利桑那州民主党人，也是2011年图森附近枪击事件的幸存者。

 

“参议院终于就这些改革达成了两党共识，主要在于一群共和党参议员听取了选民需要采取措施的呼吁，”他补充说。“接着，最高法院完全劫持了这一切，它对枪权的解释与民主党人、独立人士甚至许多共和党人想要的完全不符。”

 

“这下会走向何方？”

 

最高法院决定废除纽约限制在公共场合携带枪支的法律，这项法律已有有100年历史，这是多年来在枪支方面最重大的裁决，也是法院关于持有和携带武器权利的第二次重大声明。

 

在多数意见书中，克拉伦斯·托马斯大法官表示，限制第二修正案的权利相当于限制第一修正案的言论自由权，或限制每个美国人根据第六修正案“与对其不利的证人对质”的权利。批评者很快指出，行使这些权利很少涉及使用致命武力。

 

短期内，该裁决迫使包括纽约、加利福尼亚和新泽西在内的五个州大幅放松枪支管制。

 

本月，斯塔斯基·威尔逊和儿子梅森参加了在华盛顿举行的反对枪支暴力游行。 KENNY HOLSTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

托马斯在长达130页的意见书中写道，各州可继续在“敏感”公共场所——如学校、法院和政府大楼——禁止枪支，但警告地方当局不应过于宽泛地定义此类场所。“简而言之，”他补充说，“仅仅因为曼哈顿岛很拥挤并受到纽约市警察局的普遍保护，纽约就将其宣布为‘敏感地区’，是没有历史依据的。”

 

虽然这项多数判决没有明确提到联邦枪支监管，但司法部的律师正在评估该裁决对其程序的影响。他们认为一些限制将继续有效，例如关于携带武器进入法庭的限制，但对邮局、博物馆和其他目前禁止枪支的设施尚不确定。

 

尽管外界普遍预计目前的最高法院会削弱各州的枪支法律，但这个时间点还是有点出人意料：国会和白宫的大多数助手都认为，随着即将结束的本庭期预计会以罗诉韦德案的判决作为完结篇，纽约州步枪与手枪协会诉布鲁恩案备受期待的裁决将于下周出炉。

 

本周，焦点完全集中在参议院，它设法就一整套枪支监管规定达成了来之不易的妥协。这些规定将扩大对21岁以下潜在购枪者的背景调查，包括将认真的约会对象纳入一项阻止家暴者购买枪支的法律范围之内，并为各州的“红旗”法律提供联邦资金，该法律允许从被视为危险者手中暂时收缴枪支。

 

该方案的最终投票预计最早将于周四晚间进行，预计会吸引一些共和党人的支持。这将使2022年6月23日成为美国数百年多灾多难的枪支历史上最重要的日子之一。

 

最高法院的裁决被认为有助于民主党人通过参议院法案，司法部二号人物莉萨·莫纳科谴责该裁决“非常令人失望”，对结果难以接受的纽约市长埃里克·亚当斯则誓言要阻止纽约变成“蛮荒西部”。

 

“今天，预防枪支暴力法律的状况与48小时前不同了，”美国历史最悠久的控枪组织之一布雷迪的会长克里斯·布朗说。“这一裁决只能更加突显出参议院迫切需要采取行动并通过这项法案。”

 

持枪权利组织对这项裁决表示欢迎，认为这是对纽约、加州、新泽西和其他州不断增加的枪支限制的必要宪法制约。“法院已经明确表示，第二修正案规定的携带武器的权利不仅限于家宅中，”顶级枪支行业组织全国射击运动基金会的高级官员拉里·基恩说。

 

康涅狄格州民主党参议员克里斯托弗·S·墨菲一直是参议院周四提出的两党枪支立法的主要谈判代表之一。 KENNY HOLSTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

对于那些支持枪支管控法案的参议院共和党人，该裁决提供了一些潜在的政治掩护。该法案的主要共和党支持者、得克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁在上周的一次州党内集会上遭到了枪权活动人士的一片嘘声。

 

南卡罗来纳州共和党参议员林赛·格雷厄姆在裁决后发表了一份声明，对该法案的两党合作表示赞赏，随后又为枪权进行了激烈的辩护。

 

“这是属于第二修正案的伟大一日，”他写道。“最高法院的裁决再次证明，宪法第二修正案是一项个人权利，植根于保护自己和财产的能力。”翻译：晋其角、明斋

暴力和死亡，穿透美国内心的毒箭  2022年6月1日

加州教会枪击案背后的台湾身份认同之争  2022年6月13日

得州小学枪击案致至少21人遇害  2022年5月25日  

为什么美国有那么多大规模枪击案？ 2017年11月8日

In One Day, Washington Goes in Two Directions on Guns

The Supreme Court delivered a victory for gun rights, while the Senate passed a gun control bill for the first time in decades.

 

A television reporter in front of the Supreme Court on Thursday, after the court struck down New York’s 100-year-old law restricting the carrying of guns in public, the most sweeping ruling on firearms in years.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

By Glenn Thrush June 23, 2022

 

WASHINGTON — The nation’s capital, so often a backdrop for inaction, had seldom witnessed anything quite like it — two branches of government splintering in opposite directions on guns, one of the country’s most divisive issues, in the space of a single day.

Around 10 p.m. on Thursday, the Senate passed a bipartisan gun control bill that however incremental is still the most significant gun safety measure in decades. Yet 12 hours earlier, the Supreme Court delivered a decisive, sharply partisan blow to gun regulations, jolting national firearms policy to the right, perhaps for years.

The result was a monumental victory in the courts for the gun rights movement and a less significant but important legislative accomplishment for those demanding a response to the recent massacres in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas. For the country there was an ever deepening confusion about the direction of national gun policy in an era of mass shootings, rising crime and a surging conservative push to expand gun rights and the reach of the Second Amendment.

“What a day,” said Adam Skaggs, chief counsel with the Giffords Law Center, the legal arm of the national gun safety group created by former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democrat and survivor of a 2011 shooting near Tucson.

“The Senate was finally getting to bipartisan consensus on these reforms, mainly because a bunch of Republican senators heard from their voters that something needed to be done,” he added. “Then the Supreme Court completely hijacks everything with an interpretation of gun rights that is completely out of step with what Democrats, independents and even a lot of Republicans wanted.

“Where does it all go from here?”

The court’s decision to strike down New York’s 100-year-old law restricting the carrying of guns in public is the most sweeping ruling on firearms in years, and only the court’s second major statement on the right to keep and bear arms.

In the majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas compared restrictions on Second Amendment rights to limits on the right of free expression under the First Amendment and every American’s Sixth Amendment right to “confront the witnesses against him.” Critics were quick to point out that exercising those rights seldom involved the use of lethal force.

In the short term, the ruling forces five states, including New York, California and New Jersey, to drastically loosen their gun regulations.

Starsky Wilson and his son, Mason, attended the March for Our Lives rally against gun violence in Washington this month. Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York Times

In his sweeping 130-page opinion, Justice Thomas wrote that states may continue to ban guns in “sensitive” public places — like schools, courts and government buildings — but warned that local authorities should not define the category of such places too broadly.

“Put simply,” he added, “there is no historical basis for New York to effectively declare the island of Manhattan a ‘sensitive place’ simply because it is crowded and protected generally by the New York City Police Department.”

While the majority decision did not explicitly address federal regulation of firearms, Justice Department lawyers are assessing the consequences of the ruling on their procedures. Some restrictions, they believe, like the one on carrying weapons into courts, will remain in effect — but they are less sure about restrictions in post offices, museums and other facilities where guns are currently banned.

Although the court was widely expected to weaken state gun laws, the timing was a slight surprise: Most aides in the Capitol and at the White House believed the widely-anticipated decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen would come next week, as the court neared the coda of a term expected to be capped by an ending of Roe v. Wade.

This week, the focus was squarely on the Senate, which had managed to hash out a hard-won compromise on a package of gun regulations that would expand background checks for potential gun buyers under the age of 21, include serious dating partners in a law that prevents domestic abusers from purchasing firearms and provide federal money for state “red flag” laws to allow guns to be temporarily taken from people deemed dangerous.

With the passage of the measure on Thursday evening, June 23, 2022, became one of the most important days in America’s troubled centuries-old history with guns.

The Supreme Court decision — denounced by Lisa Monaco, the No. 2 Justice Department official, as “deeply disappointing” while a defiant Mayor Eric Adams of New York vowed to keep the city from becoming the “wild, wild West” — was seen as helping Democrats make the case for passing the Senate bill.

“The landscape for gun violence prevention laws is different today than it was just 48 hours ago,” said Kris Brown, the president of Brady, one of the country’s oldest gun control groups. “That decision has only underscored the urgent need for the Senate to act and pass this bill.”

Gun rights organizations in turn welcomed the ruling as a necessary constitutional check against the growing restrictions imposed in New York, California, New Jersey and other states. “The court has made clear that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is not limited to the home,” said Larry Keane, a top official with the gun industry’s top trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Senator Christoher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, has been one of the lead negotiators on the bipartisan gun legislation passed by the Senate on Thursday.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York Times

The decision gave some potential political cover to the Senate Republicans who have backed the gun control bill, which earned its main Republican sponsor, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a fusillade of boos from gun rights activists at a state party gathering last week.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, followed up a statement applauding the bipartisanship of the legislation with a blistering defense of gun rights in the wake of the ruling.

“Great day for the Second Amendment,” he wrote. “The Supreme Court’s decision is yet another example of reinforcing the concept that the Second Amendment is an individual right rooted in the ability to defend oneself and property.”