TEXT ONE
On Tuesday afternoon, as news about the Virginia Tech murders filtered out, the staff of a hamburger restaurant in downtown Austin gathered in front of a television suspended over the bar. A boyish-looking waiter speculated that if the gunman had really used a 9mm handgun, he must have had an accomplice. That handgun can hold a fair number of bullets, he said, but the gunman would have had to stop to reload.
It is not unusual for a Texan to be casually conversant about firearms. A state resident does not need a permit to buy a gun and guns do not have to be registered. Police are, as a result, not sure how many guns there are in the state. But the number is substantial. In a 2001 poll by the Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, 36% of respondents said that their household had at least one.
The states gun laws are lax, and becoming more so all the time. In March Governor Rick Perry signed a bill into law that gives increased discretion to open fire. Previously, Texans were justified in killing someone only if a reasonable person in the actors situation would not have retreated . The new law, which takes effect in September, eliminates the need for escape attempts. It assumes that the otherwise law-abiding citizen had a good reason for standing their ground. It also gives shooters immunity from civil suits.
The law has plenty of critics. Law-enforcement officials say the duty to retreat saves lives because it discourages people from escalating conflicts. The new law seems to protect hysterical trigger-fingers who feel themselves genuinely threatened when no real threat exists. The law was probably not necessary anyway. There is no carjacking crisis in the state. And juries have never been sticklers about the duty to retreat. There is widespread sympathy for the idea that, as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it in 1921, Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.
Still, the bill flew through the legislature with broad support. In a way, it simply marks a return to form for the state. Texas did not acknowledge a duty to retreat until 1973. And Texas is just the 16th state to pass such legislation since Florida did so in 2005. Floridas law goes even further, as it presumes that any cat burglar has murderous intent.
Texans largely support gun ownership, despite the fact that the state has experienced mass murders of its own. In 1966 Charles Whitman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, shot almost 50 passers-by from the top of the campus clock-tower. Sixteen died. And in 1991 George Hennard drove his truck into a restaurant in the small town of Killeen, where he killed 23 patrons before killing himself. Before this week, those episodes were, respectively, the deadliest campus shooting and the worst mass shooting in Americas history.
北京环球主题公园正式签约,力争2019年竣工
英国单身男士心目中的女神:褐发、蓝眼、纹身
“腿部空间可调节”座椅解决长腿旅客飞行烦恼
可怕的“摇晃婴儿综合征”
环球与迪士尼成今夏好莱坞最大赢家
通往成功的五大非传统专业
全面从严治党要坚持“高线”
经济增长面临产能过剩的压力
九成老板用Facebook筛应聘者
Symphony联手道琼斯对抗彭博
坎迪丝凯恩 变性路上的光荣与梦想
超梦幻的梵高主题小镇花车游行
猫狗之争:从进化角度看猫科比犬科更好
基特•哈灵顿或透露雪诺的命运
去哪儿董事会扩容 百度发力在线旅游业
奥委会宣布2024年奥运五大候选主办城市
百度发力人工智能突围战
北汽拟入股戴姆勒
2015QS世界大学排名 中国大陆4所高校入百强
京津冀联建农田景观游
NBA巨星摩西·马龙逝世:传奇永不凋零!
宇通或开启客车无人驾驶时代
苹果Siri乱入白宫记者会
科学家发明“死神计算机”
别人家的学生宿舍:影音室、健身房、游戏室一应俱全
习大大引用“靡不有初,鲜克有终”全文英译
每天吃鲑鱼 像戒烟一样有益
最强历史顾问:唐顿粉英国女王爱给剧挑BUG
发在线信息比打电话更浪漫
上海出台措施保障“迪士尼蓝”
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |