Mass shootings: Byproduct of the military-industrial complex
大规模枪击案：军工复合体的副产品
作者：M. Yusuf| May 13, 2025
As of today there have been 107 mass shootings so far in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive. On average this year, there has been a mass shooting in the United States every 30 hours.
根据枪支暴力档案（Gun Violence Archive）提供的数据，截至文章撰写的日子，我国今年已经发生了107起大规模枪击案，平均每三十小时就有一起。
Given how frequently these shootings happen, one can feel like a broken record talking about them. But it’s important to continually say what one believes to be the truth, especially in times such as this when the president is someone who — more than any other politician — exemplifies how big lies can become “truth” when endlessly repeated.
枪击事件已经频繁到提及时都感到无聊了。但坚持为自己相信的真理发声依旧重要，尤其是在这个总统完美体现“谎言重复千次就是真理”的时代。
The country’s most recent mass shooting left one person dead and five injured in Florence, South Carolina. Yet again we are having the same tired conversations. On the right, the president says it’s a “shame,” but adds that he has an “obligation” to uphold the Second Amendment. On the left, we have the familiar calls for “common sense” gun reforms.
我国最近在南卡罗莱纳州Florence市的大规模枪击案导致一死五伤，而对此事的讨论仍是老调重弹。一边，右翼总统称这是“耻辱”同时又强调其有“义务”维护第二修正案；另一边，左翼们照常呼吁“尊重常识”的枪支改革。
I was in elementary school when 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech University. I was in middle school when 26 were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary. I was in high school when 49 were killed at the Pulse nightclub. I was in college when 17 were killed at Stoneman Douglas High School. And after I graduated, 21 were killed at Robb Elementary.
笔者上小学时，弗吉尼亚科技大学因为枪击死了32人；中学时，26人在Sandy Hook小学被杀；读高中的时候，49人在Pulse夜店被杀；大学的时候Stoneman Douglas高中又因为枪击死了17人；毕业后，又有21条生命在Robb小学消逝。
I think I speak for the vast majority of people in the U.S. when I say I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’m sick of being desensitized to reading a number count next to the name of a school on the news. But I’m also sick and tired of having the same old conversations about mass shootings time and again; conversations between those who say there’s nothing to offer but “thoughts and prayers,” and those who will decry violence at home, but excuse it abroad.
笔者认为本人的态度与美国人民的态度是一致的：我们已经厌倦“厌倦枪击案”了。我受够了在新闻里看到学校名称旁边的数字时麻木不仁，但我同样受够了每次大规模枪击案里的陈词滥调：那些发生在说除了“思念和祈祷”之外别无他法的人与那些表面谴责暴力实则为其开脱的人之间的陈词滥调。
I myself am a former gun owner who isn’t against gun ownership and who supports red flag laws. But red flag laws aren’t enough.
笔者也曾持枪，并同时支持红旗法（临时禁止拥枪法令，red flag laws)。但光靠红旗法还不够。
While I support discussions on who should be prevented from gun ownership and what guns should be kept off the streets, these discussions too often ignore a crucial question: why are these guns here in the first place? Just why is it that the U.S. accounts for 46% of all civilian-owned firearms on earth?
虽然我支持讨论哪些人应被禁止拥枪以及哪些枪应禁止街头流通，但这些讨论往往忽略了一个关键问题：这些枪为什么会出现在这？为什么美国占据了全球民用枪支总数的46%？
These guns did not fall from the sky. I reject that it’s some strange coincidence the most militarized country on earth is an outlier in mass shootings. It isn’t a coincidence the country that spends more on its military than the next nine countries combined, just so happens to rank in the 93rd percentile for overall firearm mortality. I contend the root cause of the gun violence epidemic in the U.S. is the military-industrial complex.
这些枪不是从天上掉下来的。全球军事化程度最高的国家在全球大规模枪击事件统计中不可能是例外。一个军费开支超过其后九个国家总和的国家“恰好”在总体枪支死亡率中排在前7%并非巧合。笔者认为，我国枪支泛滥的根源在于军工复合体。
In his farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower issued warnings about the growing military-industrial complex. While Eisenhower can hardly be considered an exemplary historical advocate for world peace, his address proved to be a fateful warning. Indeed, the military-industrial complex’s “total influence” can be felt across this country today. The current gun violence epidemic is but one of the military-industrial complex’s “grave implications” that has come to fruition.
艾森豪威尔总统在其告别演说中就日益壮大的军工联合体发出了警告。虽然其难被视为历史上呼吁和平的典范，但其所言却被证明是一个致命的警告。事实上，如今全国都能感受到军工联合体的“全面影响”。当前的枪支泛滥只是军工联合体已显现的“严重后果”之一。
It isn’t enough to simply legislate what guns or gun modifications are legal and who should or shouldn’t own a gun, if we don’t seriously discuss how and why these guns got here in the first place.
若我们不认真探讨这些枪最初是如何又为何流入美国，仅仅依靠立法规定哪些枪支或枪支改装合法、拥枪权的裁定是不能够解决问题的。
I support red flag laws to fight the gun violence epidemic as I would support red flag laws to fight the country’s opioid epidemic. It would be a positive step to enact laws that prevent doctors from prescribing painkillers to “at-risk” individuals. But such legislation alone would be woefully inadequate to address the totality of the opioid epidemic. To address this epidemic, we’re required to fight against a healthcare system that puts profits over people and a legal system that affords the Sackler family — the founders of Purdue Pharma and Mundipharma — a sense of legal immunity that dimebag drug dealers can only dream of.
笔者支持制定红旗法对抗枪支泛滥，正如支持制定红旗法对抗阿片类药物泛滥一样。立法禁止医生向“高危”人群开止痛药将是一个积极的举措。但仅靠立法根本无法彻底解决阿片类药物泛滥的问题。为了应对这一泛滥，我们必须对抗将利润置于人民之上的医疗体系以及赋予了Sackler家族（普渡制药和萌蒂制药创始人）法律豁免权的——那些低级毒贩梦寐以求的——法律体系。
Similarly, addressing the gun violence epidemic requires a more holistic approach than what red flag laws alone can offer. It requires us to fight the political influence of the National Rifle Association; an advocacy group that cares more about gun sales than gun rights, as evidenced by their reaction (or rather lack thereof) to the police killing of Philando Castile and their support for gun control laws against the Black Panthers. It requires us to fight the political influence of war contractors from Lockheed Martin and to fight against the executives of companies like Smith & Wesson; companies whose sole purpose is to make a killing off of maiming and killing.
同样，应对枪支暴力泛滥需要一种比红旗法本身更全面的方法。我们要对抗全国步枪协会的政治影响力——该组织更关心卖枪而不是拥枪权，他们对Philando Castile被警察杀害的冷漠以及他们对压制黑豹党的枪支管制法的支持便是铁证。我们要对抗Lockheed Martin这个战争承包商的政治影响力，对抗Smith与Wesson等公司高管；这些公司的唯一目的就是通过致残和杀戮来牟取暴利。
These fights require mass movements. In such mass movements, it’s necessary for us to make clear that mass shootings are a byproduct of the military-industrial complex.
这场斗争需要群众运动。在这样的群众运动中，我们有必要明确指出，大规模枪击事件是军工联合体的副产品。
Working-class people in the U.S. have waited too long for solutions. It’s safe to assume the vast majority of our working-class has either been impacted by gun violence themselves, or knows someone who has. We need more than conservative politicians who only have “thoughts and prayers” to offer us and who will blame gun violence on a supposed “breakdown of morality and faith throughout our culture.” We need more than liberal politicians who say they’re “filled with rage” over mass shootings and who will lecture conservatives that “you either care about protecting kids or you don’t,” only to then turn around and justify the deliberate killing of children in Gaza, Yemen, and elsewhere. And we need more than politicians who decry gun violence committed by “criminals,” but who justify the more than 1,000 deaths caused by police officers every year (as of writing, there hasn’t been a single day in 2025 in which a U.S. police officer hasn’t killed someone).
美国工人阶级等解决这个问题等了太久了。可以说，我们绝大多数工人阶级要么自己遭受过枪支暴力，要么认识遭受过枪支暴力的人。我们需要的不是那些只会祈祷并把枪支暴力归咎于所谓“礼崩乐坏”的保守派政客。我们需要的不是那些声称自己对枪击案“怒不可遏”指责保守派的同时却为在加沙、也门和其他地方故意杀害儿童的行为辩护的自由派政客我们需要的不是那些谴责“罪犯”犯下的枪支暴力却为每年超过1000人死于警察之手而辩护的政客（截至撰写本文时，2025年每天警察都杀了人）。
We need a political movement against gun violence in the U.S. made up of, by, and for working-class people. Only such a movement — one that isn’t beholden to gun lobbyists, war contractors, and imperialist foreign policy — can hope to meet the challenge of fighting and ending the gun violence epidemic.
我们需要一场由工人阶级组成、发起、服务于工人阶级的反美国枪支暴力的政治运动。只有这种运动——不受枪支说客、战争承包商和帝国主义外交政策束缚的运动——才有望应对终结枪支暴力泛滥的挑战。
As commendable as it is for politicians to fight for red flag laws and similar legislation, any effort to end the gun violence epidemic that doesn’t emphasize demilitarization and community control of police cannot fully address and fight this epidemic.
政客们为红旗法和类似立法而奋斗固然值得称赞，但任何不强调“社区去军事化”和“社区管警察“的努力都不会完全解决与遏制枪支泛滥。
So the next time a mass shooting happens, I ask that everyone emphasize the military-industrial complex’s role in making the U.S. a country where we can’t go to a school or a movie theater without that faint voice in the back of our heads wondering: “Are we next?”
下次发生大规模枪击事件时，笔者请求大家讨论时强调军工联合体的作用，它让美国变成了一个我们一上学、去电影院，脑海里就会回响：“我们不会变下一个受害者吧？”的国家。