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Guns and race - Double standard
枪支与种族——双重标准
The Second. By Carol Anderson.
《第二》 作者卡罗尔·安德森
A Black man with a gun has been white America's nightmare since before the republic was founded. Slave uprisings, black soldiers fighting in the country's wars, even African-American motorists — all have spurred fear and violence backed by white-supremacist authority. In "The Second", a compact yet sweeping history of guns and race in America, Carol Anderson argues that the right "to keep and bear arms" has never been about an abstract liberty to carry guns. Its primary role has been "black exclusion and debasement".
自共和国成立以来，持枪的黑人一直是美国白人的噩梦。奴隶起义，黑人士兵参与国家战争，甚至非裔美国人驾驶车辆——所有这些都激起了恐惧和暴力，并得到了白人至上主义当局的支持。《第二》描述关于美国枪支和种族的简洁而全面的历史，卡罗尔?安德森在书中指出，“持有和携带武器”的权利从来不是一种抽象的携带枪支的自由。它的主要作用是“排斥和贬低黑人”。
The Second Amendment, Ms Anderson writes, was born in sin. The word "slavery" never appears in the constitution. Racism is not explicitly inscribed in the Second Amendment. But, she claims, it was at the heart of the guarantee. When the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention (of whom 25 were slave-owners) drafted a replacement for the Articles of Confederation in 1787, they knew they needed the assent of southern states. The amendment, Ms Anderson says, was a "bribe to the South using the control of black people as the payoff". Slave-owners, terrified that their suffering property would rise up, could be sure of arming themselves.
安德森女士写道，第二修正案诞生于罪恶之中。“奴隶制”一词从未出现在宪法中。种族主义并没有明确写入宪法第二修正案。但是，她说，这才是保障的核心。当参加制宪会议的55位代表(其中25位是奴隶主)在1787年起草了一份取代《邦联条例》的文件时，他们知道需要得到南方各州的同意。安德森女士说，修正案是“以对黑人的控制为筹码，给南方的贿赂”。奴隶主们害怕他们饱受磨难的奴隶财产会奋起反抗，需要确保可以武装保护自己。
Other scholars offer more nuanced accounts of the amendment's origins, but there is little question that its "well-regulated militia" carried a glint of racial dominance. It was buttressed by the Uniform Militia Act of 1792, which required white males aged 18 to 45 to join state militias and buy guns. By contrast, a free black Virginian caught carrying a firearm in 1832 earned 39 lashes. The same punishment applied in Florida and could be enforced by white citizen patrols on the spot. In 1846 Georgia's Supreme Court found that the Second Amendment protected the "right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys… to keep and bear arms of every description". But it declined to strike down a law barring "any free persons of colour" from owning them. Several other states had similar prohibitions.
其他学者对修正案的起源提供了更细致入微的描述，但毫无疑问，修正案中“竟然有序的民兵”含有一丝种族优势。1792年的《统一民兵法案》也支持了这种做法，该法案要求18岁至45岁的白人男性加入州民兵并购买枪支。相比之下，在1832年，一名自由的弗吉尼亚黑人因携带枪支被抓，被鞭笞39下。同样的惩罚也适用于佛罗里达州，可以由白人巡逻人员当场执行。1846年，乔治亚州最高法院裁定，宪法第二修正案保护“所有人的权利，无论年龄性别……拥有和携带各种武器的权利”。但它拒绝废除禁止“任何有色自由人”拥有法律的禁令。其他几个州也有类似的禁令。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
