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One of the big puzzles when it comes to understanding violence is why the American rate of violence is five to ten times higher than that of other wealthy democracies.
谈到对暴力的理解，很多人都有个困惑，为什么美国的暴力率比其他富裕的民主国家高5到10倍。
There are countries that have spectacularly high rates of violence mainly in Central America and North and South America and in Southern Africa.
有些国家的暴力事件发生率极高，主要集中在中美洲、北美洲、南美洲和南部非洲。
But it's funny to see the United States not quite up there but much higher rates of homicide than our peers in the British Commonwealth and in Europe.
但有趣的是，美国的谋杀率并没有那么高，但比英联邦和欧洲的同类国家高得多。
Now the ready answer is well, that's because we have all those guns. And that is part of the answer but it's not the total answer.
现在的答案是，那是因为我们有那么多枪。这是一部分答案，但不是全部答案。
Because even if you subtract out all of the gun homicides in the United States and you just look at all the murders committed with ropes and candlesticks and knives and so on.
因为即使你把美国所有的涉枪杀人案都拿掉，你也只会看到用绳子、烛台和刀子等进行的谋杀。
The United States still has a higher rate of homicide.
美国的谋杀率仍然较高。
But and we also don't know for sure whether the favorite remedy of many people on the liberal left, namely tougher gun control, would have an effect in lowering homicides given how many guns are already out there.
但是，我们也不确定，许多自由左翼人士最喜欢的补救措施，即更严格的枪支控制，是否会对降低他杀率有效果，因为现在人民手里有很多枪。
The United States has more guns than people so restricting the sale of future guns is a small measure. Maybe it does but no one really knows for sure.
美国拥有的枪支比人口还多，所以限制未来枪支的销售只是一个小措施。也许是吧，但没人能确定。
And we do know that the United States itself had a quite spectacular reduction in violent crime starting in the 90s and again in the 2000s.
我们确实知道，美国从90年代开始，到2000年代，暴力犯罪大幅减少。
It certainly wasn't because massive numbers of guns were taken off the streets. Quite the contrary.
这当然不是因为街道上有大量的枪支被收走。恰恰相反。
So there's a lot we don't know but tragically and boneheadedly the U.S. Congress passed a law that the Centers for Disease Control was not allowed to study gun violence as a public health problem.
所以有很多我们不知道的事情，但可悲和愚蠢的是，美国国会通过了一项法律，疾病控制中心不允许将枪支暴力作为一个公共卫生问题来研究。
Now that is insanity. That is an example of political interference with conductive research.
这就是疯狂。这是政治干预传导研究的一个例子。
In the United States gun rights are a sacred cause of the right and anything that might compromise the right of everyone to have a gun is squelched.
在美国，持枪权是一项神圣的权利，任何可能危及每个人拥有枪支权利的事情都会被压制。
I've talked about many of the threats to academic freedom from the campus left but the political right is far more pernicious because they actually have power.
我已经谈到了许多来自校园左翼对学术自由的威胁，但政治右翼的威胁更大，因为他们拥有实际权力。
I mean academics, it's often said that academic debates are fierce because so little is at stake.
我是指学术圈，人们常说，学术争论激烈，因为几乎没有什么代价。
But when it comes to government a lot is at stake and the suppression of research on gun violence is an example of how the right is also guilty of suppressing freedom of inquiry.
但是涉及到政坛，很多事都会成为代价。抑制研究枪支暴力就是一个例子，说明权力也是压制质询自由的罪魁祸首。
And it's one of the reasons why we really don't know how to, how best to reduce gun violence in the United States.
这也是为什么我们真的不知道如何，如何最好地减少美国的枪支暴力的原因之一。
