Potomac Correspondence: An Assassin’s Bullet and Freedom

Published in Sankei
(Japan) on 19 January 2011
by Yousuke Inuzaka (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Lynn Allmon. Edited by Gillian Palmer.
I arrived at the elementary school Christina Green, the nine-year-old primary school girl who lost her life in the Tuscon random shooting incident, had attended. The fence surrounding the school building overflowed with notes written jointly by friends mourning her death.

"To my best friend, Christina. Do you remember this picture? It is from our first sleepover."

Two young girls are standing shoulder-to-shoulder, smiling sweetly with aged facial expressions. Their expressions are a little bit drained, telling the story of the young girls' excitement at their first sleepover as friends.

More and more, the fun night at times was probably a night that brought tears to friends' eyes. It seems they are holding the same thoughts, and many parents dried tears in front of the fence.

And yet, what is unexpected is that the gun control laws are lagging. In this incident, six people became victims, and the woman of the House who is considered the Democratic Party's hope has fallen to an assassin's bullet.

At the victims memory assembly, the somber Democratic Party members who met by chance said, "We should place trust in the Second Amendment." The text is for the safety of the free country; the rule is that the right for citizens to carry guns must not be violated.

Regretting the loss of the young lady, we shed tears and yet there is a thorough resistance to the obstruction of "freedom." In order to understand this undercurrent in America's bloodstream, I have the feeling that even more "observation and collecting data" is essential.


ポトマック通信 凶弾と自由
2011.1.19 03:21

 アリゾナ州トゥーソンの銃乱射事件で命を落とした9歳の女児、クリスティーナ・グリーンさんが通っていた小学校を訪れた。校舎を囲うフェンスは、少女の死を悼む友人らの寄せ書きであふれていた。

 「一番の友、クリスティーナへ。この写真、覚えてる? 初めて“お泊まり”をしたときのものよ」

 2人の少女が肩を組み、大人びた表情でニコリとほほえんでいる。ちょっぴり緊張した表情が、初めて友達と夜を明かす少女の興奮を物語っていた。

 これからもっともっと、楽しい夜、ときには涙する夜を友達と過ごせただろうに。同じ思いを抱えたであろう多くの保護者がフェンスを前に涙を拭いていた。

 それでも意外なのは、銃規制の議論が鈍いことだ。事件では6人が犠牲になり、民主党のホープとされる女性下院議員が凶弾に倒れている。

 犠牲者の追悼集会で出会ったガチガチの民主党員は「憲法修正第2条を信じている」と語った。条文は自由な国家の安全のため、国民が武器を保有、携帯する権利を侵してはならないと規定している。

 少女の無念に涙を流し、それでも「自由」を阻害することには徹底して抵抗する。その底流にある米国の“血脈”を知るには、さらなる「観察と取材」が必要と実感した。(犬塚陽介)
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