(英会話リスニングスクリプト)
In Tasmania, Australia, in 1996, a massacre
took place which was to make Australians reconsider their
laws regarding guns.
Martin Bryant, 28, pulled an American-made
assault rifle out of a tennis bag and opened fire in a diner,
killing 20 people and wounding 12.
He then shot dead 15 other people at a general
store, parking lot and several other locations.
Children as young as three were shot at
point-blank range as they hid or tried to run away.
As a reaction to this, the Australian Government
decided on a radical new firearms control programme.
It was decided to ban firearms, except for
in exceptional circumstances; for example, for farmers who
need to shoot animals.
The government decided to buy the gun owners'
firearms from them, then to destroy them.
This "buy back programme" upset
the many Australians who love their guns, but has made the
country into a much safer, gun-free place.
Australians were worried that their country
would become like America with all its gun-related crime.
This leaves the United States as the last
industrialized country to allow its citizens to legally
own weapons.
However, it is unlikely that America's millions
of gun owners would agree to such a move.
The right to bear arms is part of the American
constitution and they say that guns are necessary to protect
them from dangerous criminals.
The truth is, however, that many more innocent
people than criminals are shot to death every day.
|