At four o'clock in the afternoon, Atletico Madrid was battling with a pile of cardboard.

On holidays, he seems to be fascinated by paper art and paper sculpture, and whenever he has time, he goes into the studio to tinker with new cardboard.

Behind him, Tang Jiayi walked in quickly, holding the phone in her hand.

Her mouth was slightly open, her face was full of surprise, and when she met, she asked: "Atletico Madrid, do you know about the casino shooting?"

"Yes," the former kept moving, "the Los Angeles branch is taking stock of the situation, and detailed results will be reported later." ”

Obviously, Atletico already know about this and are also watching the follow-up development, but the focus is different.

"Oh, too, if something like this happens, there should be a report within the company," Tang Jiayi nodded, lowered her head and swiped across the screen of her phone to refresh the Google page.

Letting go of her fingers, she didn't forget to complain about her search engine, "The English search of Misou is simply weak, and the search results are too few and the updates are too slow than Google, how can people use this?"

"It can't be helped," Atletico Madrid said, helping to explain: "After all, it is still in its infancy, and the speed and breadth of English pages are naturally not comparable to those of veteran drivers." ”

"Hey!" Tang Jiayi nodded, "I understand, I understand." Then don't blame me for using other products!"

"Do you use less?"

After speaking, she looked at the screen, and sure enough, she saw a lot of new content.

News has momentum, the more novel and unbelievable the content, the faster it spreads, that is, the so-called "dog bites people is not news, mad dogs bite hundreds of people or people bite dogs are news".

Every year, about 30,000 Lao Mei die from shootings, and shootings occur almost every day, except for the FBI and various gun control organizations, everyone else has been numb to this, and reporters are too lazy to report on the shooting on the platform. But the Las Vegas shooting was different, with casinos, country concerts, cold-blooded gunmen shooting in the air, and killing 50 people in an instant, all of which gave it a powerful momentum of communication, and related reports quickly spread across the pages, pages and time slots of major media around the world.

As more and more reporters arrived at the scene of the crime, more details were revealed. After reading the latest reports, Tang Jiayi couldn't help but feel a chill in her back, the police found more than a dozen automatic rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition in the gunman's room, this old white man named Stephen Paddock, who has a wanted criminal father, is obviously a madman, and personally directed a bloody night killing comparable to a Hollywood movie.

Putting down the phone, the lady frowned and looked at her husband beside her, "What's wrong with Lao Mei?

Hearing his wife's doubts, Atletico shook his head slightly: "It's not in recent years, it's almost every year on their side." After all, the population base is large enough, the number of guns is high enough, 320 million people, 270 million guns, excluding 19% of children and the vast majority of women, every adult man can get two guns, gangster fights, robbery, drunken brawls, rear-end scraping, police duty may all use guns, the number of gun cases naturally does not go down. ”

"If there were similar cases in poor countries like Yemen, Libya and Congo, because of the poor infrastructure, the media would rarely get coverage, and if it wasn't a very serious case, it would hardly reach abroad, and even if it did, it would rarely attract attention and heated discussions. It's the same if you change it to the United States, after all, they are the world's first power, their own media are developed, and foreign media pay attention to them, and as soon as there is an important case, it will immediately spread all over the world, and then it will be seen by you. ”

This answer obviously couldn't satisfy Tang Jiayi, she shook her head, "Of course I know this." But what I want to ask is, why are there more and more gun cases? Don't tell me it's because of population growth and record gun sales!"

Turning his head and smiling at his wife, he pulled her to sit next to him, and then Atletico said: "That's really the case." In the past decade, the North American arms market has indeed seen a boom in production and sales, with new firearms companies constantly popping up, and the stock prices of established companies also increasing considerably. ”

"Huh?" Tang Jiayi's eyes widened, "How could this be? It was the Donkey Party that was in power during that time!"

The Donkey Party has always been concerned about welfare, education, community safety and other things, and has always stood on the position of gun control, and in 1993, the Brady Gun Control Act was signed, and it was the Donkey Party President Zipper who promoted the pre-purchase background check. In order to ensure a stable tenure, the previous "micro-business president" who also led the party avoided mentioning gun control during the election campaign, but after taking office, he bypassed Congress to enact a new gun control policy, but unfortunately was pushed back by the pro-gun faction, and when Tepp came to power, he completely overturned the previous policy.

Many people are worried that the gun control policy will be tightened, so they simply buy it as soon as possible, because the law is not as good as in the past, and if they really restrict and prohibit it, their guns can still be invested in appreciation, just like 86-year-old guns. Moreover, during that time, the economy was sluggish, the employment rate was reduced, social security deteriorated, and ordinary people also had the need to buy weapons to increase their sense of security. ”

"Then, a strange circle was formed, whenever there was a major homicide, people were worried about their own safety on the one hand, and on the other hand, they were worried about the tightening of policies, and their enthusiasm for buying guns became even higher. Those gunmen have become the best spokesmen for arms dealers, and by the time of next month's Black Friday sale, gun sales will definitely reach new highs. ”

North American shopping malls and supermarkets usually hold discount promotions on the Friday after Thanksgiving at the end of November, called "Black Friday", and guns and ammunition are also on sale, so this day often sets a new single-day sales record for firearms products.

"Okay," Tang Jiayi nodded speechlessly, and then changed the question, "By the way, isn't Lao Mei banning the sale of automatic weapons? Where did the murderer get so many automatic rifles, did the FBI eat dry food?"

"It's likely that his weapons are all legal, but not automatic in the legal sense. ”

Like most countries, the control of firearms and weapons in the United States has been gradually tightened, the NFA (National Firearms Act) in 1934 banned submachine guns such as "Chicago typewriters", the GCA (Firearms Control Act) in 1968 banned mail-order guns, the GOPA (Gun Owner Protection Act) in 1986 was relaxed, but the sale of automatic weapons was completely banned, and in 1994, 19 high-power semi-automatic military weapons and magazines of more than 10 rounds were banned, and pre-purchase background checks were also promoted.

In line with the principle that the law is not as good as the past, fully automatic weapons legally purchased before 86 years ago, and semi-automatic assault weapons legally purchased 94 years ago can still be held, although they have to be replaced with small magazines, although the follow-up transactions are more troublesome and can only be sold to users in specific regions, but the out-of-print also means that the collection value increases, and many old gun owners have made a fortune because of this.

In addition to federal laws, each state has its own specific laws, such as New York, which is usually more restrictive in densely populated and urbanized states, and Texas and Nevada, which are sparsely populated and under-policed. Las Vegas, where the shooting broke out, is in Nevada, where people can legally buy and openly carry semi-automatic weapons.

"When the 10-year ban on semi-automatic military weapons expired in 2004, the stage had been replaced by the pro-gun Elephant Party. Ronald was almost killed that year, and for the sake of basic stability, he could only insist on saying "It's not guns that kill, it's people who kill", and Congress was controlled by lawmakers on the side of the Elephant Party, so naturally they sat back and watched the ban expire, and many of the serious shootings that occurred later used military semi-automatic, and this time it should be the same. ”

"Automatic weapons can be used to produce semi-automatic weapons with continuous firing as long as the principle of pushing, locking, firing, rejecting and feeding ammunition is carried out by means of the pressure of the charge gas and the force of the spring. In the past, it was just a private modification, which was relatively technically difficult, and then a veteran set up Slide Fire to sell his invention of 'bump stock'. This thing allows the bolt to bounce repeatedly with the help of recoil, and then drive the trigger to continuously hit the finger to complete the firing again and again, which will cause aiming difficulties but can greatly increase the rate of fire, which is welcomed by enthusiasts, and the key is that it has passed the approval of the ATF of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Gun Administration, and it can be legally purchased in many places, of course, it may not work in the future. ”

"The guns in the hotel room have similar modifications, otherwise that guy wouldn't have brought thousands of rounds of ammunition over. Even his choice to attack the open-air concert may also be related to the loss of accuracy caused by the modification, there are 20,000 spectators below, even if the jitter causes the bounce point to spread larger, it can kill many people. ”

"Alas!" Tang Jiayi sighed faintly, "Just because of this, you pointed the gun at the innocent audience?"

Atletico shook his head, "How can we ordinary people understand the world of madmen and paranoia?"

"Yes," the lady sighed again, "if this continues, open-air gatherings will probably be extinct." No matter how thorough the security measures are, it is impossible to control the surrounding hotels, and it is impossible for the hotel to require the guests to check their luggage and rooms. ”

"It's not extinct," Atletico Madrid said, "There are more deaths and injuries in car accidents, and you still have to sit, and the same is true for all kinds of gatherings." This is the way things are in the world, there is no absolute insurance foolproof, just see if you can afford the price. ”

"This price is still too great," Tang Jiayi is a woman after all, and she naturally hates this kind of high-risk thing psychologically, "Do you think Lao Mei will enact a gun control bill next?"

As for the future, I am also not very optimistic, the NRA has already packaged the right to own guns as a civil right granted by the Constitution, blocking the path prohibited by the law, and the official only has the right to restrict its use through legislation, but it is difficult to do so, so we can only count on the Women's Federation. ”

Tang Jiayi glared at Atletico Madrid, "This joke is not funny at all. ”

"It's not the 'Avengers' of the American comic heroes, I'm talking about the 'Women's Federation' of women's organizations. ”

"Women's Federation?"

"Well," Atletico nodded, "women own far fewer guns than men, and most of them hate bloody violence, so they should be the Ottoile of the gun control faction." ”

Tang Jiayi shook her head, "Impossible, female turnout has always been low, and women sometimes need self-defense pistols." ”

"So," Atletico said, "there shouldn't be any major changes in the near future, and judging from the tweets of those politicians, there won't be any big moves for the time being." At most, it restricts the sale of crash butts, but even without bump stock, they still have AutoGlove, and the effect is similar. ”

Tang Jiayi's eyebrows raised, "'Automatic gloves'?"

"Well," Atletico nodded, "add a mechanism to the glove, and the motor will be activated with a single touch of your finger, and the machine will automatically connect the dots." This is a new invention, and the principle is actually not complicated, even if it is forbidden to sell, it is not difficult to make homemade. ”

"Heh!" Tang Jiayi took a breath, "It sounds so dangerous, I won't dare to go abroad in the future." ”

"Actually, it's okay," Atletico waved his hand disappreciatively, "There is basically no problem with good domestic security, and if you go abroad, bring your bodyguards with you, and follow the arrangement not to go to the chaotic area, and it will usually be fine." Now, of course, we have to stay away from large meeting places, lest we run into the next Padoc. ”

Hearing this, the lady couldn't help but slap someone, and wanted to complain, but finally forcibly stopped.

Noticing the unhappy expression on her face, Atletico stood up, "Okay, don't talk about this, it's someone else's family matter after all." ”

Walked to the shelf and picked up a stack of cardboard, beckoned to his wife, "Let's go, see how our little old man reacts this time." ”

He spent a day making a lot of cardboard toys, and happily played with the four snacks, but was met with the latter coldly.

It's no wonder that the little guys, they have no shortage of toys since childhood, and they are used to getting used to normal toys with bright colors and rich functions.

Tang Jiayi also smiled when she heard this, "You are purely self-inflicted, they are all about to be overwhelmed by all kinds of toys, how can they like these?"

His eyes fell on the cardboard in his husband's hand, "What new tricks are you going to play this time?"

Atletico Madrid heard this, but shook his head and sold it, "You'll know when the time comes." ”

Glancing at the cardboard again, her eyes stayed on the small protrusions that appeared regularly on it for a few seconds, Tang Jiayi still had the answer in her heart, "I'm really willing to pay for it, I'm afraid that your stack of cardboard can be exchanged for a large box of electric toys." ”

The stack of cardboard in Atletico's hand may seem unremarkable, but there is a lot of truth inside, and if you lift the brown tape around the protrusions, you should find hidden miniature circuit components.

In order to save costs, the motors and electronic components used in general electric toys are conventional models, which are large in size and weak in performance. Inside the cardboard, it should be a mobile phone component, with the same performance and volume reduced by more than ten or dozens of times, and the cost will naturally increase a lot.

Seeing that she had already seen through it, Atletico Madrid did not hide it, picked up a piece of cardboard and handed it over, "There is no way, ordinary cardboard toys can't stop them, so I have to get some strong medicine." ”

(End of chapter)