https://twitter.com/BarnwellSmith/status/1640770359430357005?s=20 Two instances in the coverage of yesterday's horrific shooting in a small Christian elementary school in an affluent section of Nashville, Tennessee, seem instructive. First, a local reporter covering the Nashville story said on air that she, herself, was a survivor of a school shooting when she was in middle school. Then, a woman … Continue reading Countering the NRA’s Reign of Terror
Category: gun safety laws
Gun Violence vs Democracy
“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” are incompatible with a craven Supreme Court majority’s opening the doors to madness in 2008 by ruling in the Heller decision that the Second Amendment applies to individual gun ownership—in people’s homes. Many legal scholars question that interpretation of the Second Amendment, which ignores the reference to a … Continue reading Gun Violence vs Democracy
Gun Safety: Small Step Forward; Big Step Back, But We Made a Difference!
The Supreme Court majority has just struck down a very sensible gun safety law--just as the often calcified Senate toddled toward a modest, though significant, breakthrough. Undeterred by my lack of legal credentials, I'm gonna venture that the American people had a say in both developments. Please bear with me...
The President’s Fury
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GPtFM3KiYU While waiting for President Biden to make his suddenly scheduled address on gun violence last night, several somewhat sympathetic “talking heads” discussed what we could expect from his speech. They concluded he’d have to be very careful, appealing to those ten elusive Republicans whose votes are essential if we are to see anything—anything at … Continue reading The President’s Fury
Some Wisdom About Gun Policy–and Everything Else
Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com “All healthy societies are ready to sacrifice the existential moment for their children’s future and for children after those. The sense of the future is behind all good policies. Unless we have it, we can give nothing either wise or decent to the world.” —quotation attributed to CP Snow … Continue reading Some Wisdom About Gun Policy–and Everything Else
The Huge Trump Opposition Research File on Bernie
I really, really, wanted to take a break from politics this week. I’d rather be writing about flowers and butterflies and HeroRATs and inspirational people. But I’m writing with a sense of urgency.
After watching the Democrats, led by the brilliant Adam Schiff, weave a compelling case for the President’s guilt—and knowing the impeachment trial will probably result in acquittal—I feel even more strongly that the Democrats must present a unified front if they have any chance of defeating Trump and saving our democracy.
About Those Guns…
The front page of Sunday’s New York Times and the story within carry snapshots of the 126 most recent victims of mass shootings. “Inside a Deadly American Summer,” reads the page 1 headline. “An American Summer Stained in Blood,” is the inside title. Both tap into the fear, anxiety, even terror that the overwhelming majority of us feel about mass shootings. “And all we could do is ask why,” notes The Times. “And wait for it to happen again.”
What if I told you that the media’s approach to these clearly horrendous mass shootings, which are increasing in number and frequency, may actually be making us less safe? Suppose we are viewing the issue of gun violence through too narrow a lens—and we are therefore standing in the way of what could be real progress in reducing and preventing the deaths and serious injuries in our gun culture-run-wild?
annieasksyou... 