Mary McCord on Unlawful Militias, Chip Gibbons on Assange Extradition
Unlawful militias manage to be part of the political landscape while somehow escaping rigorous media scrutiny.
On Gun Violence, ‘We Need the Federal Government to Take Bold Steps’
“We can’t continue to work in silos of doing this gun violence work, that urban areas’ gun violence, domestic violence, suicide rates from gun violence, all talked about in the report, all tie together, and you have to come together as one human community to really address these issues.”
Ernest Coverson on Guns & Human Rights, Carey Gillam Under Attack From Monsanto
Vast majorities of Americans support serious regulation, but corporate media debate still seems to revolve around the supposed “rights” of the few, rather than the right of the many to live a life free from this scourge.
ACTION ALERT: While Rangers Fight Wildfires, USA Today Fans Flames of Gun Paranoia
Please ask USA Today not to inflame the gun control debate with clickbait headlines.
YouTube as Conspiracy Conduit
While radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage indoctrinated older demographics in conspiratorial right-wing politics in recent decades, right-wing YouTube videos serve the same purpose for younger age groups.
Republicans Want to Look at Gun Violence in Movies? OK, Let’s Look
This is Hollywood’s relationship with the gun industry: When you put a gun on screen, people are going to want to buy it, regardless of whether it’s used by good guys or bad guys,
‘They Put Lethal Weapons Into the Hands of 13-Year-Olds’
“The military is attempting to put as many adolescent fingers around as many triggers as possible. They understand the impact, the psychological lure, of firing a weapon.”
‘The NRA Has Basically Become Part of the Republican Party’
The NRA is a bit of a paper tiger, and I think more and more legislators will find that out as they challenge the NRA.
Lee Drutman on Gun Control Politics, Pat Elder on School Militarization
If Americans really want to stop being “the only country where this happens,” which keeps officially claiming there’s “no way to prevent” it, it will require not just deep examination of the multiple roots of mass violence of this sort, but also an approach to political processes that keeps its eye on the prize of real change.
Next on NPR: Some Think You Should Put Out Fire With Gasoline
Reporting on the epidemic of mass shootings, All Things Considered gave a platform to the gun debate’s equivalents of anti-vaxxers, and gave no scrutiny to their claim that more guns are the solution to gun violence.
We Need Thoughtful Coverage of Gun Violence, Not Slow Pans Over Arsenals
I have noticed that so many people like him are all alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are. A man who was known by no one is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person […]
Steven Rosenfeld on Gerrymandering, Dean Baker on Trump Tax Plan
The Supreme Court case of Gill v. Whitford, deciding whether the way Wisconsin Republicans redrew voting districts in 2011 amounted to “an aggressive partisan gerrymander,” touches on nothing less than whether the US can ever become the democracy so many hope for.
Two Charts on the Gun Crisis: One Hopeful, One Hopeless
I found two graphics on the gun crisis particularly interesting: one because it brought hope, and the other because it blew that hope away.
SoundBites June 2013
Concealing a Spy Who Hid Torture; Misremembering Thatcher; PBS’s Debate on Social Security
Democrats Can’t Blame Guns for ’94 Losses
There are perhaps plenty of lessons in the (most recent) Senate failure to pass even modest new restrictions/regulations on gun ownership. But one lesson needs to be resisted: The idea that passing a more expansive gun control law in 1994 came back to bite Democrats in the midterm elections.
Did the Public Really Give Up on Gun Control?
On two Sunday shows this weekend, the hosts made the same point about the White House’s plan for modest gun control efforts: The public isn’t going along. Oddly, they both ignored their own networks’ polling that would have undermined their argument.
The Self-Defense Self-Delusion
There are instances where guns are successfully used for self-defense or protection, but those are isolated anecdotes, vastly outweighed by the numbers of gun crimes, and the fact that a gun in your home is far less likely to successfully defend against an attacker than it is to kill or harm you or a family member.
George Will’s Stop & Frisk Factcheck
The ABC Sunday show This Week had not one but two roundtables this weekend. Right-winger George Will appeared on both of them, because… well, he knows a lot of stuff.
George Washington on Guns…According to Sean Hannity
To make the case that gun ownership was not just a right, but something akin to a sacrament, Hannity quoted George Washington: “‘Rifles and pistols are equally indispensable.’ ‘They deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.'” The quote is a hoax, and a well-known one.
Does the Public Really Oppose Gun Restrictions?
One issue that comes up in much of the coverage of the Newtown massacre is the notion that the public’s view on gun control has shifted towards the “pro-gun” side in recent years. It’s important to look at that assumption.
