gun control
September 23, 2019 — John Hinderaker
It is remarkable how little most people who are adamantly opposed to firearms know about them. In general, of course, blissful ignorance of guns is perfectly fine. But if you are a legislator, and you set out to ban something, you do have a duty to know what it is you want to make illegal. Sheila Jackson Lee is the latest to embarrass herself. She wants to ban America’s most
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September 16, 2019 — Steven Hayward
The great people at the Washington Free Beacon, which as of today is under the leadership of a suspiciously familiar name, produced this supercut of liberals saying they don’t want to take away anyone’s guns—until of course Beto let the mask slip because of course liberals want to take away everyone’s guns. Totally worth the two minutes of, um, rapid-fire delivery:
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September 3, 2019 — John Hinderaker
I wholeheartedly endorse the conservative plan to reduce homicides that Paul wrote about earlier today. With respect to the latest round of mass shootings, I haven’t yet had time to delve into the statistics, but here are a few observations. First, the last couple of mass shooters likely are copycats. More than anything else, giving less press coverage to mass shootings, and especially refusing to publish “manifestoes,” would reduce the
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September 3, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Recent mass shootings have prompted calls for new gun control legislation aimed primarily at rifles. However, most murders are not the product of mass shootings by people who want to make a statement, political or otherwise. They are committed on a small scale, with handguns, by ordinary criminals. At Conservative Review, Daniel Horowitz presents a seven-step plan to reduce homicides. I have distilled his seven steps to six, which are
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August 15, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The news media reported relentlessly on all matters relating even remotely to the horrific murders in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. Fair enough. But I haven’t heard much from the mainstream media about the shooting in Philadelphia of six police officers by a felon who wasn’t permitted by law to possess a firearm. Maurice Hill is believed to have fired more than 100 rounds during his standoff with police.
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August 6, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
It seems to me that any rational person would intuit a connection between mental illness and mass killings. However, the anti-gun left wants to deny the connection so that all blame can be placed on guns and white supremacy ideology. The Washington Post follows this agenda-driven line in an article called (in the paper edition) “Studies: Mental illness isn’t to blame.” The article is rubbish. Post reporters William Wan and
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August 5, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Paul has noted the comments that President Trump made on the weekend’s two mass shootings this morning. His post embeds a video of the president’s speech, which is 10 minutes long. I recommend that you watch it. It was thoughtful, measured, and, in my opinion, struck all the right notes. It consisted in large part of denunciations of the murderers and sympathy for their victims. Beyond that, Trump’s comments were
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August 5, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Two cases of mass murder in one weekend have caused commentators once again to inspect the writings of the murderers for political content. The goal, as always, is to assign blame to one side or the other in our political divide. In the case of El Paso, the murderer’s writings are anti-immigrant, but also apparently socialist in some respects. In the case of Dayton, the writings reportedly are avowedly socialist,
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August 4, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Two more mass shootings, but Twitter is on it! And I am sure Twitter will bring out the best in everyone as it always does,* and produce consensus solutions by tomorrow morning. As Glenn Reynolds reminds us every time there is a shooting, initial media reports are often wrong and usually incomplete, but the first media themes often take hold and are hard to dislodge later. (The most persistent is
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June 24, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s presidential campaign seems doomed to failure. She is not even registering in polls of the Democratic race. Gillibrand has made a strong run in the phoniness sweepstakes, though. Indeed, she looks to be running away with that prize. This is no mean feat considering that Sens. Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren are in the race. Perhaps the starkest example of Gillibrand’s lack of authenticity is her flip
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May 11, 2019 — John Hinderaker
That the U.S. leads the world in mass shooting events, and that the cause is our liberal gun laws, are articles of faith on the Left. Barack Obama, for example, said: The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world. This belief, while pervasive in our culture, is untrue. John Lott
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May 9, 2019 — Steven Hayward
As many observers have noted, while the number of school shootings relative to the total population is tiny, in a large country even a tiny number will have a disproportionate impact on the public mind—and also lead to copycats, or even a “contagion” of troubled young people deciding to enter the lists by shooting up a school. This week’s shooting in Colorado might come to be seen as a turning
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March 30, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Yesterday, Judge Roger Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California handed down an 86-page decision holding that California’s ban on magazines that contain more than ten rounds violates the Second Amendment. Judge Benitez’s decision is closely reasoned and unsparing in its dismantling of the feeble evidentiary case made on behalf of the state. It is premised largely on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in District
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March 16, 2019 — John Hinderaker
The Connecticut Supreme Court has issued a terrible ruling, opening the way for survivors and heirs of Sandy Hook victims to sue Remington Arms Company. The decision flies in the face of federal law and the Constitution, and will be reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. It can be understood only as a political, not a legal, action. The Connecticut Supreme Court Thursday narrowly reversed a ruling by a lower
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March 7, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Argument by attire seems to be the latest sorry development in our discourse. Many female congressional Democrats dressed in white for President Trump’s state of the union address. The white supposedly symbolized female suffrage, or something. It looked like a form of protest. In New Hampshire, a few male Republican state legislators who oppose gun control legislation wore pearls to a session of the House of Representatives in which citizens
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January 12, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Liberals tell us that ordinary citizens have no reason to own firearms. If they had their way, they would ban private gun ownership. Failing that, they would require anyone wanting to buy a firearm to justify the purchase by showing some kind of special need. Kristin Kasiskas is a public school science teacher who lives, with her husband, in northwestern Wisconsin. I don’t suppose the Kasiskases would have been able
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January 2, 2019 — John Hinderaker
In the wake of Nikolas Cruz’s murder spree at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, a 15-member commission was appointed to study ways in which Florida’s public schools could be secured against such attacks. The commission released its report today. The report doesn’t mince words in detailing the incompetence, and perhaps cowardice, that amplified the scale of the tragedy: The state commission investigating the Parkland school shooting unanimously approved
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