Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) on Sunday dismissed his fellow congressional Republicans’ talking points in the wake of the tragic elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
Continue reading “Kinzinger Knocks GOP Calls To ‘Harden’ Schools After Texas Shooting”‘Soulless’: Trump Torched For Dance At NRA Event After Reading TX Shooting Victims’ Names
Former President Trump was met with backlash for his bizarre reading of the names of victims of the tragic Texas elementary school shooting during his speech at the NRA convention on Friday night — which concluded with a … dance.
Continue reading “‘Soulless’: Trump Torched For Dance At NRA Event After Reading TX Shooting Victims’ Names”Since Sandy Hook
About a decade ago, more or less, I was talking to a quite right wing and very prominent conservative who I sometimes chat with. I think this was around the time of the Newtown shooting. But perhaps it was in the aftermath of some other massacre. Painful as it is to say, the massacre aftermaths kind of run together. In any case, if it wasn’t Newtown it was generally in that time frame. He told me that while he was politically or publicly pro-gun he in fact hated guns. Didn’t want them in his house. Didn’t want them near his kids. It was an interesting instance of how our public or political selves may be out of sync with our experience of the world.
Continue reading “Since Sandy Hook”Readers on Guns #3
From TPM Reader MH …
Continue reading “Readers on Guns #3”I think you are right about public opinion and guns but for the wrong reason.
It’s not that half of Americans are pro-assault rifles or whatever. It’s that half the country — namely Republicans — is willing to turn a blind eye to the carnage. Similarly it’s not that half of Americans are anti-free and fair elections. It’s just that half the country — namely Republicans — is willing to turn a blind eye to the obvious lies of their leaders.
Readers on Guns #2
From TPM Reader DS …
Continue reading “Readers on Guns #2”I want to share a story with you and then get to a specific point. When I was 18 or 19, a guy at the factory where I worked sold me a semi-automatic AK-47. Not an actual AK but whatever the knock-off brand was at the time. I thought it would be cool to have such a cool and powerful weapon.
Readers on Guns #1
From TPM Reader TK …
Continue reading “Readers on Guns #1”Thanks for the articles you’ve written on guns. As usual it’s very interesting and thought-provoking.
I must admit I’m confused about the contentious pushback you’ve received. I appreciate the seriousness you’ve exhibited referencing the communication from those you respect.
But I honestly just don’t understand the opposition.I do not like guns. I’ve never been around them, they were never part of my Southern California upbringing. Guns scare me. But, I have had fairly close relationships with some who are part of the gun culture to varying degrees, whether it’s been neighbors or family members (in law side), coworkers, etc. Some are shooting range guys, very very few are hunters, some are self-described collectors (meaning they have guns for no real reason other than they like owning them). A handful are what we would call gun-nuts.
The Ugly Truth
In our initial reports of the shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, I emphasized that first reports are subject to the “fog of war” and should be taken as tentative. I really had no idea we’d see this level of up is down changes in the story. If you haven’t been focused on the nitty gritty, virtually none of the original story turns out to be true. The shooter wasn’t wearing body armor. He wasn’t confronted by three separate officers on the way into the school. Most importantly, the local police waited roughly an hour to confront him.
The current story runs like this.
Continue reading “The Ugly Truth”How The NRA Evolved From Backing A Ban On Machine Guns To Blocking Almost All Gun Restrictions Today
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
The mass shootings at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, just 10 days apart, are stirring the now-familiar national debate over guns seen after the tragic 2012 and 2018 school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida.
Continue reading “How The NRA Evolved From Backing A Ban On Machine Guns To Blocking Almost All Gun Restrictions Today”Five Things Republicans Pointed To After Uvalde Shooting To Avoid Gun Reform
Why mass shootings happen in America on a routine basis, making us an outlier among not just peer nations but virtually every nation, is unknowable.
As Republicans helpfully point out in the wake of the mass murders of children, grocery shoppers, church goers, music lovers and the like, each shooting is unfathomably different from the one that came months, weeks, days before.
Such an inscrutable problem, one with no identifiable common denominator to help elucidate, demands creative solutions.
Continue reading “Five Things Republicans Pointed To After Uvalde Shooting To Avoid Gun Reform”Why 18-Year-Olds In Texas Can Buy AR-15s But Not Handguns
This article was originally published at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.
The fact that the gunman responsible for this week’s massacre in Uvalde, Texas, was able to buy two AR-15s days after his 18th birthday highlights how much easier it is for Americans to purchase rifles than handguns.
Under federal law, Americans buying handguns from licensed dealers must be at least 21, which would have precluded Salvador Ramos from buying that type of weapon. That trumps Texas law, which only requires buyers of any type of firearm to be 18 or older.
Continue reading “Why 18-Year-Olds In Texas Can Buy AR-15s But Not Handguns”