6 NEWS Controversy of the week
Guns: Will any new laws make a difference?
The epidemic of mass shootings in
America is really not a “complicated
problem to puzzle out,” said David
Frum in TheAtlantic.com. In statements after last weekend’s
back-to-back massacres by young men armed with weapons of
war, President Trump and other Republicans variously blamed the
phenomena on mental illness, video games, declining religiosity,
“hatred,” and “evil.” But these same prob-
lems exist in other developed nations—and
yet it’s only in America that citizens are shot to death en masse
with numbing regularity. The Japanese, for example, spend far
more per capita on video games but average fewer than 10 gun
deaths a year, compared with our 40,000. What’s different about
our country? Simple: This is the only developed nation where “it is
not only legal, but easy and convenient, to amass a private arsenal
of mass slaughter.” That needs to change, said the New York Post
in an editorial, starting with a reimposition of an assault-weapons
ban. We can’t stop all disaffected young men from venting their
rage on innocent civilians. But at least we can take away the “mur-
der machines” that let them rack up such horrific body counts.
There is no such thing as an “assault weapon,” said Charles
Cooke in NationalReview.com. The AR-15 and AK-47 used in
Dayton and El Paso, respectively, have the same “rate of fire” and
are only cosmetically different from every other semi-automatic
rifle on sale in the U.S., including most hunting rifles. The AR-
has become “the most popular rifle in America,” with up to
15 mil lion in private hands, and the Supreme Court has ruled
that the Second Amendment protects weapons that are in “com-
mon use.” The reality is that “every gun is designed to kill,” said
David Harsanyi in TheFederalist.com. Short of mass confiscation
of 300 mil lion guns already in circulation, which isn’t going to
happen, no law is going to stop a determined madman or terrorist
from obtaining a weapon and fulfilling
his bloody fantasies.It’s true that “no law can legislate
the crazies and the truly evil out
of existence,” said Scott Jennings,
former adviser to Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell, in the
Louisville Courier-Journal. But
there are common-sense measures that would make a difference.
A ban on high-capacity magazines, in particular, would force
mass shooters to stop and reload, giving police a better chance
to end their rampages. In Dayton, the shooter used a 100-round
drum that enabled him to fire 41 rounds in just 30 seconds. Both
gun owners and gun-control advocates can support “red-flag
laws,” said David French in NationalReview.com, which would
let authorities seize the guns of the “dangerously mentally ill,”
domestic abusers, and people “exhibiting threatening behavior.”
If “properly drafted” to ensure due process, such laws can remove
firearms from people “who have demonstrated by their own con-
duct that they’re not fit to own a weapon.”This grieving nation shouldn’t expect much change, said Jill
Lawrence in USA Today. Republicans don’t dare jeopardize their
“political identities as the people who let you keep your guns—
any kind you want, as many as you want, with magazines as big
as you want.” Such “absolutism” may no longer be a political
winner, said Ed Kilgore in NYMag.com. The once-powerful NRA
is riven by scandal and is losing its clout, while Republicans are
worried that their “slavish opposition” to gun control is alienating
millions of suburban moderates. A growing number of Americans
are frightened and utterly disgusted by the carnage, and will no
longer settle for politicians’ “thoughts and prayers.”Only in America
QAn Arizona man who donat-
ed his late mother’s body for
medical research was horrified
to learn it was actually used
for military “blast testing.”
Jim Stauffer, one of dozens
of plaintiffs suing Biological
Resource Center, says he’s
learned that his mom’s body
was strapped into a chair “and
a detonation took place under-
neath her” to study the impact
of bombs on flesh.
QA Las Vegas man is suing
Nevada for not letting him
register “the WTF Party.”
Jeffrey Berns says the state
rejected his application on
the grounds that WTF “is
an acronym that commonly
serves as a substitute for a
well-known profanity,” but
he insists the WTF has no
particular meaning. State elec-
tions officials, however, said
the “offensive” name might
“convey contempt for the
election process.”Intel choice withdraws
in face of opposition
Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas)
withdrew from consideration
for the post of Director of
National Intelligence last
week, just days after being
tapped for the job. President
Trump reportedly lost faith in
his nominee’s prospects after
his inexperience and résumé
padding drew intense criticism
from both parties. Dan Coats,
the departing DNI, had often
differed from Trump, especial-
ly on issues of Russian elec-
tion interference. Ratcliffe was
dismissive of concerns about
Russia as a member of the
House Intelligence Committee,
which caused Democrats and
some Republicans to question
his fitness for the job. Rat-
cliffe’s false claims about his
record—including a claim that
as a federal prosecutor he “ar-
rested 300 illegal immigrants
on a single day”—dimmed his
chances for confirmation.Openness, after, in a lavish ceremony, Thailand’s King Maha
Vajira long korn, 67, elevated his mistress, Sineenat Wong vajira-
pakdi, 34, to the role of official concubine, with his wife, Queen
Suthida, sitting expressionless at his side.
Extraterrestrial life,with news that the private Israeli space-
craft that crashed into the moon this April was carrying a cargo
of dehydrated tardigrades, or “water bears,” microscopic animals
able to survive up to 10 years without water or oxygen.
Right-sizing, after a New Jersey school district eliminated the
$141,000-a-year position of principal, rather than lay off teachers
or other administrators. “We did something like this a few years
ago,” said a school board official. “It worked out.”Senior moments,when in the wake of the massacres in El Paso,
Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, President Trump, 73, referred to “those
who perished in Toledo,” while Joe Biden, 76, lamented “the tragic
events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before.”
Germans,who are being kept awake in large numbers by a
louder-than-usual hedgehog-mating season. “Hedgehogs snarl
loudly during the hours-long mating ritual,” a “hedgehog expert”
in Munich explained, “and the males make the most noise.”
Unplanned pregnancies, after former Ohio University basket-
ball star D.J. Cooper, 28, was banned for two years from European
leagues because he failed a drug test. Cooper’s urine indicated that
he was either pregnant himself or had borrowed a urine sample
from his pregnant girlfriend.Good week for:
Bad week for:
Re
utersThe Dayton shooter’s weapon and 100-round magazine