Four dead at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville today. That’s the 470th mass shooting in the United States this year–and it’s only August. I wrote this piece at The Washington Post after the 2019 shootings in El Paso, Texas […]
gun control
Justin Jones and Justin Pearson in historical context
Over at The Washington Post, historians Ansley Quiros and Anthony Siracusa connect the recent removal of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from the Tennessee legislature to the early civil rights movement in Nashville. Here is a taste of their piece: […]
What happened at the NRA leadership forum this weekend?
We have a serious gun violence problem in the United States. While the National Rifle Association was meeting in Indianapolis, there were multiple-death shootings in Dadeville, Alabama; Louisville, Kentucky; Harrisonburg, Virginia; Honolulu, Hawaii; Spring, Texas; Orlando, Florida; Ahoskie, North Carolina; […]
Addendum to roundup of coverage on guns and gun control: Timothy Larsen’s essay from 2021
Earlier today, I ran a roundup of all Current, Arena, and Way of Improvement Leads Home coverage on guns and gun control since May 2022. But I want to add here one more resource. In August 2021, Current Contributing Editor […]
Senate Chaplain Barry Black: “It is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers”
I am watching an interview with him on CNN right now. Here is his prayer yesterday in the Senate today:
Images of the Day
Andrew Clyde: Georgia ninth congressional district: George Santos: NY third congressional district: Anna Paulina Luna: Florida’s thirteenth congressional district: Thomas Massie: Kentucky’s fourth congressional district: Andy Ogles: Tennessee’s 5th congressional district. The home of The Covenant School: Lauren Boebert: Colorado’s […]
The shooting today at a Nashville Christian school: Some early responses
The Covenant School is an elementary school affiliated with Covenant Presbyterian Church, a congregation in the Presbyterian Church in America. (Since the shooting this morning, Covenant Presbyterian Church appears to have taken down its website.) The school is a member […]
Could the battle over abortion in the states result in another “Bleeding Kansas?”
Michael Waldman writes about the recent Supreme Court gun ruling: The Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday striking down a New York gun law isn’t just the most significant ruling on the Second Amendment in a dozen years — it may be the […]
Senate passes bipartisan gun bill
Here is NBC News: The Senate on Thursday night passed the most sweeping gun bill designed to prevent gun violence in decades, a major victory for advocates and a rare defeat for the National Rifle Association. The vote was 65 to 33, with all […]
The GOP is in a dark place right now
This letter was sent to Adam Kinzinger’s home. He is a veteran and a GOP member of the House January 6th Select Committee. The letter was addressed to his wife: This is not the first time Kinzinger has released a […]
Senators agree on bipartisan gun safety
A step in the right direction. Here is a Politico: A group of 20 senators struck a bipartisan gun safety framework on Sunday, marking a significant breakthrough in Congress’ attempts to address recent back-to-back mass shootings. In a Sunday morning […]
Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey on guns
Over at The Washington Post, the Pennsylvania senator writes about how he changed his mind about guns after Sandy Hook. Here is a taste: I’m a U.S. senator who has done something rare in today’s politics: I’ve changed my position […]
Former Texas GOP congressman Will Hurd: “I want more than thoughts and prayers”
Hurd represented Uvalde, Texas from 2014-2021. Here is a taste of his piece at The New York Times: We are not helpless, and if the people we elect to address our country’s tough challenges think nothing can or should be […]
Gerson: The GOP spin on guns is “wrong–morally and legally”
Here is Michael Gerson’s recent Washington Post column: Is the slaughter of innocents the unavoidable price of freedom? A significant group of Americans believe it is. In a recent CBS-YouGov poll, 44 percent of Republicans agreed that mass shootings are […]
There were twelve people killed in mass shootings this weekend
Here is Dennis Romero of NBC News: The first weekend of June marked a greater number of mass shooting deaths in the United States than the previous three-day weekend, which ended with Memorial Day. The tally for weekend violence through […]
Watch Ted Cruz spin
Watch: Cruz seems to be on the ropes here, but then the reporter mentions “American exceptionalism.” Ah! There it is! Cruz pounces. You can almost see the light bulb (or perhaps the trigger) go off in his head. He now […]
There have been 15 mass shootings in the United States since Uvalde
Yes, you read that correctly. Here is Annabelle Timsit at The Washington Post: After a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers last week, many politicians, public figures and […]
Do guns have ANYTHING to do with mass shootings? No, according to Ted Cruz
In Cruz’s world, gun violence happens because of “the elites who dominate our culture,” the media, corporate leaders, Hollywood, homelessness, gangs, “radical” district attorneys, “cultural sickness,” despair, isolation, “sick souls,” broken families, absent fathers, declining church attendance, social medial bullying, […]
What we have said about guns and gun control over the years
Despite what I have heard from a few folks in the last day or two, I think we’ve been pretty consistent over the years: May 28, 2021: When it comes to the Second Amendment, Matt Gaetz has no clue March […]
On abortion, the Trump court evangelicals need the Supreme Court. On gun violence, all they have are “thoughts and prayers.”
If you read my Current piece on Thursday or Dan Williams’s piece today and want another example of the inherent contradiction in the Christian pro-life movement, just read the recent e-mail Trump court evangelical Paula White-Cain’s “National Faith Advisory Board‘ […]