Police officers in Uvalde, Texas waited 77 minutes before acting to save elementary school children at Robb Elementary School. Watch: On Sunday, Al Gore compared the lack of action on the part of these officers to those who deny the […]
Texas school shooting (May 2022)
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 […]
A short history of the National Rifle Association
Robert Spitzer, a scholar of U.S. gun policy and the NRA, divides the history of the organization into three phases: Phase One: At first the group was mainly concerned with marksmanship. It later played a relatively constructive role regarding safety-minded gun […]
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 […]
“After Salvador kills you, all the earth falls silent”
Consider reading Tony Woodlief‘s poignant reflection on the Ulvade, Texas school shooting. A taste: After Salvador kills you, all the earth falls silent. The birds nestle their young and quiet them, our dogs tuck their tails and hide beneath furniture, […]
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, […]
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‘ […]
Which lawmakers get the most contributions from gun rights groups?
From Axios: Sen. Ted Cruz (TX): $442,000 Rep. Steve Scalise (LA): $396,000 Sen. John Cornyn (TX): $340,000 Sen. Lindsey Grahan (SC): $284,000 Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY): $247,000 Rep. Devin Nunes (CA): $228, 000 Sen. Ron Johnson (WI): 223,000 Rep. Kevin […]
What Beto did
In case you missed it, yesterday Texas gubernatorial candidate (and U.S. Senate candidate and presidential candidate and former Congressman) Beto O’Rourke disrupted Texas governor Greg Abbott’s press conference on the school shooting in Ulvade: Watch: In addition to Abbott, Lieutenant […]
Nicholas Kristof: Gun reform that could save 15,000 lives
It’s pretty simple stuff, but don’t expect many GOP Senators to buy in. Here is a taste of Nicholas Kristof’s piece at The New York Times: Let’s just acknowledge that what we’re doing isn’t working, and we need new approaches. […]
“Are you going to put your own desire power ahead of our children?”
Steve Kerr is the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. They are playing in the NBA Western Conference finals right now. Kerr’s father, Malcolm Kerr, was assassinated by Islamic terrorists in 1984. He was the president of the American […]
“The gun is our Moloch”
My friend Christopher Jones just reminded me (via his Twitter feed) of this 2012 Garry Wills piece at New York Review of Books: Wills wrote in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. It is worth revisiting today. 18 elementary […]
On “thoughts and prayers” and “God-given rights”
I know I just reposted this piece a few days ago after the Buffalo shooting, but it continues to represent my thinking about these mass shootings. Here is what I wrote at The Washington Post in August 2019: In the […]
What. Are. We. Doing?
At least fifteen kids dead. (Addendum: Now CNN is reporting 18 dead–mostly 2nd and 3rd graders). Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut speaks for many of us: