What Gun Background Checks Can’t Detect: Stupidity
Even if background checks legislation passes, it won’t detect a gun owner’s potential for doing spectacularly reckless things.
Red Flag Laws and the Consequences of Good Intentions
Red flags laws may prevent gun violence as well as suicides, but they also introduce civil rights concerns that will likely lead to court challenges.
How America Fell Out of Love With Machine Guns
If you think the current brouhaha over gun violence is somehow unprecedented in American history, read on.
Guns Will Soon Be as Smart as Our Phones
Imagine guns that will only fire with your fingerprints or biomarkers, that can do facial recognition, and that send out a GPS signal as to their location. Will that make guns safer?
The Granddaddy of Campus Mass Shootings
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the University of Texas Tower shootings. A creative new documentary brings the larger story to life.
A Child Massacre Examined
A surprising number of people actually claim that the entire mass shooting event at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was fabricated. They’re dangerously wrong — and this documentary proves it, while bringing some of the children back to life, if only for a moment.
Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight
The NRA has millions of dollars, and millions of aggressive supporters who knock on doors, hand out fliers, make phone calls, and register voters — while most of their opponents do nothing but tweet and post clever memes on Facebook. In the meantime, an average of one mass shooting occurs in the US every day.
Surprising Facts About Who Threatens Our Safety the Most—Recommended Reading
Despite the media’s overwhelming coverage of foreign terrorism, there’s a much bigger problem here at home.
Classic WHY: Just Asking—Media Outfoxed on Spate of Bizarre Shootings?
In the wake of the Charleston shootings, it’s worth revisiting this discussion about how—and why—the media discourages deeper scrutiny of violence in the US.
RussRant: No “Insanity Defense” for US Obsession with Guns
The South Carolina church shootings are no anomaly. Americans are senselessly gunned down—at a rate of 30 per day (excluding suicides and accidents). Gun advocates who want no meaningful restrictions, ostensibly to protect themselves, put all of us at risk. Yet those advocating universal disarmament are not practical. But here’s a third way.
RadioWhoWhatWhy: The Future of Outsourced Warfare
Blackwater may have become a symbol of all that can go wrong when government contractors outnumber trained military personnel, but what really happened in the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan? WhoWhatWhy’s Jeff Schechtman sits down with Blackwater founder Erik Prince to discuss the history and future of “outsourced” warfare.
RadioWhoWhatWhy: Police Becoming Sixth Branch of US Military?
Is President Obama’s recently announced order seeking to reverse the dramatic over-arming of police forces nationwide too little, too late? We all saw—in Baltimore, in Ferguson, in Boston—how civilian law enforcement has turned into a virtual sixth branch of the military. Where is this going? Our guest, author of a new book on the topic, shares his research.
RadioWhoWhatWhy: Lawyers, Guns and Money
Lawyers, money and enforcement are an ever growing part of elections in America. A new set of rules now prevail. Issues such as campaign finance, voting rights, voter ID, electronic voting and ballot access itself are now debatable parts of voting in America.
“The Drugs Made Me Do It?”
The finger-pointing about who is to blame for gun violence
has turned to prescription pharmaceuticals. We’re told that they
transform people into killing machines. But is the problem the
drugs themselves—or the ease with which the mentally ill can obtain
guns?
The NRA’s Proposal to Vastly Expand Government
Putting armed guards into every school seems an odd thing for certain people to be advocating. It runs counter to their general philosophy, and many other complications emerge.
PODCAST: Russ Baker on George HW Bush, guns, news timing, Syria and more
In this interview with host Pat Thurston on the popular San Francisco-based KGO, Russ discusses less publicized aspects of George HW Bush’s life, makes new enemies over guns, explains why timing is everything in the news business, and laments the media’s failure to level with the public over Syria. Plus more.
Explainer: How Poor Timing Buries Important News
What a difference it makes…when news breaks. A look at the consequences of poor timing, in stories about Israel/Gaza and gun violence.
Controlling Gun Violence: Not a Prayer?
The politicians have a lot to say about gun deaths in America—and keep on saying it, over and over.
Trayvon vs. Tyrone: Why Racial Stories Are a Bad Idea
We warned about the risks of overplaying the Trayvon Martin case. Now, the other shoe drops. Trayvon Martin….Tyrone Woodfork.
Readers Please Weigh In: Guns on Campus, Great Idea?
Soon, Texas college professors and students will be able to carry concealed handguns on campus. Does this make you feel safer?
Here’s the story, as reported by the Associated Press and carried in the San Francisco Chronicle (a city whose Mayor, George Moscone, was killed by another elected official with a registered gun).