I had been working on a blog with the working title “Ukraine: What is the endgame?” It is a pertinent and important question, and one… Read More »Uvalde: “As a nation we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?”
The outrages In El Paso and Dayton laid bare two gaping wounds in America 2019: feelings of hate and white supremacy morphing into domestic terrorism… Read More »Blog No. 231. El Paso and Dayton: What Now?
Readers will not have lacked for analyses and comments on President Trump’s State of the Union Message. Nevertheless, some brief thoughts from this corner may… Read More »Blog No. 207. The SOTU: A Rhetorical Mess with Conspicuous Omissions
The day after the shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, White House Counselor Kelly Anne Conway offered the familiar response… Read More »Blog No. 161. The Sutherland Massacre and the Challenge of the AR-15
It was unsurprising, perhaps inevitable, that much of the commentary about the tragedy in Orlando would pass through a prism of preexisting political positions. Republicans tended to view it as a result of the ineffectiveness of the Administration’s responses to ISIS, while Democrats associated it with Republican unwillingness to support any form of gun control legislation. Having our own distinctive prism, we are inclined to believe that there is something to the assertions of each, but perhaps not as much as either appears to claim.Read More »Blog No. 103. Reflections on Orlando
In the wake of the most recent mass shooting, the tragedy in Roseburg, Oregon, we saw the usual flurry of demands for better gun control. No one spoke more passionately on the subject than President Obama and many of us could share his anger and frustration. Yet critics pointed out, correctly, that he proposed no particular legislative action and it is not clear that any of the previously proposed laws that failed in Congress would have prevented either the Roseburg shooting or others with which we are all too familiar.Read More »Blog No. 81. What to Do About Guns and Shootings?
Last week brought news of yet another school shooting, this time from Marysville, Washington. This latest tragic event resulted in five victims, with two killed… Read More »Special Bulletin. Guns in Washington State
I knew Jim Brady before he was famous. Just forty years ago, we were both working at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (where I had sought refuge after concluding that I was no longer comfortable serving in the White House Counsel’s office). Jim held the number two position in Public Affairs and was located across the hall from my office as Deputy General Counsel.Read More »Special Bulletin. A Tribute to Jim Brady (1940-2014)
On January 3 and 4, The New York Times printed a trilogy of pieces – two articles and an op-ed column – that many RINOs would find acutely depressing. The first article was titled “Access to Abortion Falling as States Pass Restrictions ” and the second was “Banished for Questioning the Gospel of Guns.” The op-ed, by Charles M. Blow, was titled “Indoctrinating Religious Warriors.” The pieces were unrelated in that each addressed a separate subject, but they shared a common thread: the influence of the far right in the Republican Party.Read More »Blog No. 25. Abortion, Guns and Evolution.