NewsTrust - Gun Control - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Nasty words: Toxic v ballistic rhetoric

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Economist - Jan. 16 (Opinion) - What's scary about extreme right-wing rhetoric, to a great extent, is the way it's bound up with a legitimation of private violence as a defence of freedom. This has not always been the exclusive domain of the right. In the late 1960s and 1970s, it was extreme leftist groups such as the Black Panthers and the Weathermen whose rhetoric legitimated armed violence as a defence of "the people". It was appropriate for cooler heads then to denounce such rhetoric as scary on its own terms, and crippling to democratic politics. That lesson was effective: even the most inaccurate and excessive rhetoric on the left these days doesn't invoke violence. For the same reasons, today's right should drop its habit of couching political points in violent terms.

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No One Listened To Gabrielle Giffords

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Frank Rich - Jan. 15 (Opinion) - In March 2010, few of our leaders wanted to see what Giffords saw — that the vandalism and the death threats were part of a tide of insurrectionism that had been rising since the final weeks of the 2008 campaign.

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The Supreme Court gun decision moves us toward anarchy

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By David Ignatius - Jun. 29 (Opinion) - Perhaps Chief Justice Roberts and other enthusiasts for our newly created universal right to bear arms should take a trip to Beirut or Baghdad and see how this idea works out in practice.

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Palin: President Wants to Ban Guns

Sat, 15 May 2010 07:51:59 -0700

Associated Press - May. 15 - CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin warned NRA members Friday that President Barack Obama wants to gut the Second Amendment and told a separate gathering that "mama grizzlies" will help Republicans win this November, sweeping away the

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Editorial: Searching for Elena Kagan

Tue, 11 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - May. 11 (Editorial) - Elena Kagan’s lack of a record on certain issues makes it hard to know whether she would be a counterweight to the Supreme Court’s conservative wing.

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The Fast-Draw-but-Don’t-Drink Law

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jun. 26 (Opinion) - Beyond farce in statehouse politics — think New York, Illinois and South Carolina — there can be danger. Think Tennessee, where the Legislature just overrode the governor’s veto and rescinded a law barring patrons from carrying handguns in bars and restaurants. Once again, politicians caved to the gun lobby’s “right to carry” agenda which insists that there is no place — campuses, workplaces, churches — that should be off limits to guns.

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Guns, Liquor and the Age of Obama

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Jon Meacham - Jun. 01 (Opinion) - Bredesen's handling of the Tennessee gunfights—signing one bill, vetoing another, keeping his options open on still others—offers a window onto the surprisingly scattershot nature of gun policy in the age of Obama.

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Obama follows some of Bush's footsteps

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Helen Thomas - Feb. 22 (Opinion) - One judge asked the Justice Department lawyer if the change in administrations had any bearing on the case. "No, your honor," came the reply. According to The New York Times, "even the judges on the panel seemed surprised by the administration's decision to go forward" with the same argument.

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News Flash: The Constitution Means What It Says

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:55:03 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Randy E. Barnett - Jun. 27 (Opinion) - Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion in yesterday's Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller is historic in its implications and exemplary in its reasoning. A federal ban on an entire class of guns in ordinary use for self-defense - such as the handgun ban adopted by the District of Columbia - is now off the table. Every gun controller's fondest desire has become a constitutional pipe dream.

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Gun Crazy

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - Mar. 01 (Editorial) - The Democrats should not be afraid to challenge Mr. McCain -- or gun zealots' wacky idea that the solution to campus mayhem is to arm teachers and students.

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What If Our Mercenaries Turn On Us?

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 16:56:07 -0700

Philadelphia Inquirer - By Chris Hedges - Jun. 03 (Opinion) - The privatization of war hands an incentive to American corporations, many with tremendous political clout, to keep us mired down in Iraq. But even more disturbing is the steady rise of this modern Praetorian Guard. The Praetorian Guard in ancient Rome was a paramilitary force that defied legal constraints, made violence part of the political discourse, and eventually plunged the Roman Republic into tyranny and despotism. Despotic movements need paramilitary forces that operate outside the law, forces that sow fear among potential opponents, and are capable of physically silencing those branded by their leaders as traitors. And in the wrong hands, a Blackwater could well become that force.

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Shootings

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:28:54 -0700

New Yorker - Apr. 26 (Editorial) - Semi-automatic Glocks and Walthers, Cho's weapons, are for killing people. They are not made for hunting, and it's not easy to protect yourself with them. (If having a loaded semi-automatic on hand kept you safe, cops would not be shot as often as they are.) Rural America is hunting country, and hunters need rifles and shotguns--with proper licensing, we'll live with the risk. There is no reason that any private citizen in a democracy should own a handgun. At some point, that simple truth will register. Until it does, phones will ring for dead children, and parents will be told not to ask why.

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The right leadership after tragedy

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 08:58:29 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Ronald Brownstein - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - But in the face of tragedy, the responsibility of political leaders is not just to look back in sorrow. Their job is to look forward toward practical steps that might reduce the risk of repeating the awful experience. It's too early to say conclusively what lessons public policy should take from Monday's rampage. But it's not too soon to say that is the question Washington should be asking once the immediate shock has passed.

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People don't stop killers. People with guns do

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 05:55:01 -0700

New York Daily News - By Glenn Reynolds - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - On Monday, as the news of the Virginia Tech shootings was unfolding, I went into my advanced constitutional law seminar to find one of my students upset. My student, Tara Wyllie, has a permit to carry a gun in Tennessee, but she isn't allowed to have a weapon on campus.

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Gun Control? Don't Hold Your Breath

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 08:56:42 -0700

Newsweek - By Howard Fineman - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - Whatever the rest of the world thinks, whatever Rosie O'Donnell thinks, whatever big city mayors, present and former, think--it remains unlikely that the murder of 32 innocents in Blacksburg will alter the basic guns-for-all equation of American life. In the aftermath of the shooting, world leaders expressed condolences, but also took it upon themselves to comment on what Australian Prime Minster John Howard referred to as America's "gun culture." The British Home Minister, who happens to hold a degree from Virginia Tech, said he hoped the event would "prompt a serious and reflective debate on gun issues and gun laws in this states...." Doesn't he have enough homegrown versions of mayhem to worry about without taking on ours?

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A Rifle in Every Pot

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:35:00 -0800

New York Times - By Glenn Reynolds - Jan. 16 (Opinion) - Last month, Greenleaf, Idaho, adopted Ordinance 208, calling for its citizens to own guns and keep them ready in their homes in case of emergency. It's not a response to high crime rates. As The Associated Press reported, "Greenleaf doesn't really have crime ... the most violent offense reported in the past two years was a fist fight." Rather, it's a statement about preparedness in the event of an emergency, and an effort to promote a culture of self-reliance. And it may not be a bad idea. While pro-gun laws like the one in Greenleaf are mostly symbolic, to the extent that they actually make a difference, it is likely to be a positive one.

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