Search Results for: guns

On October 25, eighteen people were killed by a mass shooter in Lewiston, Maine. The day after the shooting, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, in an interview with Sean Hannity, responded to the carnage: Hannity: This happens with almost every shooting incident. The immediate call by the Left in this country: We need more ...continue reading "Guns, military assault rifles, mass shootings, and a terrorized population: a GOP success story"

Cartoon by Ward Sutton. (Links: Twitter and Los Angeles Times.) Make no mistake, the Republican Party has pursued, with deliberation and forethought, over several decades, public polices that have vastly increased the number of guns in the U.S. and accelerated the deluge of mass shootings. We didn't get here by happenstance or divine intervention, but ...continue reading "Actions have consequences. Republicans own America’s glut of guns and of mass shootings."

Clarence Thomas has a gun fetish. The other Republican-appointed members of the 6-3 majority are on board with that in service of an arrogant, undemocratic crusade to dominate the elected branches of government. To justify legalizing bump stocks, Clarence Thomas literally copied and pasted materials from an extremist pro-gun group whose violent rhetoric makes the ...continue reading "Republican Supreme Court majority embraces bump stocks and gun violence, rebuffing public safety and common sense"

National Security, Vladimir Putin, and the MAGA Republican Party One of Donald Trump's 'sir' stories, which casts doubt on its veracity, nonetheless clearly expresses his contempt for our NATO allies. If Trump were to decide that an ally wasn't pulling its weight, and that country was attacked by Russia, Trump would encourage Putin's troops: "I ...continue reading "The GOP embraces Russian disinformation, democratic backsliding, and keeping women in their place"

In the most economically prosperous metro regions of the country (in both blue states and red states), Democrats dominate, as Ronald Brownstein observes ("The Republicans' Big Rich-City Problem"). Driven by innovative computing, communication, biotech, and manufacturing industries, these economic centers have attracted diverse, well-educated folks with eyes on the future. MAGA messaging has no appeal ...continue reading "Uncomfortable Americans are fearful and, increasingly, armed and dangerous"

Governor Ron DeSantis, enemy of all things woke, dominates Florida politics. Not even his critics would deny this. “The man is an instinctive authoritarian and practicing bully,” said Mac Stipanovich, who spent three decades as a GOP consultant and lobbyist in Tallahassee but left the party in 2019 during Trump’s presidency. “And he is sufficiently ...continue reading "Why is self-proclaimed God’s fighter hiding his lamp under a bushel basket?"

On June 14, 2017, Congressman Steve Scalise, practicing baseball with other Republicans, was shot and grievously wounded by “a leftwing political activist with a record of domestic violence.” Democrats did not joke about this incident, or deny the basic facts about the shooting, or invent a fictional narrative to compete with the basic facts. Nancy ...continue reading "Republicans shrug off political violence with jokes and fabrications — and acceptance"

The death toll, a day later, has risen to 7 with more than three dozen injured. Folks were celebrating July 4th with their families. How many will bring their kids to next year's parade? Will those who do so, come with trepidation? (We can, of course, ask the same questions about churches, elementary schools, grocery ...continue reading "Not just in Highland Park — Independence Day and 2022 bring a slew of mass shootings and gun deaths"

In just over a week’s time, the Supreme Court has handed down precedent-shattering rulings in several areas that not coincidentally are hot-button issues for the contemporary Republican Party. The pretense, among the justices and their defenders, is that these rulings are driven by originalism, a legal theory (invented in the 1970s and pushed relentlessly by ...continue reading "The Republican supermajority on the Supreme Court is on a tear in a war against democracy"

The debate about guns and gun violence, like all virtually all political debates in the country today, is marked by starkly polarized views. As the Pew Research Center reports: Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are far more likely than Republicans and GOP leaners to see gun violence as a major problem (73% vs. 18%). And nearly ...continue reading "Why is it so hard for Congress to take any meaningful step to stop gun massacres?"