In the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., U.S. parents of school-aged children are slightly more concerned about their children’s safety at school than they were in August, with the percentage saying they fear for their oldest child’s safety rising eight percentage points […] Read more »
Jovan Belcher case stokes gun-control debate but polls say America is split
The shooting of Kasandra Perkins and subsequent suicide of the man who shot her, the Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, has prompted a national debate about gun control thanks in part to comments by the NBC presenter Bob Costas. Costas’ anti-gun remarks, made at halftime in Sunday’s Cowboys v […] Read more »
California Voters Closely Divided on Death Penalty Repeal
With the November election looming, the fight to repeal the death penalty in California has gotten a lot closer, according to the latest results of the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll. In a ten-point swing since last month, 42 percent of voters surveyed from Oct. 15-21 support repealing the death […] Read more »
Majority of New Yorkers Say Police Favor White People
A significant majority of New Yorkers say the Police Department favors whites over blacks, according to a new poll by The New York Times. [cont.] Michael Grynbaum and Marjorie Connelly, New York Times Read more »
The Declining Culture of Guns and Violence in the United States
The massacre unleashed by James Holmes in Aurora, Colo., shortly after midnight on Friday is a tragedy of national proportions. … But as pundits and politicians react, they would do well to keep in mind two fundamental trends about violence and guns in America that are going unmentioned in the […] Read more »
The Truth About Gun Politics: Many Americans Support Restrictions
… Obama’s reluctance to address gun control means he is failing to articulate what remains a strong preference within his coalition. Gun control, in fact, remains a majority position with the same groups generally most enthusiastic about Obama’s recent embrace of gay marriage, free access to contraception in health insurance, […] Read more »