AR-15-style rifles on display in a Texas retail shop. AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane Michael Siegel, Boston University Americans have blamed many culprits, from mental illness to inadequate security, for the tragic mass shootings that are occurring with increasing frequency in schools, offices and theaters across the U.S. Yet in our […] Read more »
Support for stricter gun laws rises; divisions on arming teachers
Nearly two-thirds of Americans support stricter laws on gun sales, including an increasing number of Republicans, but the public divides on the idea of allowing more teachers and school officials to carry guns. Arming teachers draws partisan splits, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed, a CBS News poll reveals. […] Read more »
Marco Rubio says banning all semiautomatic weapons is ‘a position well outside the mainstream.’ Polls show otherwise.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) unintentionally drew a round of raucous applause Wednesday night when he said at a CNN town hall gathering that, to effectively ban assault weapons, “you would literally have to ban every semiautomatic rifle that’s sold in America.” Later, he attempted to characterize support for a blanket […] Read more »
Why is there so little research on guns in the US? 6 questions answered
A lack of federal funds stymies gun violence researchers. Alan English CPA, CC BY-NC Lacey Wallace, Pennsylvania State University On Valentine’s Day, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He killed 17 students and teachers and injured at least a dozen others. The […] Read more »
Numbers Hint at Why #MeToo Took Off: The Sheer Number Who Can Say Me Too
Accounts of sexual harassment and assault have toppled man after man in workplace after workplace as the #MeToo movement has taken hold, but quantifying its scope has often proved elusive or politically charged. … The largest continuing study available to date, the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey by […] Read more »
FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast: The Gun Debate
In the wake of a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast devotes an entire episode to the debate about guns in America — what the public wants, how the politics of guns have changed and what Washington will do. Jill Lepore, a Harvard […] Read more »