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 »
Where Gun-Control Advocates Could Win in 2018
The shifting geography of the electoral battlefield is providing gun-control advocates their best opportunity in years to tilt the balance on the issue in Congress. Since the early 1990s, the National Rifle Association has sustained an impregnable congressional blockade against new gun-control measures. But the weakest link in that chain […] 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 »
Americans’ Views on Guns, the Military and the Middle East
Find out where Americans stand on the major issues of the day. Are Americans satisfied with the direction of the U.S.? Do they favor stricter gun laws? Do they want a bigger military budget? Whom do they side with on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Who do Americans think did the best […] 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 »
Most Republicans think arming teachers could have prevented Parkland; new gun laws couldn’t
There is a sharp partisan divide in the United States on, well, everything. It’s a fill-in-the-blank, really: There is a sharp partisan divide in the United States on ____________. Put whatever you want in that space and the odds are extremely good that the sentence will be accurate. It’s not […] Read more »