On how to respond to mass shootings and violent crime, the public opinion trends frighten me, especially when broken down by political identification. Predictably, Democrats are in favor of gun control by wider margins than Republicans. But still, 92% of Republicans favor universal background checks, which I consider as bad a proposal as any...
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Today Obama enjoys his inauguration bash. It is also Martin Luther King Day, and the president was sworn in on the Civil Rights leader’s own Bible. Across the spectrum, Americans celebrate King’s Civil Rights leadership. Yet he was just as prophetic and bold in opposing the U.S. war in Vietnam. He is less remembered...
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In immediate response to the Newtown massacre, every pundit began pointing fingers and giving their answers. The problem was gun culture. No, the problem was feminism. Violent video games. Insufficient funding for programs for the mentally ill. Hollywood. Rightwing paranoia. And so on. Now, I have my own views about the cultural conditions in...
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Melinda Herman was a victim of a home invasion. With two children under her care, and a husband many miles away, she fortunately had a weapon. Although under the castle doctrine, she had no duty to retreat from the invader, she ran with her children to the attic and tried to hide. Her back to...
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Over at Breitbart, there is a very good article about the number of deaths caused each year by rifles vs. hammers and clubs. Here is a snippet: For example, in 2011, there was 323 murders committed with a rifle but 496 murders committed with hammers and clubs. . . . Another interesting fact: According...
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Which articles on the Independent Institute’s websites and blogs received the most views last year? We thought you might be wondering! To satisfy your curiosity, we’ve put together two lists—each one shedding light on what most attracts the attention of our Internet audience. The first list of “articles” includes blog posts from The Beacon...
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Somehow, left-liberals have associated the cause of gun rights with white racism, when if anything it is gun control that has a racist legacy. In the United States, early gun laws targeted recently freed blacks, and open carry first became banned in California under Governor Ronald Reagan to disarm groups like the Black Panthers....
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I was pleased to learn that today is the Eighth National Day of the Cowboy. As such, it’s especially appropriate that we take advantage of the opportunity to set the record straight on many things Cowboy and Western. First of all, the Old West was far more peaceful than is commonly portrayed in movies...
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The horrendous and calculated, July 20th shootings in Aurora, Colorado, are a great tragedy not just for the victims and their families but for everyone who can clearly see the utter evil of such acts and the helplessness we all feel as a result. However this massacre might have been far less likely for...
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Journalist Alexander Cockburn has died after a painful battle with cancer at the age of 71. Cockburn wrote for The Nation and co-edited Counterpunch, my favorite radical leftist website. Whenever I talked about there being hope on the left, I was mainly thinking about people like Cockburn. Cockburn embodied the admirable concerns of leftism—good conditions...
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