Florida Republicans’ offers of prayers invite accusations of hypocrisy. Trump’s Florida shooting speech was one giant lie by omission. Trump renews nation’s commitment to simply ignore gun violence and hope it goes away. School safety money would be slashed in Trump budget. Trump’s budget cuts millions of dollars from gun background check system. Last February, Trump signed a bill making it easier for people with mental illness to buy guns. Margaret Hartmann on how Republicans have been making gun laws worse under Trump. Guns make Republicans feel safe — so we can’t be. AR-15s not the problem, rifle manufacturers say after school shooting. This is how the NRA “politically weaponized” its membership. The NRA is a terrorist organization.
This is the real “American carnage”: The most apocalyptic problem facing the nation is its mass-shooting epidemic. Rifles are much more like Quaaludes than they are like cannabis or heroin — in other words, it would be easy for the U.S. government to ban them, if it really wanted to. Our collective impotence feeds the power of guns. Brian Resnick on mass shootings and the limits of human compassion.
