By Drew Grant 12/21/12 12:16pm

Gun Control

President of the NRA at today's conference (Washington Post)

NRA Takes a Stand on Violent Video Games, Movies and Anything Else That Isn’t Gun-Related [Video]

Today, the president of the National Rifle Association of America, Wayne LaPierre, made his organization’s highly-anticipated statement regarding the shooting at Newtown, Connecticut. Anyone who was hoping for anything less than usual b.s. about how the school system needs more guns should probably stop reading right here. Also, the NRA wants us to note, that it is our culture’s glorification of Splatterdays (what?), Mortal Kombat and Natural Born Killers–specifically–that causes mass shootings, not military-style assault weapons that we can buy online. Read More

By Kevin Baker 12/18/12 8:13pm

Loaded Questions

WEB_illo_guns_baker_ej

How Negotiating With Gun Advocates Just Gives Them More Ammunition

“What a wonder is a gun!
What a versatile invention!
First of all, when you’ve a gun—
Everybody pays attention.”

—Stephen Sondheim, Assassins

Last year I had the opportunity to review Candice Millard’s excellent history of the Garfield assassination, Destiny of the Republic. President Garfield’s killer, Charles J. Guiteau, has generally been characterized as “a disgruntled office-seeker,” but as Millard makes clear, he was barking mad. His own family was terrified of him and had been for years, but it proved impossible to find him any effective mental health care.

Finding a cheap handgun in the nation’s capital, on the other hand, proved very easy. One murdered president later, attention was paid.

That was 131 years ago. Little has changed. Getting effective, affordable mental health care is nearly as difficult for many Americans as it was in Garfield’s time, while guns are more ubiquitous and deadly than ever. Read More

By Nina Burleigh 12/18/12 12:21pm

The Bombshell

Illustration by Ed Johnson.

Appoint a Gun Czar Now, Mr. President

Friday was a day of horror, Saturday a day of shock and Sunday a day of mourning. President Barack Obama hewed to that script when he showed up in Newtown and gave a stem-winder about God and our duty to our children without uttering the word ‘gun’ or stating exactly how he plans to lead Read More

By Steve Huff 12/14/12 1:38pm

Crime

Crime Scene

Gunman Kills 27, Including 18 Children, at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT (Developing)

During the 9 o’clock hour on Friday morning, at least one black-clad male entered Sandy Hook Elementary, a K through 4 school in Newtown, Connecticut. Police believe he was armed with two semi-automatic handguns. He opened fire on students and faculty and, according to reports coming from major media outlets already at the scene, the shooter killed at least 27, including 18 children.

Reuters and WABC reported that the shooter was 24, carrying up to four weapons and wearing a bulletproof vest.

An Associated Press report in the Hartford Courant states that “one entire classroom was unaccounted for” as authorities attempted to determine who had survived the shooting.

The school is home to grades K through 4, with students no older than ten years of age. Read More

By Ralph Gardner Jr. 12/12/05 12:00am

The Barney’s Briber! $700 Not Tempting to Cop

While we’re not in the business of coaching crooks on how to become smarter criminals, it would seem obvious that if you offered a cop a bribe—as a shoplifter who got arrested at Barneys, 660 Madison Avenue, did on Nov. 13—and he doesn’t go for it immediately, you’d best withdraw the offer.

The reason why Read More

By Ralph Gardner Jr. 12/12/05 12:00am

The Barney’s Briber! $700 Not Tempting to Cop

While we’re not in the business of coaching crooks on how to become smarter criminals, it would seem obvious that if you offered a cop a bribe—as a shoplifter who got arrested at Barneys, 660 Madison Avenue, did on Nov. 13—and he doesn’t go for it immediately, you’d best withdraw the offer.

The reason Read More