With guest host Ray Suarez.
After the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise, some lawmakers want to loosen gun laws. We’ll look at America’s new “gun battle.”
Another shocking crime has opened another debate about guns. This time it’s the shooting of a member of Congress, staff and friends at a ball field in Northern Virginia. Some of Representative Steve Scalise’s House colleagues say his shooting is an argument for wider access to guns, while other members insist that conclusion is an almost perverse lesson to take from the Virginia shooting. — Ray Suarez
Guests
Rep. Scott Perry, Republican congressman representing Pennsylvania’s Fourth District, which includes York, Gettysburg, and the western half of Harrisburg. ( @RepScottPerry)
Lois Beckett, senior reporter for The Guardian, covering gun policy, politics and criminal justice. ( @loisbeckett)
John Donohue, law professor at Stanford University, studying gun policy and the criminal justice system. ( @JohnDonohueSLS)
Dave Kopel, associate policy analyst at the Cato Institute. ( @davekopel)
From The Reading List
New York Times: After Scalise Shooting, a Twist: Lawmakers Want to Loosen Gun Laws — “But in the weeks after the June 14 shooting of Republicans at a congressional baseball practice, the response has had a twist: Conservative lawmakers, some of whom were nearly the victims of gun violence, have pressed to loosen gun controls.”
The Guardian: More than half of Americans want stricter gun laws, Pew study finds — “While half of Americans see gun violence as a very big problem in their country, fewer than 10% of American adults said that ‘almost no one’ should be able to legally own a gun, and only 10% said that ‘almost no types’ of guns should be legally available to buy. Overall, however, 52% want stricter gun laws.”
Newsweek: Guns Make Us Safe? NRA Theory Debunked In New Stanford Analysis — “A Stanford Law School professor, John Donohue, and his team analyzed crime data from 1977 to 2014 and didn’t find evidence that areas where more Americans carry guns enjoy enhanced public safety or less crime. On the contrary, the researchers discovered that states that have enacted so-called right-to-carry (RTC) concealed handgun laws have experienced higher rates of violent crime than states that did not adopt those laws.”
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