Luis Mirón expresses his thoughts on the predominantly Republican House of Representatives in Tennessee, equating their silencing and expulsion of Black Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson to “immigrants being denied asylum due to their branding as ‘illegals.’”
“The Tennessee Three’s offense: Briefly disrupting a legislative session to call for an end to gun violence, days after the Covenant School shooting massacre that left three 9-year-olds and three adult staff members dead. And for this violation of decorum, Republicans insisted, must be punished,” Wendi C. Thomas writes.
“The shooting deaths of three children and three adults inside a Nashville school has put further pressure on Congress to look at imposing a ban on so-called assault weapons,” Michael J. Klein writes. “Such a prohibition would be designed cover the types of guns that the suspect legally purchased and used during the March 27, 2023, attack.”
Professor Crystal Welch, law professor at Mississippi College School of Law, and clinical law students Laken Dunn and Jessica Gamez propose the creation of gun courts in all youth courts across Mississippi to restrict young people’s access to guns, help prevent unnecessary life loss at the hands of juveniles and strategically prevent recidivism.
With the carnage in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, N.Y., in May 2022, calls have begun again for Congress to enact gun control. Since the 2012 massacre of 20 children and four staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., legislation introduced in response to mass killings has consistently failed to pass the Senate. Political scientists Monika McDermott and David Jones address why further restrictions never pass, despite a majority of Americans supporting tighter gun control laws.
After any mass shooting, Americans hear politicians make the ritualistic call for “thoughts and prayers.” Thoughts and prayers are not enough. A social-contextual analysis would examine how shooters’ shared characteristics interact with their surroundings to make them capable of the unimaginable acts they committed.
As originally designed, an assault rifle is built for one purpose: to be used by the military to maim and kill human beings as quickly as possible. It is not a sporting or hunting rifle. The design of the AR-15 bullet is too light for deer, too heavy for squirrels, but just right for humans. Why then does a civilian need such a rifle?
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