Gun Violence as “Unaddressed Moral Stain”

John McWhorter, writing at the NYT:

[C]onsider what Nicholas Kristof wrote for The Times in 2017: "In a typical year, more preschoolers are shot dead in America (about 75) than police officers are.” The carnage continues, and for the most part, Republican elected officials don’t appear to care, presumably because not enough of their constituents are willing to vote them out. As much as I value trying to see where the other side is coming from on a given issue, my curiosity and compassion have limits, and here I see true immorality — be it as a student of civics, language or just plain life — in the lack of interest some of our officials have in preventing the violence we routinely see.

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Why is the AR-15 the weapon of choice for those who want to kill many students?

Why is the AR-15 the weapon of choice for the deadliest murderers? USA Today has some answers:

“They’re accurate and they can basically shoot as quickly as you can pull the trigger,” according to a campaign statement. "Along those lines, they’re very customizable — most average people can figure out how to install accessories like forward trigger grips that let you hold the gun at waist height and spray bullets while stabilizing the gun, laser sights, and you can add high-capacity magazines.”
Image via GunsHolstersAndGear.com

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Gun regulations endorsed by the Founders

From a website called "The Conversation":

I have been researching and writing about the history of gun regulation and the Second Amendment for the past two decades. When I began this research, most people assumed that regulation was a relatively recent phenomenon, something associated with the rise of big government in the modern era. Actually, while the founding generation certainly esteemed the idea of an armed population, they were also ardent supporters of gun regulations.Consider these five categories of gun laws that the Founders endorsed.
#1: Registration (required) #2: Public carry (generally prohibited) #3: Stand-your-ground laws (not allowed unless retreat not possible) #4: Safe storage laws (sometimes required) #5: Loyalty oaths ("The right to bear arms was conditional on swearing a loyalty oath to the government. Individuals who refused to swear such an oath were disarmed.")

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