More than a year after the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, Congress remains unwilling to pass even the most incremental legislation controlling access to lethal weapons. There is no better explanation for that than the role of money in politics. Take the current impasse over the waiting period for background checks on […]
Features
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Lethal Weapons
For gun control advocates, last fall’s election results demonstrated theSisyphean nature of battling the National Rifle Association. Senator JohnAshcroft of Missouri was one of five NRA allies in Congress who was voted out, inpart because of organized efforts by activist groups such as Handgun Control. Butwith George W. Bush in the White House, Ashcroft rose […]
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Standard Shift
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has been gettinghimself dusty in the law library lately. News organizations reported on July 12that Ashcroft, a National Rifle Association member, had reversed the JusticeDepartment’s long-standing constitutional interpretation of the Second Amendment(which reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of afree State, the right of the people […]
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Smoking, Guns
If I had my way, there’d be laws restricting cigarettes and handguns. But this Congress won’t even pass halfway measures. Cigarette companies have admitted they produce death sticks, yet Congress won’t lift a finger to stub them out. Teenage boys continue to shoot up high schools, yet Congress won’t pass stricter gun controls. The politically […]
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Learning to Love the Gun
Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, Michael A. Bellesiles. Alfred A. Knopf, 603 pages, $30.00. It is as if Michael A. Bellesiles has overturned a table on which rested everything we thought we knew about guns in early America. The image of the rifle hanging over every American mantel, of settlers depending […]
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Political Snipers
The National Rifle Association knew its stance on assault weapons was unpopular, so in 1994 it went underground, took advantage of loopholes in the campaign finance laws, and waged a stealth campaign to unseat Democrats in vulnerable districts.
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Jumping the Gun
The Weekly Standard ran a story in July titled “Taking the Second Amendment Seriously,” its cover art showing the weather-stained statue of what looks like a militiaman. The article–actually a thick chunk of legalese by George Mason law professor Nelson Lund–turns out to be the latest conservative gush-fest over an April 1999 federal district court […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Smoking Guns
Even after Littleton, gun control advocates have been stymied in Congress, where the lobbying presence of the NRA is just too strong. But litigation against gun manufacturers, borrowed from the playbook of the anti-tobacco crusaders, may prove the real route to gun control.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Slouching toward Seattle
The World Trade Organization so far is a business-oriented club that has undermined the mixed economy everywhere. But it might be the framework for a global New Deal. The Seattle trade meetings could set the tone.
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From Protest to Program
Last year, during a visit to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, I got a firsthand look at the underside of globalization. Located across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, Juárez is home to more than 400 plants known as maquiladoras. Here, workers assemble parts sent by foreign companies–mainly U.S.-based corporations–for subsequent export. Most of the plants […]