Once again Late Night comedians are doing a better job in explaining the issues of the day. We will look at two issues in recent news, Brexit and gun control.
Samantha Bee, on TBS Full Frontal, explained how Britain's vote to leave the EU has affected the US presidential race.
Seth Meyers, on NBC Late Night, Closer Look series on Democratic congress fight for gun control:
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ReplyDeleteZoomin 7/7/16
ReplyDeleteGun Control
Sorry I can't be there, but here are some data on the gun issue that might stimulate conversation:
• According to Sharon J. Riley in Harper’s Weekly (6/28/16), “it was reported that gun-permit applications in Florida increased by 120 percent in the days after the shooting” in Orlando and “a baseball team in Michigan, held a ‘2nd Amendment Education Night,’ encouraging their fans to bring guns to the ballpark.”
• 66% of U.S. gun deaths in 2011 were suicides, per the National Center for Health Statistics (Harper’s Index 2013:15).
• According to Jeffrey Goldberg writing in The Atlantic in 2015, between 1980 and 2015, 280,000 black men were killed in America, mostly by handguns.
• As per Dan Baum in Harper’s in June 2013, “gun owners are the ones who have the power to keep these weapons [like AR-15s] from getting into the wrong hands; they should be treated as allies in the gun- safety cause.”
• Thomas Frank writing in Harper’s in 2013 opined that: “the American film industry is the second great pillar of the gun culture.” Many movies “are essentially advertisements for mass murder.”
• It has been calculated that by the time the average child reaches the age of 18 in the US, they have likely witnessed 18,000 fictional murders.
• Gary Wills observes that guns were not common in the homes of colonial America. They didn’t become common until long after the Revolution. “The militia were everywhere handicapped by the lack of guns and even more by lack of skill and discipline in the use them, which only professional soldiers acquired.” (Morgan, Edmund S. 1999. “Just Say No,” a review of A Necessary Evil by Gary Wills. New York Review, Nov. 18, pp. 39-41.)
• As per Harper’s (2016:9) own research, gun-owning households in the U.S. in 1994 owned an average of 4.5 firearms. Today that average is 8.2.
• In 2012, the NRA outspent all gun control groups by a factor of 10, as per the Center for Responsive Politics (Harper’s Index 2013:15).
• According to the San Francisco Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in 2013, 14 bills strengthening gun control had been signed into law since the Sandy Hook shooting; 37 had been signed into law weakening gun control (Harper’s Index 20013:13).
Interesting compilation. Clever use of bullet points in a post on gun control. When I read the first one I realized if I were living in rural Florida I would have been tempted to apply for a gun permit. And if I were a baseball fan in Michigan I would applaud the baseball team that promoted gun education.
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