BY SHARON MARTIN It never occurred to me that a shotgun was anything but a necessary tool, on my grandfather’s ranch or on my small homestead. While I’m not prepared to give up my .410 when there are water moccasins that stray too far from the creek bank, I’ve begun to question my own beliefs. How…
BY FROMA HARROP Only three students were shot at an American school last Tuesday. Two of them were hospitalized, and only the 17-year-old gunman died. This made the attack at a southern Maryland high school a fleeting news item. The Austin, TX, bombings edged it out. The 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado opened…
BY MARK Y.A. DAVIES The only people with the power to do something comprehensive about mass shootings are the people we elect to public office, and the majority of the people we elect to public office not only do nothing, but they actively block anything being done and in many cases vote for legislation that…
BY JOE CONASON Whenever someone commits a heinous gun crime like the massacre in Las Vegas, politicians swiftly assure us that the victims and their families are “in our thoughts and prayers.” What these mush-mouthed messages mean, in plain English, is that government, as embodied in those politicians, will do nothing to make the country…
BY VERN TURNER We Americans like to think of ourselves as fearless defenders of righteousness – you know, the home of the brave and all that. Yet what we present to the world is a people so terrified and hateful of one another that we shoot each other to the tune of 30,000 per year….
