Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Major Medical Groups Push For Tempered Gun Control
Modern Healthcare: Medical Groups Show Influence In Gun Violence Debate
Major medical groups’ push for tempered gun control gained bipartisan support in Congress last week, as lawmakers outlined the next round of legislation to try to grapple with mass killings with assault weapons. ...The federal bipartisan proposal with the most traction through last week is an agreement Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) reached with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), giving states grants to enact so-called “red-flag” protection order laws. These allow judges to temporarily take firearms or ammunition from people posing immediate threats. (Luthi, 8/9)
NPR: Americans Largely Support Gun Restrictions To 'Do Something' About Gun Violence
What is clear, from public opinion polling, is that Americans believe gun violence is a problem, and they support more restrictions on guns. ... There is public support for universal background checks for gun purchases, extreme risk protection orders (also called red flag laws), gun licensing, assault-weapons bans and bans on high-capacity magazines. But many of these issues are hotly polarizing. While they mostly enjoy support from Democrats and independents, Republicans are not always on board. (Montanaro, 8/10)
The Associated Press: Gun-Control Backers Concerned About Changing Federal Courts
California has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, including a ban on the type of high-capacity ammunition magazines used in some of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings. How long those types of laws will stand is a growing concern among gun control advocates in California and elsewhere. A federal judiciary that is becoming increasingly conservative under President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate has gun control advocates on edge. They worry that federal courts, especially if Trump wins a second term next year and Republicans hold the Senate, will take such an expansive view of Second Amendment rights that they might overturn strict gun control laws enacted in Democratic-leaning states. (Thompson, 8/11)
