Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Senate Needs To Pass Bill Calling For Gun Safety Research; Talk All You Want About Regulations But Remember The Second Amendment
The New York Times: Why Doesn’t America Know More About Gun Safety?
In the wake of yet another spate of mass shootings, America is confronted with many questions. Among them: Will waiting periods on gun purchases help curb gun violence or reduce the number of gun-related deaths and injuries? What about gun buybacks? Or age restrictions? Public health experts know that far more people die of gunshot wounds than of cholera or diphtheria or polio — but they know far less about how to prevent gun violence than they do those other causes of death. Because when it comes to guns, research is still maddeningly limited. (8/7)
Fox News: Second Amendment Bars Many Gun Restrictions Being Proposed After Mass Shootings
Last weekend's mass murders in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, have produced a flood of words about everything from gun control to mental illness to white nationalism. Most of those words have addressed the right to keep and bear arms as if it were a gift from the government. It isn't. The Supreme Court has twice ruled in the past 11 years that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual pre-political liberty. That is the highest category of liberty recognized in the law. It is akin to the freedoms of thought, speech and personality. (Judge Andrew Napolitano, 8/8)
Los Angeles Times: Congress Should Push Red Flag Gun Laws, But Must Do More
As he headed off Wednesday morning to Dayton and El Paso to console the most recent American communities ravaged by mass shootings, President Trump paused on the White House lawn to talk with reporters. He told them that while there might be political support for federal legislation mandating more stringent background checks for gun buyers, he did not believe there was “appetite” in Congress for a ban on civilian possession of high-capacity magazines and combat-style weapons. “So far,” he said, “I have not seen that.” May we suggest that he ask the American people — nearly two-thirds of whom support such a ban — instead of Congress, which remains under the thumb of the National Rifle Assn.? (8/8)
The Washington Post: On Guns, America Is ‘Exceptional’
As it often does after a mass shooting, the Onion posted on Sunday a new version of one of its most enduring stories, “‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.” Then Monday morning, President Trump came before the cameras and read a speech saturated with precisely what the Onion was satirizing: the ignoramus’ version of American exceptionalism. It treats the United States as not just the greatest country on Earth but in many ways the only country on Earth, such that nothing that happens anywhere else could possibly tell us anything about ourselves or what kind of choices we might make in the future. (Paul Waldman, 8/5)
The Washington Post: George Conway And Neal Katyal: It's Time To Debate Gun Control On Its Merits
The senseless shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, should lead every American to contemplate what to do about guns. Policymakers have largely been paralyzed, partly because the public debate has been dominated by extremes. The loudest voices on the political left seek to take away as many firearms as it can, of all kinds, and to overturn Supreme Court decisions recognizing the Second Amendment right of individuals to keep and bear arms. The loudest voices on the political right, for their part, oppose virtually all gun regulation, both on policy and constitutional grounds, fearing that a slippery slope will lead to the abolition of firearms. (George T. Conway and Neal Katyal, 8/5)
Bloomberg: The Road Back From The El Paso And Dayton Shootings
Perhaps the gravest danger in the aftermath of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton is that these atrocities, far from bringing the country together, will divide it even more bitterly than before. The early signs are hardly encouraging. Don’t dismiss calling for unity at such times as a worthless cliché. If all its people cannot join in mourning the victims of such heinous attacks, and in resolving to guard against future barbarities, the U.S. risks being broken beyond repair. (8/7)
The Washington Post: No, Mr. President. Hate Is Not A Mental Illness.
“Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun,” President Trump announced when he condemned shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, which together left at least 31 people dead and dozens wounded. Mr. President, what you said about hatred rings true. But you are wrong in blaming mental illness. As the father of an adult son with a mental illness and one of 14 nongovernment experts appointed by your administration to a panel that advises Congress about serious mental illnesses, I’d like to recount some well-established facts. (Pete Earley, 8/7)
The Hill: Mental Trauma From Mass Shootings — How Do We Cope?
With two more mass shootings in the U.S. this past weekend, one in El Paso, and the other in Dayton, it’s hard not to feel horrified, depressed and even fearful. While research indicates that those who directly experience or witness mass violence have the most intense mental health reactions, even those outside the firing range can be impacted. (Joan Cook, 8/7)
The New York Times: Does Trump Help Fuel Mass Shootings?
Just how much responsibility does President Trump bear for violence motivated by racism? This week on “The Argument,” the columnists discuss the recent shootings in El Paso, Tex., and Dayton, Ohio. Michelle Goldberg sees a direct connection between the president’s dehumanizing statements about immigrants and the El Paso shooter’s self-described motivations. Ross Douthat thinks Trump has embodied and abetted a kind of spiritual emptiness that fuels mass killings. And David Leonhardt is torn about whether the politics of gun control are hopelessly mired or simply moving too slowly in response to these tragically regular shootings. (Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg and David Leonhardt, 8/8)
The Washington Post: The Latest Shootings Have Us Asking Why, Again, But There Never Seems To Be An Answer
I could sure use some help understanding “active shooters.” Does anybody know why they kill? I’ve watched several active-shooter emergency preparation videos — called Run, Hide and Fight — sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. They depict horrifying reenactments of such attacks at the workplace. You can feel a chill just watching how methodically they go about the homicidal work. But there’s virtually nothing about their motives. (Courtland Milloy, 8/6)
