Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Public Pressure Mounts Over Guns, But For Deeply Divided Congress Will That Be Enough To Break Gridlock?
The New York Times: Is This The Moment For Gun Control? A Gridlocked Congress Is Under Pressure
Lawmakers will return to Washington on Monday facing intense public pressure to break their decades-long gridlock on gun control, a demand fortified by a bipartisan group of governors calling for Congress to take action to protect against mass shootings. But even as members of both parties said it might be difficult for Congress to remain on the sidelines after the school massacre this month in Parkland, Fla., lawmakers have no clear consensus on even incremental changes to gun restrictions, let alone more sweeping legislation. (Gay Stolberg, Martin and Kaplan, 2/25)
The Wall Street Journal: Congress Returns To Washington Under Pressure To Act On Guns
Congress is most likely to consider a measure from Sens. John Cornyn (R., Texas) and Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) that would encourage states and federal agencies, including the military, to submit criminal-conviction records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. Mr. Cornyn introduced the bill after the background-check system failed to prevent the gunman in a Texas shooting last November from purchasing weapons, despite his history of domestic abuse. Those records are required by law to be uploaded, but they can slip through the cracks. (Peterson and Andrews, 2/25)
The Wall Street Journal: Blumenthal Law Would Take Guns From Those Judged To Be Threats
Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal called for a federal law Sunday allowing law-enforcement officials to take away people’s guns if a judge rules they are a threat to themselves or others. Connecticut passed such a law in 1999 following a shooting at the Connecticut Lottery Corp. in which a gunman killed four people. (de Avila, 2/25)
The New York Times: Trump Blames Video Games For Mass Shootings. Researchers Disagree.
President Trump said Thursday that violent video games and movies may play a role in school shootings, a claim that has been made — and rejected — many times since the increase in such attacks in the past two decades. Movies are “so violent,” Mr. Trump said at a meeting on school safety one day after he gathered with survivors of school shootings, including some from last week’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where, the authorities say, a former student, Nikolas Cruz, killed 17 people with a semiautomatic rifle. (Salam and Stack, 2/23)
Miami Herald: After Parkland Shooting, Why Aren’t Guns A Public Health Threat?
On the same day that a troubled former student walked onto the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and murdered 17 people with an assault-style rifle, at least 28 more people died from gunshots elsewhere in the United States. ... But even though doctors and public health officials have long considered gun deaths a public health threat — firearms kill as many Americans each year as die in car accidents — the CDC and state agencies responsible for reducing preventable deaths can do little when it comes to guns. (Chang, 2/23)
