• Correcting Misconceptions About the Electoral Count Reform Act

    It has been apparent for a long time that the Electoral Count Act (ECA)—the 1887 law designed to ensure that presidential elections operate with integrity—is flawed. These flaws were on full display during the counting of electoral votes in 2020-2021, but all of the flaws had historical precursors. Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith write that the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA), which was recently introduced by a bipartisan group of senators to replace the ECA, is an exceptionally promising development in our polarized era.

  • Buying Into Conspiracy Theories Can Be Exciting – That’s What Makes Them Dangerous

    By Donovan Schaefer

    The historian Richard Hofstadter, in his seminal 1964 book, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, described a “paranoid style” which he observed on the fringes of far-right U.S. politics and culture: a blend of “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.” In our time, the “birther” movement, “Pizzagate,” QAnon, and “Stop the Steal” are but a few examples of these conspiratorial fantasies. Much of the commentary on conspiracy theories presumes that followers simply have bad information, or not enough, and that they can be helped along with a better diet of facts. My research shows that believers in conspiracy theories have plenty of information, but they insist that it be interpreted in a particular way – the way that feels most exciting. Just as the “X-Files” predicted, conspiracy theories’ acolytes “want to believe.”

  • Building the “Big Lie”: Inside the Creation of Trump’s Stolen Election Myth

    By Doug Bock Clark, Alexandra Berzon and Kirsten Berg

    Internal emails and interviews with key participants reveal for the first time the extent to which leading advocates of the rigged election theory touted evidence they knew to be disproven, disputed or dismissed as dubious.

  • An Elusive Shadow: State-by-State Gun Ownership

    Policy-makers are faced with an exceptional challenge: how to reduce harm caused by firearms while maintaining citizens’ right to bear arms and protect themselves. Meaningful legislation requires an understanding of how access to firearms is associated with different outcomes of harm, but this knowledge also calls for accurate, highly-resolved data on firearm possession, data that is presently unavailable due to a lack of a comprehensive national firearm ownership registry.

  • U.S. Youth Firearm Mortality Increases Over the Past Decade --Trends Differ Significantly Across States

    In 2020, firearms were the leading cause of death in children in the United States. Four states with stricter laws restricting gun access successfully reversed upward trajectories in youth gun deaths over the past decade.

  • Strengthening U.S. Government’s Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogen Framework, Dual Use Research

    Group of scientists, public health experts, policy researchers propose strengthening of U.S. government’s policies regarding enhanced potential pandemic pathogen framework and dual use research of concern.

  • Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories May Not Be Increasing

    A new analysis contradicts popular thinking about beliefs in conspiracy theories, suggesting that such beliefs may not have actually increased over time. The new findings challenge widespread perceptions by the public, scholars, journalists, and policymakers.

  • Were Participants in the Jan. 6 Attack Extremists? Protesters? Patriots?

    By Juan Siliezar

    Survey finds most view the rioters negatively, but much depends on how you feel about Black Lives Matter and gun ownership. American views of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack do not vary much by race overall, but Black Lives Matter supporters, regardless of race, age, or sex, tend to view the attackers more negatively, and white gun owners are more likely to see them in a positive light.

  • Pegasus Spyware Maker NSO Is Conducting a Lobbying Campaign to Get Off U.S. Blacklist

    By Uri Blau

    The cybersecurity firm has invested heavily in top lobbyists and law firms in an effort to lift restrictions on doing business in America. NSO is hoping the Israeli prime minister will raise the issue with Joe Biden when the two meet this week.

  • Diametrically Opposed Social Media Users Starting to Agree: Enough is Enough

    Despite major differences of opinion on the motives behind and solutions to mass gun violence, right-leaning respondents who favor gun rights and left-leaning proponents of gun control are starting to converge in their belief that enough is enough and change is needed.

  • American Gun Culture Is Based on Frontier Mythology – but Ignores How Common Gun Restrictions Were in the Old West

    By Pierre M. Atlas

    In large measure, America’s gun culture – that is, the willingness of many Americans to accept gun violence as an inevitable side effect of a free and armed, if more violent, society – is rooted in an image of the Wild West in which a lone, armed person could stand up and save the day. Many Americans see the gun as both symbolizing and guaranteeing individual liberty. But this image of America’s frontier past —and the mythology of the Wild West, which romanticizes guns, outlaws, and rugged individualism — ignore the fact the gun control was widespread and common in the Old West.

  • High Incarceration Rates May Not Help U.S. Citizens Feel Safer

    The U.S. is the world leader in incarceration rates, spending $80 billion a year to imprison 2 million people. But despite these practices aiming to help Americans feel safer, a new study suggests they may not result in the intended effect.

  • Another Mass Shooting Leaves U.S. Bracing for More

    By Jeff Seldin

    This week’s Independence Day massacre in a Chicago suburb is highlighting the challenge now facing U.S. law enforcement and homeland security officials — an environment in which almost any public event could come under attack with few, if any, signals for authorities to detect in advance. DHS has been warning for months of a “dynamic and complex” threat environment, most recently in a National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin last month, yet even armed with that knowledge, authorities were not able to see any signs or find any evidence that might have allowed them to stop the mass shooting at the Highland Park, Illinois.

  • DOJ Sues Arizona Over Proof of Citizenship Requirement for Voter Registration

    By Masood Farivar

    DOJ on Tuesday said it was suing Arizona over its new proof of citizenship requirements for voter registration. DOJ says the Arizona law violates the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. DOJ also says that the Arizona voter registration requirement “flouts” a 2013 Supreme Court decision – in a 7-2 decision — which rejected an earlier attempt by the state to implement a similar mandate.

  • Jan. 6 Hearings Highlight Problems with Certification of Presidential Elections and Potential Ways to Fix Them

    By Derek T. Muller

    The televised hearings held by the House Jan. 6 Committee highlighted the lack of clarity regarding how Congress counts presidential electoral votes — a lack of clarity which was exploited by former president Donald Trump in his attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election. Members of Congress publicly aired baseless claims that the election results were in doubt, while Vice President Michael Pence was pressured to exercise power he does not have to unilaterally refuse to count electoral votes from some states or indefinitely delay counting. Congress cannot prevent all mischief, but it can reduce the possibility of mischief in the future.