OUR PICKSLearning to Live with Guns | The Next Front Line | Balance-of-Power for the 21st Century, and more

Published 26 May 2022

·  ‘Horrifying’ Conspiracy Theories Swirl Around Texas Shooting

·  The Real Reason America Doesn’t Have Gun Control

·  We Need to Learn to Live with Guns

·  The Science Is Clear: Gun Control Saves Lives

·  Guns Now Kill More Children and Young Adults Than Car Crashes

·  The Next Front Line

·  New Statistics Confirm the Continuing Decline in the Use of National Surveillance Authorities

·  Recovering a Balance-of-Power Principle for the 21st Century

·  Senate Republicans Block Domestic Terrorism Bill

·  Clear Pattern of Israel-related Antisemitism Evident on Some Midwestern Campuses

·  How ‘Great Replacement’ Theory Led to the Buffalo Mass Shooting

Horrifying’ Conspiracy Theories Swirl Around Texas Shooting  (Associated Press / VOA News)
By now it’s as predictable as the calls for thoughts and prayers: A mass shooting leaves many dead, and wild conspiracy theories and misinformation about the carnage soon follow.
It happened after Sandy Hook, after Parkland, after the Orlando nightclub shooting and after the deadly rampage earlier this month at a Buffalo grocery store. Within hours of Tuesday’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, another rash began as internet users spread baseless claims about the man named as the gunman and his possible motives.

The Real Reason America Doesn’t Have Gun Control  (Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic)
The basic rules of American democracy provide a veto over national policy to a minority of the states.

We Need to Learn to Live with Guns  (Andrew Exum, The Atlantic)
A passive Congress and hostile judiciary leave Americans with little choice but to change the culture of firearms.

The Science Is Clear: Gun Control Saves Lives  (The Editors, Scientific American)
By enacting simple laws that make guns safer and harder to get, we can prevent killings like the ones in Uvalde and Buffalo.

Guns Now Kill More Children and Young Adults Than Car Crashes  (Tanya Lewis, Scientific American)
Firearms now exceed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury-related death for people ages one to 24, a new analysis shows.

The Next Front Line  (Ian Williams, The Spectator)
Inside Taiwan’s plan to thwart Beijing.

New Statistics Confirm the Continuing Decline in the Use of National Surveillance Authorities  (George Croner, Lawfare)
April is “reporting season” regarding the annual activities of the U.S. intelligence community under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) with both the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) releasing its Annual Statistical Transparency Report and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) sending its mandated report on the activities of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to Congress. A third annual report from the Department of Justice, as required by § 107 of FISA, was transmitted to Congress on April 29. In this post, I will explore details of these three reports and offer my analysis on the broader trends under FISA.