Lois Beckett Posts

The data is in, and definitive: the assault weapons ban didn't work. So why is Senator Dianne Feinstein still pushing for it? And what options are there that can end the scourge of violence plaguing the US.

While polls suggest a majority of Americans still support an assault weapons ban, it is no longer a top priority for most gun control advocacy groups. Weapons like the AR-15 still put the "mass" in "mass murder," but these rare occurrences comprise just a small percentage of homicides each year. Studies show that more stringent background checks will save more lives, not that an assault weapons ban would ever have a chance in Congress anyway.

Last Saturday afternoon, a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, 18-year-old Michael Brown. The killing sparked immediate protests in Ferguson which was followed by a heavily militarized police response that drew national condemnation.

After mass shootings, like the ones these past weeks in Las Vegas, Seattle and Santa Barbara, the national conversation often focuses on mental illness. So what do we actually know about the connections between mental illness, mass shootings and gun violence overall?

Two Congressional Democrats unveiled legislation Wednesday morning that would restart the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's gun violence research efforts. Since 1996, when a small CDC-funded study on the risks of owning a firearm ignited opposition from Republicans, the CDC's budget for research on firearms injuries has shrunk to zero. The new legislation, introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) in the House, and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in the Senate, would give the CDC $10 million a year "for the purpose of conducting or supporting research on firearms safety or gun violence prevention."

The NRA has been very effective making sure no one knows just exactly how many people are shot each year, or what type of weapons they're shot with, or tracing the purchase of those guns, or knowing how they travel between states. An utter shame when a few rational rules would save so many lives.

Federal funding for research on gun violence has been restricted for nearly two decades. President Obama urged Congress to allocate $10 million for new research after the Newtown school shooting. But House Republicans say they won't approve it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's budget still lists zero dollars for research on gun violence prevention. One of the researchers who lost funding in the political battle over studying firearms was Dr. Garen Wintemute, one of only a dozen researchers across the country who have continued to focus full-time on firearms violence.

For nearly 20 years, Congress has pushed the CDC to steer clear of firearms violence research. As chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that traditionally sets CDC funding, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) has been in a position to change that. Soon after Sandy Hook, Kingston said he had spoken to the head of the agency. "I think we can find some common ground," Kingston said. More than a year later, as Kingston competes in a crowded Republican primary race for a U.S. Senate seat, the congressman is no longer talking about common ground.

Undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder is having a major impact on injured civilians, particularly those with violent injuries, as we detailed last month. One national study of patients with traumatic injuries found that more than 20 percent of them developed PTSD. But many hospitals still have no systematic approach to identifying patients with PTSD or helping them get treatment.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder isn't only suffered by the veterans of foreign wars, it occurs here, right in the heart of American inner cities. Victims of violence, and the healers that tend them, are all psychologically affected, especially when that violence is omnipresent.

If you feel unsafe at a public pool in Charleston, W.Va., you may soon have the right to lie there on a towel with a handgun at your side. For 20 years, Charleston has been an island of modest gun restrictions in a very pro-gun rights state.

Under the law, Kansans could manufacture and sell semi-automatic weapons in-state without a federal license or any federal oversight. Bills similar to Kansas’ law have been introduced in at least 37 other states.

Scandals involving cheating by teachers and schools to pump up ever-more-important student test scores swept the country in 2011. Here's an overview of some of the most shocking instances of teacher cheating, plus a few episodes that may have been overblown.

Some of the states' few dozen data volunteers are so devoted that they log into the party database daily from their home computers. Deb Pitzrick, 61, of Eden Prairie, convinced a group of her friends to form the "Grandma Brigade." These women, in their 50s, 60s and 70s, no longer want to knock on doors for the Democrats. Instead, they support the party by gathering public information about other voters.

For the past nine months, we’ve been following how political campaigns use data about voters to target them in different ways. During the election, the Obama campaign, which had assembled a cutting-edge team of data scientists, developers, and digital advertising experts, refused to say anything about how it was targeting voters.
campaign, which had assembled a cutting-edge team of data ...

Time magazine's Michael Scherer talked with a group of Obama campaign advisers this past weekend, and provided an inside look at some of the data and targeting tactics behind the president's re-election. The article touches on many different aspects of the campaign's data operation, from television advertising to campaign insiders' wagers about which email subject lines would be most successful.