America’s biggest gun problem

Mike Mariani Newsweek

America’s biggest gun problem isn’t mass shootings, said Mike Mariani—
it’s suicides. Incredibly, about two-thirds of fatal-gunshot victims in
this country die by their own hand—about 20,000 people a year. A
2008 study found that men in the 15 states with the highest rates of
gun ownership were 3.7 times more likely to fatally shoot themselves
than those in the six states with the lowest rates; for women, it was
7.9 times. Most people who attempt suicide do it on impulse and
often change their minds later; overdosing on drugs is successful in just
3 per cent of attempts. “Gun suicide, by comparison, has a completion
rate of 85 per cent,” because guns so effectively translate impulses into
death. In Israel, suicides in the military fell by 40 per cent after soldiers
were forbidden from taking their firearm with them on weekend
leave. But in the U.S., gun-rights advocates vehemently oppose even
the common-sense requirement that gun owners store their weapons
with trigger locks or in a locked container. So people keep killing themselves
in droves. “People can and do usually overcome the desire to kill
themselves”—but not when they’ve got a gun in their hands.

Hillary’s hypocrisy on sexual assault

Hillary Clinton told an interviewer last week that women who report
sexual assaults must be “heard and believed,” or they’ll be pressured
“to remain silent.” Now, there’s a fascinating switch, said Sean Davis.
During the 1980s and ’90s, Hillary’s response to the many women who
accused her husband, Bill, of sexual assault was that they should be
“immediately slimed and shamed.” Hillary and Bill’s inner circle orchestrated
campaigns to destroy the reputations of at least three women
who accused Bill of assaulting them: Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick,
and Paula Jones. Willey, a onetime Clinton campaign organizer
who says Bill groped her in a 1993 Oval Office meeting, later blamed
Hillary for “enabling” her husband’s predatory behavior and seeking to
“ruin” women who dared to speak about it. When Jones sued Bill for
allegedly exposing himself to her, Team Clinton smeared her as “trailer
trash” out to make some money. Hillary also called Gennifer Flowers,
Clinton’s longtime mistress, a liar, and Monica Lewinsky a “narcissistic
loony toon.” But maybe Hillary has “had a sincere change of heart.” If
so, does she now believe her husband’s many accusers?

Did Dubya really keep America safe?

Jonathan Chait NYMag.com

During last week’s Republican debate, Jeb Bush made a curious claim,
said Jonathan Chait. His brother, George W., had “kept us safe,” he
proclaimed, to loud applause from a Republican audience. But Jeb
neglected to mention that “the worst domestic mass casualty attack in
American history” took place on his brother’s watch, with 3,000 people
killed and the World Trade Center reduced to rubble. Even worse,
Dubya received multiple CIA warnings of an impending al Qaida
attack—and did nothing. The CIA told the Bush administration that “a
group presently in the U.S.” was planning a major terrorist operation
soon; on Aug. 6, while Bush was on vacation, he was handed a memo
headlined “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” Bush and his aides
dismissed the urgent warnings as “a disinformation campaign” to distract
attention from the real threat, Iraq. After 9/11, Bush let Osama
bin Laden get away at Tora Bora, and then led the country into the
Iraq War, “which was not exactly a safety-enhancing event, either.” But
Bush sure did talk tough. Only in some alternate reality did his strutting
displays of “alpha manhood” make America safer.