“The man accused of opening fire on a July Fourth parade near Chicago was charged on Tuesday with seven counts of murder, as police revealed they had reported him as posing a ‘clear and present danger’ after alleged threats to his family in 2019… In addition to the seven victims killed by gunfire, more than three dozen people were treated in hospitals for gunshot wounds and other injuries.” Reuters
Here’s our recent coverage of the bipartisan gun control bill. The Flip Side
The right calls for additional measures to address mental health issues among young men.
“The press is understandably focusing on [Highland Park]… Meanwhile, in nearby Chicago eight people were murdered over the Fourth of July weekend, and 60 more sustained gunshot wounds. More than 1,600 people have been shot in Chicago so far this year, but those murders receive far less attention than they deserve… As it happens, Illinois has some of the toughest gun restrictions in the United States, and a separate Highland Park ordinance also restricts AR-15s, AK-47s and other semiautomatic weapons…
“[The weekend’s shootings] come amid a new era of violent crime that began in 2020. Substance abuse increased and mental health deteriorated amid the pandemic and its lockdowns. Progressive law-enforcement policies have contributed to an atmosphere of lawlessness and disorder…
“The United States is dealing with a societal disorder that can’t be cured with gun control. Mitigating the damage will likely take years, but politicians can help by returning to the anti-crime policies that worked so well in the 1990s and 2000s.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“Local police were twice made aware in the span of less than a year that the suspect was a threat to himself or others. Even if you want to cut them a break for not seeking a gun restraining order after their first encounter with him, what’s their excuse for not seeking one after the second? He had 16 knives, wanted to ‘kill everyone,’ and had previously been suicidal. He was in the 18-21 age zone that’s become more common among mass shooters too. You would think red-flag orders in a situation like that would be standard police protocol at this point.”
Allahpundit, Hot Air
“Our nation has to address the spiritual and cultural crisis that grips all too many young men. The fact that men still do very, very well at the upper echelons of American society (in corporations, politics, and the military) is obscuring the reality that the vast bulk of young men are falling behind their female peers…
“The ‘ideology of masculinity’ is more dysfunctional than I’ve ever seen. It’s trapped between two competing extremes, a far-left version that casts common male characteristics as inherently toxic or unhealthy and a right-wing masculine counterculture that often revels in aggression and intimidation… In the meantime, all too many ordinary young men lack any kind of common vision for a moral, meaningful life…
“Public policy is a backstop against the inevitability of human vice. It does not develop character. It rarely provides a person with purpose. That’s what we must do, and not just with our own kids. There are too many fatherless children for any of us to content ourselves with mentoring our own families only. Until the lost boys of American life are found by men and women who care enough to intervene before their darkest days, the slow-motion riot will continue, and we’ll endure more terrible tragedies, like the tragedies in Buffalo, Uvalde, and yesterday’s in Illinois on the Fourth of July.”
David French, The Dispatch
The left calls for additional gun control measures to reduce the prevalence of mass shootings.
The left calls for additional gun control measures to reduce the prevalence of mass shootings.
“We live in a different suburb about an hour from where the shooting happened. My first thought was: One of my son’s friends is about to pick him up and head to a mall. I felt a flash of panic. Where exactly were they heading? My son was coming out of his room when I told him there had just been a mass shooting and I needed to know which mall his friend was taking him to. His response, as he pulled his phone from his pocket: ‘Oh no. OK, I’ll find out.’…
“I heard his voice through the door [as he called his friend]. Calm. Typical teen banter. He didn't seem unconcerned about the tragedy, nor did he seem shocked. This is the version of America we’ve given our children… We glance at where the movie theater emergency exits are. We take a quick look across the crowd for signs of anything suspicious. We pause to decide whether it’s safe for our kids to go somewhere… We live our lives around outbreaks of gun violence.”
Rex Huppke, USA Today
“Against red flag laws, supporters of our disastrous status quo say they depend on family members, school officials or mental health professionals to report dangerous individuals; but as we saw in the Buffalo shooting, such people often face counter-pressures not to report. Against limits on magazines and armor-piercing semiautomatic guns (or ‘assault rifles’), they say that there is already an ‘immense stock’ of them on hand, so a ban will do little. Against gun-show checks, they cite mass shooters who passed background checks…
“Sadly, these arguments are largely correct: even the House bills would only reduce, not stop, the carnage from rising numbers of mass shootings. But that doesn't mean that ‘resistance is futile’ and we should give up. These objections only show that, in addition to such stronger laws, we must reject the spiraling addiction to powerful weapons and armed guards in our society, which fuels potential shooters' sense that this is a quick route to fame. The only sane course is to reject the whole arms race that is so self-defeating for all of us.”
John Davenport, Salon
“The high-powered rifle used in the attack, according to authorities, was legally purchased by the suspected 21-year-old gunman, who was arrested on Monday and charged Tuesday with seven counts of first-degree murder. The ease of acquiring these weapons of war — and make no mistake, war is what the designers of these weapons envisioned — is by now, after Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Las Vegas and countless other mass shootings, a sadly familiar story…
“[But] The regulation of assault weapons was not even allowed on the table as a package of moderate gun and school safety measures was negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators and signed into law. As we said at the time, it was good that Congress was able to take some action, breaking more than a 25-year stalemate on gun control. But as the horrific events of Highland Park demonstrated, more rigorous reforms are needed. Banning assault weapons is a good place to restart the conversation.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
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