Gun Control Reform Activism

The National Rifle Association and its allies have their post-shooting routine down cold. They wait a day or two and then respond with a blistering array of attacks against gun-safety advocates calling for reform. No matter what the circumstances — a husband and wife at a Christmas party, a deranged teenager at a movie theater, or a sniper targeting police officers at a peaceful demonstration — they make the same points, which, unsurprisingly, often appear detached from the realities on the ground. After the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., they marshaled five common pro-gun arguments, all of which crumble under scrutiny:

A good guy with a gun would have stopped it

In discussing Orlando, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, mused, “If you had guns on the other side, you wouldn’t have had the tragedy that you had.” It was a clear homage to the NRA’s mantra that the “only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

The Times Editorial Board
It made for pretty good drama. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) took the floor Wednesday to lead a filibuster on guns. It ended 15 hours later when the Republican leadership agreed to allow votes on two gun control amendments — one that could ban people who have been investigated for (but not necessarily...

It made for pretty good drama. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) took the floor Wednesday to lead a filibuster on guns. It ended 15 hours later when the Republican leadership agreed to allow votes on two gun control amendments — one that could ban people who have been investigated for (but not necessarily...