President Biden outlined his achievements in key policy areas and sketched out his plans for the rest of his term in office.
President Joe Biden with first lady Jill Biden, speaking before signing into law the gun safety bill on June 25, 2022.
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Two scholars of Congress and public opinion dissect the reasons gun control finally passed and was signed into law, after decades of inability to enact such legislation.
The 800-page report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terror attacks ultimately asks New Zealanders to look to themselves to prevent such an atrocity happening again.
Advocates of gun control may despair in the wake of mass shootings like the one in Parkland, Florida, but the history of government support for the gun industry shows Americans have more sway than they think.
The scope and complexity of gun reform are not always related to the impact that changes may have.
AAP/Joel Carrett
Did the government-funded gun buybacks introduced after the Port Arthur massacre have “no effect” in reducing gun deaths in Australia, as an audience member claimed on Q&A? Let’s look at the evidence.
Weapons used in the attack in San Bernardino in 2015.
Reuters/San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department/Handout
While mass shooting tragedies in Las Vegas and elsewhere make headlines, the reality is gun violence is becoming almost routine in many American neighborhoods. Where do the guns come from?
A plane flies over a vigil for the Pulse night club victims.
Carlo Allegri/Reuters
Though the perpetrators of the mass shooting in California appear to have acquired their guns legally, the vast majority used in violent crimes are obtained illegally.
A killer’s use of TEC-9 assault pistols convinced Californians to repeal immunity for gunmakers. Then Congress overruled them.
Reuters
We should not downplay the significant contribution to early mortality posed by previously law-abiding gun owners who, in the heat of the moment, decide to kill.
Other ‘advanced nations’ make it far harder for someone like the Charleston killer to get his hands on a Glock semiautomatic handgun or any other kind of firearm.
Despite declining gun fatalities, there should be no room for complacency in Australia, with an estimated 260,000 illegal guns in Australia – including this MP5K 9mm machine gun, seized in Queensland in 2013.
Dan Peled/AAP
The rate of fatal shootings has fallen in Australia, the US and other nations in recent decades. Yet anti- and pro-gun ideology still makes it hard to have a sensible discussion about gun violence.
Partisan gridlock in US politics has led to the recent failure of Barack Obama’s gun reform agenda, which did not get through Congress last week despite public support.
EPA/Spencer Platt
For all its international power, the United States government seems increasingly powerless to make laws for the benefit of its own people. The recent failure to implement popular gun control measures in…
Gun laws have been back in the media recently due, largely, to the horrific events at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012 which claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults. In response…