Gun Control’s Black Lives Matter Problem

June has been marked in recent years by a flurry of orange-clad marchers promoting National Gun Violence Awareness Month. This year’s planned gatherings, however, fell victim to the COVID-19 pandemic and were overshadowed by Black Lives Matter’s nationwide protests against institutional racism within policing. But the gun-control lobby’s reticence isn’t out of respect for the lives of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor but rather concern for its own preservation.For decades, gun-control advocates promoted greater police power as well as known practices of institutional racism within police firearms-licensing divisions. Now that there are calls to “defund the police,” many leaders of the gun-control lobby, who are mostly white, should rightly fear that their history of siding with the police and promoting policies now deemed racist by progressives may make them the next casualty of cancel culture.Gun control in the U.S. has historically been rooted in racism of the blatant “no blacks allowed” variety. Fundamentally, it is difficult to subjugate a group if it’s armed. This is why restrictions on minority gun ownership pre-date not only the institution of slavery in the U.S. but the Founding itself. The modern gun-control movement has supported a more insidious method of using police discretion and biased background checks to suppress firearms-license issuance.New York’s Sullivan Act is one of the best examples of gun-control laws that put minorities at a disadvantage, and it has been widely copied. Passed in 1911, the law addressed what was considered a growing problem of gun ownership among minorities, immigrants, labor organizers, and anyone seen as a threat.The law accomplished this by allowing majority-white police departments broad leeway to determine licensing requirements. Police departments can add their own requirements; even if applicants deemed undesirable checked all the required boxes, the law’s “good moral character” clause could be used as a catchall to deny them. Reminiscent of practices any segregationist would appreciate, the NYPD License Division, with its perpetually white leadership and the blessings of the New York City Council, has used exorbitant fees, long English-only applications, expansive ID requirements, the need for applicants to take time off from work, and numerous other unconventional tactics to restrict license issuance. The NAACP and other civil-rights groups have denounced these impediments as unfairly putting blacks and other minorities at a disadvantage.Organizations that support such discretionary licensing requirements, such as Brady United Against Gun Violence, seem to believe that the same police who allegedly beat, shoot, and asphyxiate people of color in the street would turn around and equitably issue them firearms permits. This makes no sense.And what about background checks, the holy grail of the gun-control agenda? The public seems to have little idea of what goes into them. For example, the NYPD License Division’s background check includes marijuana offenses — and not just convictions, but mere arrests. The ACLU’s research shows that African Americans are 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession (in New York the figure is in the double digits). You would think that inclusion of such arrests on background checks would raise social-justice concerns. There is a broad movement dedicated to reforming a racist justice system, yet the gun-control lobby doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. Moreover, and perhaps most egregiously, peaceful protesters who came out to support the Black Lives Matter movement and were arrested for minor infractions stand to lose their gun licenses or their right to ever have one. Still, the gun-control lobby remains silent.Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, groups like Everytown for Gun Safety were founded by Mr. Stop-and-Frisk himself, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Like Bloomberg, most funders behind gun-control initiatives are wealthy whites who can afford to hire private security. But even if gun-control groups believe that minority groups shouldn’t be armed, why take the additional step of providing special privileges to the police?We’ve all balked at the armored military vehicles that start in Fallujah, get bought up by police departments, and end up in Farmingdale. So why does every gun-control bill since the 1934 Firearms Act contain clauses that exempt police officers from “common sense restrictions”? The 2004 Law Enforcement Safety Act, for example, promoted by gun control enthusiasts such as Senator Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.), ​allows active or retired officers the right to carry weapons nationwide. Assault-weapon-weary New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey certainly think it’s okay for their police officers to possess military arms and jam as many rounds into them as desired. And if keeping guns in the home is so dangerous, why are police officers encouraged to do so? Don't blue lives matter too?If we are trying to instill in our police that they are of and for the people, why do gun-control advocates grant them a status akin to super-citizen? One of the simplest ways to reduce the number of police shootings is to hold police officers to the same standard of self-defense the rest of us are held to. Surely the gun-control lobby’s mantra that “only the police should have guns” no longer holds.Perhaps the most striking contradiction inherent in the gun-control lobby is that its promotion of licensing discrimination and special police privileges comes on the backs of those seeking to reduce gun violence. Rank-and-file members of the gun control movement are good people, many of whose lives have been tragically touched by gun crime. It’s only right that they seek to stem further violence and advocate laws to help prevent the mass shootings and killings we witness in this country. But these folks know little about the discriminatory nature of the policies that the gun-control lobby’s leadership supports.Some groups have seen the light: that the gun-control lobby is violating the tenets of progressivism even as it’s nestled amongst the progressive Left. In 2017, New York’s Gays Against Guns was one of the first to acknowledge that gun control is a tool “of American white supremacy.” But this is far from the norm. So far, the gun-control lobby has refused to comment on policy changes in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, nor have leaders apologized for their role in perpetuating institutional racism.If the Black Lives Matter movement is going to rid America of every vestige of racism, it must hold America’s gun-control lobby to the same standard and demand the resignation of its leadership. As the movement’s slogan goes: Their silence is violence.

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Photo shows Arizona's governor without a mask at party with no social distancing days before telling constituents to 'arm yourself with a mask'

Cases have skyrocketed in Arizona recently, with record high hospitalizations and deaths climbing over 2,000 as the state rolls back its reopening.

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Trump touts ‘silent majority’ as he insists polls showing him losing to Joe Biden are ‘fake’

Despite poll numbers that show him trailing Democrat Joe Biden by wide margins, President Trump said at the White House on Tuesday that he’s doing better than anyone realizes in his quest for reelection. Trump criticized polls that currently show him an average of nearly ten points behind Biden nationally and insisted there is a “silent majority” that backs him. “You look at the Intracoastal in Florida, you look at the lakes, you see thousands of boats with Trump signs — American signs,” the president said at the tail-end of a lengthy and discursive press conference that the White House said would be about the U.S. relationship with China.

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The White House Called a News Conference. Trump Turned It Into a Meandering Monologue.

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New York Times Will Move Part of Hong Kong Office to Seoul

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Corrections: July 15, 2020

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Trump: ‘More White People’ Are Killed by Cops and How Dare Anyone Suggest Blacks Have it Bad

Following weeks of nationwide protests over a spate of police killings of Black people, President Donald Trump has claimed that “more white people” actually die at the hands of law enforcement.The president made the comment after appearing to briefly lose it when asked about the hot button topic in a CBS News interview.“Why are African-Americans still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country?” host Catherine Herridge asked, prompting the president to immediately recoil.“So are white people. So are white people! What a terrible question to ask,” he huffed. “So are white people.”Studies have shown that Black men are about 3.5 times more likely than white men to die in police custody. White men were killed by the police in the highest numbers between 2013 and 2017, but white people account for a greater percentage of the U.S. population than Black people, according to a Harvard study.Trump has made white grievance politics and the culture war a centerpiece of his re-election push in recent weeks, defending Confederate memorials and military bases named after Confederate generals even as he derides those who took part in anti-racism protests as “bad, evil people” seeking to destroy the country.  Beyond that, he's targeted the only full-time Black NASCAR driver, Bubba Wallace, falsely accusing him of perpetrating a hate-crime “hoax” after a suspected noose was discovered in his garage at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway last month. Trump took to Twitter to demand that Wallace should “apologize” after the FBI concluded the noose was not a hate crime, but Wallace was not the one who reported it to begin with.Amidst what has become a nationwide reckoning over racism in the country, Trump has veered off in the other direction and refused to acknowledge that racism is a problem. In fact, perhaps the most telling response he has offered to the racism issue at the heart of the protests was a recent retweet of a video showing a Trump supporter arguing with protesters and yelling “white power.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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US Postmaster General tells postal workers to leave mail behind if it slows down their route

The US Postal Service is in a financial crisis, and is now instructing workers to avoid logging overtime — even if it means leaving mail behind.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg: US Supreme Court oldest justice treated for possible infection

The 87-year-old undergoes a procedure to clean out a bile duct stent in Baltimore's hospital.

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Protests after Pennsylvania police officer filmed kneeling on man’s head and neck

A video of a black man being restrained by police kneeling on his head and neck in Pennsylvania has provoked outrage, with many comparing it to footage of the killing of George Floyd.The incident took place outside a hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Saturday and was filmed by a passer-by. One video, less than 30 seconds long, shows three white officers holding the man on the ground.

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Sen. Ted Cruz Photographed Maskless on American Airlines Flight, Despite Airline Policy

American Airlines customers are required to wear face coverings while on board flights

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Nelson Mandela's daughter Zindzi Mandela dies at 59

Zindzi Mandela, daughter of Nelson Mandela, has died, a spokesperson for the African National Congress said on Monday. She was 59.

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Polish conservative Duda re-elected president, deeper EU rifts likely

Polish President Andrzej Duda has won five more years in power on a socially conservative, religious platform in a closely fought election that makes renewed confrontation with the European Union's executive likely. Final results from Sunday's presidential election runoff showed Duda, 48, won with 51.03% of the vote, the National Election Commission said. Liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski got 48.97%.

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Blame game? Cuomo takes heat over NY nursing home study

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing blistering criticism over an internal report that found a controversial state directive that sent thousands of recovering coronavirus patients into nursing homes was “not a significant factor” in some of the nation’s deadliest nursing home outbreaks. Scientists, health care professionals and elected officials assailed the report released last week for flawed methodology and selective stats that sidestepped the actual impact of the March 25 order, which by the state’s own count ushered more than 6,300 recovering virus patients into nursing homes at the height of the pandemic.

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Editorial: Buying Biden's America: The Democratic nominee offers an economic message where Trump fell down on the job(s)

Bye-bye, "America First"! Hello, "Buy American"? Seeking to evict Donald Trump from the White House at a time of sudden mass unemployment, former Vice President Joe Biden last week offered a vision that echoes some of Trump's own economic populism - while addressing the incompetence exposed during the pandemic. Biden promises to spend $400 billion on materials and services made in the U.S., ...

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U.S. Considers TikTok Ban as Chinese Threat to Global Internet Freedom Grows

The partnership between Chinese tech companies and the Chinese Communist Party is threatening global Internet freedom. But the U.S. has the chance to push back and safeguard online free speech and privacy worldwide.Last Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham that the U.S. is “certainly looking at” banning TikTok, a video-sharing social-media platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, over its ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).Pompeo cited the threat of “Chinese surveillance” to national security, as TikTok user data is surely being passed on to the CCP. A day later, in an interview with Greta Van Susteren, President Trump took a different tack, listing a ban on TikTok as “one of many” potential ways to punish the Chinese government for its hand in the coronavirus pandemic.TikTok is no stranger to U.S. scrutiny. Government agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security have banned the app for security reasons. And last year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department investigated the company after it was alleged to have used data from users under 13 years of age in violation of American privacy laws. It was recently reported that the app may have failed to address regulators’ concerns on that front.It might seem strange that an app known for making harmless, entertaining videos go viral would be the center of so much controversy. But the problem isn’t the content TikTok allows users to share with the world; it’s the company’s meticulous collection of user data and its close, troubling relationship with the CCP.Parent company ByteDance is allegedly working with the CCP in its surveillance efforts. Just as unsettling, the app has been accused of aiding Chinese propaganda efforts through the use of “shadow bans,” fiddling with the app’s algorithm so that users — even users outside China — don’t see content concerning Tiananmen Square or the Hong Kong protests. For instance, in 2019, TikTok user Feroza Aziz had her account suspended after posting a makeup tutorial that secretly condemned China’s mass detention and abuse of Uighur Muslims in Xianjiang Province.Such abuses are not limited to TikTok. Other Chinese tech companies have done the CCP’s bidding inside and outside China as well. According to an Australian Strategic Policy Institute report, Chinese tech giants such as Huawei, Tencent, and Alibaba are using artificial intelligence to collect users’ data and aid and abet China in fulfilling its global ambitions.And what are those ambitions? One is obviously the legitimizing of the CCP’s dictatorship abroad. But China may also be seeking to normalize authoritarianism more generally. For instance, TikTok has reportedly censored criticisms of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s authoritarian president.It’s like a virtual Belt and Road Initiative, in which viral dance videos replace seemingly good-faith investments as the vehicle for the spread of CCP influence.In the face of China’s threats to the freedom of the world’s Internet, the Trump administration should be applauded for considering a ban on TikTok. As Chinese censorship, surveillance, and propaganda spread worldwide, the U.S. has a chance to fight back and change the trajectory of the Information Age for the better. At a press conference on Wednesday, Pompeo said that “the infrastructure of this next hundred years must be a communications infrastructure that’s based on a Western ideal of private property and protection of private citizens’ information in a transparent way.” He added, however, that realizing that vision would be difficult: “It’s a big project, because we’ve got partners all around the world where infrastructure crosses Chinese technology and then comes to the United States.”It won’t be easy, but it must be done. Nothing less than global Internet freedom is at stake.

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Airline contacts US senator over maskless photo

American Airlines said Monday it had contacted Republican Senator Ted Cruz after he was seen without a mask on a flight, but he said he had only removed it to eat and drink. Health experts and scientists have called on politicians to set an example by wearing face coverings as the coronavirus rages across the United States. "While our policy does not apply while eating or drinking, we have reached out to Senator Cruz to affirm the importance of this policy," American Airlines said in a statement.

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Confederate statues stored at Richmond waste water plant

At least some of the Confederate monuments that have been recently removed from places of prominence in Richmond, Virginia, are being stored on the grounds of a waste water treatment plant, photographs show. Photos taken this week by The Associated Press and Richmond Times-Dispatch show a collection of statues and other large objects under tarps at the facility just outside the city's downtown. On July 1, Mayor Levar Stoney ordered the immediate removal of all Confederate statues on city property in Richmond, a onetime capital of the Confederacy.

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Trump's attacks on mail-in voting could lead to nightmare scenario, election expert warns

Even before the pandemic made it likely that there will be a historic number of mail-in ballots in this fall’s election, UC Irvine professor Richard Hasen worried that if it were close, President Trump might declare victory before all votes were counted. That concern is now much greater for Hasen.

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Writer and editor Bari Weiss leaves New York Times over 'bullying' and 'harassment' from colleagues

Opinion writer and editor Bari Weiss is leaving the New York Times claiming she has been bullied and harassed by colleagues over her often controversial opinion articles, and alleging that Twitter is the paper's 'ultimate editor'.Ms Weiss has been a polarising figure for the paper and she frequently generated backlash on social media for her opinions. She is leaving the paper amid a debate in the elite media over the role of journalists and the prevalence of "cancel culture" within the industry.

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