Gun control won’t help reduce violence, according to CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp.
“Where we have the highest rates of gun control we also have the highest rates of crime,” said Schlapp, who also chairs the American Conservative Union, one of the largest and oldest conservative lobbying groups in the country.
“If we’re going to jump to gun control as a solution to this problem of violence, we’re being deceitful to people,” he adds. “It’s really not going to solve the problem.”
His statements, though, do contrast with other research. The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, for example, found that states with stricter gun laws, such as California, Connecticut, and New York, generally have lower rates of gun-related deaths.
The most recent mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., hung over this year’s CPAC conference, which kicked off in Maryland on Wednesday.
The attack has ignited a national movement -- helmed by the teenage survivors -- pushing for reform.
Perhaps their efforts were responsible for a concession from Schlapp.
“I would also admit that we’re at a time where I think we ought to do a lot more listening and learning and hearing people out,” adds Schlapp.
Israel rolled tanks into northern Gaza for what the military called a targeted raid aiming to destroy Hamas infrastructure. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council failed to pass two separate resolutions proposed by the U.S. and Russia on humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza.
Republican Mike Johnson is the new speaker of the House, but the ally of Donald Trump inherits many of the same political problems that have tormented past GOP leaders.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke out against retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. He also says he's redoubling his commitment to working on a two-state solution.
The U.N. warned on Wednesday that it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the territory blockaded and devastated by Israeli airstrikes since Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel more than two weeks ago.
The judge in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial fined the former president $10,000 on Wednesday, saying Trump violated a limited gag order barring personal attacks on court staffers.
Republicans eagerly elected Rep. Mike Johnson as House speaker on Wednesday, elevating a deeply conservative but lesser-known leader to the seat of U.S. power and ending for now the political chaos in their majority.
With mail theft and postal carrier robberies up, law enforcement officials have made more than 600 arrests since May in a crackdown launched to address crime that includes carriers being accosted at gunpoint for their antiquated universal keys, the Postal Service announced Wednesday.
