After the Parkland, Fla., shooting much of the conversation, especially from those on the right, has centered around the shooter’s mental illness as the root cause of the problem.
But when the shooter is Muslim or a person of color, “the immediate reaction from those on the right is to try to find a solution...around immigration,” says Francis Maxwell, host of “The Breakdown” on The Young Turks.
Take for example the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016. The Muslim shooter used an AR-15, the same gun used in Parkland, but there was no serious discussion about gun control back then.
Fingers quickly pointed at loose immigration policies despite the fact that statistically, “you’re more likely to be killed in a domestic act of terror by a white American on homegrown soil,” says Maxwell.
This difference in treatment is also clearly demonstrated in conversations about the movements that rise from these tragic incidents.
Today, #NeverAgain has turned into an admirable national movement against the NRA but when #BlackLivesMatter asked for the same things, “their message wasn’t given the platform.”
“We need to look at ourselves in this country and think why...is one vilified and looked at as a movement that’s disruptive and disrespectful and the other looked at as empowering?”
The stunning removal of Kevin McCarthy as speaker has left the House adrift as Republicans struggle to bring order to their fractured majority and begin the difficult and potentially prolonged process of uniting around a new leader.
New York City is challenging a unique legal agreement that requires it to provide emergency housing to anyone who asks for it, as the city's shelter system strains under a large influx of international migrants who have arrived since last year.
Warned to mind his out-of-court comments, former President Donald Trump returned to his New York civil fraud trial Wednesday as lawyers on both sides closely questioned an accountant who prepared financial statements at the heart of the case.
The third day of former president Donald Trump's civil fraud trial kicked off earlier Wednesday in New York, a day after a judge imposed a limited gag order on Trump.
The National Zoo's three giant pandas — Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji — are set to return to China in early December with no public signs that the 50-year-old exchange agreement struck by President Richard Nixon will continue.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy plans to force a vote Tuesday on the far-right effort to oust him from his leadership position and insists he will not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power, setting the stage for an extraordinary and unpredictable showdown on the House floor.
