Rethinking Gun Control
Surprising findings from a comprehensive report on gun violence.


Background checks are back. Last week, Vice President Joe Biden said that five U.S. senators—enough to change the outcome—have told him they’re looking for a way to switch their votes and pass legislation requiring a criminal background check for the purchase of a firearm. Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who led the fight for the bill, is firing back at the National Rifle Association with a new TV ad. The White House, emboldened by polls that indicate damage to senators who voted against the bill, is pushing Congress to reconsider it.

The gun control debate is certainly worth reopening. But if we’re going to reopen it, let’s not just rethink the politics. Let’s take another look at the facts. Earlier this year, President Obama ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the existing research on gun violence and recommend future studies. That report, prepared by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, is now complete. Its findings won’t entirely please the Obama administration or the NRA, but all of us should consider them. Here’s a list of the 10 most salient or surprising takeaways.

1. The United States has an indisputable gun violence problem. According to the report, “the U.S. rate of firearm-related homicide is higher than that of any other industrialized country: 19.5 times higher than the rates in other high-income countries.”

2. Most indices of crime and gun violence are getting better, not worse. “Overall crime rates have declined in the past decade, and violent crimes, including homicides specifically, have declined in the past 5 years,” the report notes. “Between 2005 and 2010, the percentage of firearm-related violent victimizations remained generally stable.” Meanwhile, “firearm-related death rates for youth ages 15 to 19 declined from 1994 to 2009.” Accidents are down, too: “Unintentional firearm-related deaths have steadily declined during the past century. The number of unintentional deaths due to firearm-related incidents accounted for less than 1 percent of all unintentional fatalities in 2010.”

(CNN) -- Who is Santa -- like, really?

That's the question at the heart of a new documentary, "I Am Santa Claus," which follows the lives of five Santa impersonators beyond the Christmas season.

In the literal sense, the answer the film provides is this: Santa is everyone who can supply the requisite beard and some Christmas cheer.

The Saint Nick stand-ins the filmmakers follow are poor and rich and drunk and fat and kind and gross and sad and sweet. One smells like cookies (it's cologne). One lives in a trailer park in central Michigan. One is a former pro wrestler who used to wear a leather mask and go by the name Mankind as he fake-pummeled Spandex-wearing men on national television.

Oh yeah, and one of them is gay.

Attorney General’s Report to the Governor and the Legislature
as to the Availability of Personalized Handguns for Retail Sales Purposes,
pursuant to N.J.S. 2C:58-2.3

November 2014

In accordance with section 2 of P.L.2002, c.130 (C.2C:58-2.3), the Attorney
General has made the determination that personalized handguns are not available for
retail sales purposes within the meaning of those terms as set forth in the law. That is,
the Attorney General has not found that “at least one manufacturer has delivered at
least one production model of a personalized handgun to a registered or licensed
wholesale or retail dealer in New Jersey or any other state.” See N.J.S.2C:58-2.3b.

***

Prior to making the determination in this report, officials from this Office had met
with a representative of Armatix, a gun manufacturer that has produced a firearm, the
Armatix iP1 handgun, that incorporates in its design technology that automatically limits
the weapon’s operational use. Specifically, the Armatix iP1 system incorporates within
its design a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip inside a wristwatch that enables
the functioning of the iP1 pistol. In order to fire the pistol, the matching watch must be
situated within 10 inches of the pistol. The pistol also may be disabled with a timer or a
PIN code entered into the matching watch. The statute expressly contemplates the
possibility that a handgun that incorporates radio frequency tagging technology to
automatically limit its operational use could qualify as a personalized handgun.
However, the statute imposes the further requirement that the technology incorporated
must be such that the handgun “may only be fired by an authorized or recognized user.”
N.J.S.2C:39-1(dd).

After careful consideration of the iP1's design, we have determined that it does
not satisfy the statutory definition because, as a matter of design, the pistol may be fired
by a person who is not an authorized or recognized user. That is, as long as the pistol
is situated within 10 inches of the enabling wristwatch, it may be fired by anyone – the
authorized user or any other person who is able to pull the trigger. While the system
does incorporate a PIN code or a timer to disable the handgun, when the weapon is
enabled, there is nothing in the technology which automatically limits its operational use
so that it may only be fired by an authorized or recognized user (so long as the pistol is
within a 10-inch proximity to the wristwatch component).