In the wake of high-profile shootings, proposals such as banning assault weapons gain momentum. But there are solutions few national politicians are looking at that take a very different tack — Originally published at www.theguardian.com on June 23, 2016. Another shooting. Another set of grieving families. Confronted with America’s dramatic rates of gun violence, most people agree that something must be done. It’s agreeing on that “something” which can prove elusive. …

If commonsense reforms to American gun laws are to have any chance, thoughtful gun owners need to be treated with more respect — and split from the fundamentalist leaders of the NRA — Originally published at www.theguardian.com on June 22, 2016. Staked out next to the parking lot at the National Rifle Association’s biggest get-together of the year, I asked NRA members to explain what, exactly, the liberal media was getting wrong about the gun debate.

US politicians often cite Australia as providing a model of impactful reform. Here’s why such blueprints likely won’t work to combat gun violence in the US — Originally published at www.theguardian.com on June 21, 2016. A disturbed man with an AR-15-style rifle walked through a popular historic site in 1996, shooting up the cafe and gift shop. He left 35 people dead and 19 seriously injured. The country’s conservative leader pushed through immediate, sweeping changes to gun…

After the Orlando attack, a Guardian investigation into the deadlock over gun laws begins today with the parents of Sandy Hook, who took the tough decision to fight for policies that would not have saved their own children — Originally published at www.theguardian.com on June 20, 2016. When Barack Obama met in Orlando with yet another set of anguished families who had lost loved ones in a mass shooting, there was one distressingly simple question: “Why does this keep happening?”

Which is more plausible?  — Dave Eggers’ social media satire The Circle was selected as one of the New York Times’ Notable Books of 2013. Taken by the T-Rex, a work of dinosaur erotica, was not. This is a terrible mistake. The heroine Both novels follow the lives of smart, independent women with really awesome bodies. Drin…

How a rock-opera version of War & Peace improves on the original — Of all the characters in War & Peace, little orphan Sonya is treated the worst. Her cousin Natasha becomes the soul of the Russian people. Sonya just gets dumped. (Her fiance ends up with a richer, more interesting character.) Tolstoy doesn’t see it as a tragedy that Sonya ends up…