Amtrak workers’ union denounces plan to let passengers bring guns on trains: ‘Sheer lunacy’

“You can’t walk on to a plane with a gun, it has to be checked with your luggage and stowed away,” said John Feltz, International Rail Division director of the Transport Workers Union (TWU), in a statement. “So why allow guns in passenger cars on trains where there are also passengers in confined spaces? This is sheer lunacy.” 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/nov/05/amtrak-workers-union-passengers-guns

 

'Ricochet' explores how the right to bear arms expands — while gun laws contract (Terry Gross; Fresh Air podcast)

The New York Times reporter Mike McIntire says gun companies and the NRA are broadening the scope of the Second Amendment, socializing kids to appreciate guns and marketing a new brand of masculinity.

Interview: 

https://www.npr.org/2026/07/28/nx-s1-5910517/ricochet-explores-how-the-right-to-bear-arms-expands-while-gun-laws-contract

Republicans Turn on The Second Amendment

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7xEwUCS42mI

 

Ex-DoJ lawyer fired by Todd Blanche urges senators to reject nomination

Liz Oyer tells of how she refused to ‘rubber-stamp a political favor’ in gun rights case involving Trump ally Mel Gibson…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/liz-oyer-doj-todd-blanche-testimony

 

A pattern of shootings by federal agents in Memphis nods to a worrying trend : NPR

The night that her son was having a mental breakdown, Jessica Neal called 911, hoping to save his life. 

Jonah Neal, 25, had a handgun and was threatening suicide. Instead of local police, federal agents arrived at her doorstep. Within minutes of entering her home, a special agent had shot her son, Neal said. It would be hours before she found out her son was dead, she added...

 https://www.npr.org/2026/07/13/nx-s1-5888618/memphis-safe-task-force-shooting-jonah-neal

A church's SHOCKING Vacation Bible School skit!

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/v7tSah8_nwY

Supreme Court strikes down law limiting guns in businesses - POLITICO

The justices nixed a Hawaii law that made gun owners get permission to bring guns into certain establishments…

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/25/supreme-court-hawaii-gun-control-00975590

Supreme Court sides with a marijuana user who was barred from owning guns : NPR

The law prevents "unlawful" drug users from owning guns, but as his lawyers pointed out in filings to the Supreme Court, the statute does not define "unlawful user."

 "Is someone who uses a controlled substance once a year 'an unlawful user'? What about someone who uses that substance every six months, or every two weeks?" they argued. "Does it matter how much one consumes, or only how frequently one does so? The statute does not say."…

https://www.npr.org/2026/06/18/nx-s1-5835232/supreme-court-marijuana-guns 

Range USA Dogged by Accusations of Straw Sales of Guns — ProPublica

Federal regulators have repeatedly cited its employees for failing at basic protocols designed to help thwart illegal sales, and guns purchased at its stores keep getting recovered by police. 

Take the recent killing of Chicago police officer John Bartholomew, who was fatally shot on April 25. 

The suspect who used a 10-millimeter Glock 29 to shoot Bartholomew was not the original owner of the gun. It was first purchased in 2024, according to investigators, in an illegal transaction at a Range USA store in the northwest Indiana town of Merrillville, a short drive from Chicago…

 https://www.propublica.org/article/range-usa-guns-straw-sales-atf

 

House Republicans are prioritizing their bill this week to eliminate excise taxes on… tasers

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/d2BufT3NEaM

 

California ban on openly carrying guns is unconstitutional, court rules

Ninth circuit sides with gun owner that ban in counties with more than 200,000 people violates second amendment…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/02/california-ban-open-carry-unconstitutional 

 

Myths of Violence: How Guns Became Sacred in America (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

Brad sits down with Dr. Rachel Wagner, Professor of Religious Studies at Ithaca College and author of Cowboy Apocalypse, for a sobering and necessary conversation about why guns hold such powerful meaning in American life. Prompted by recent mass shootings, the episode explores how firearms have become more than tools or political symbols and instead function as sacred objects tied to religion, masculinity, and apocalyptic imagination. Dr. Wagner introduces the idea of the “cowboy apocalypse,” a myth rooted in frontier nostalgia, the fantasy of the lone hero, and the belief that violence can restore order in a chaotic world. Together, Brad and Rachel unpack how this story continues to shape American responses to fear, danger, and social change.

The discussion traces how Christian theology, end times thinking, and cultural certainty have fused with gun culture, turning weapons into symbols of protection, identity, and belonging for some, while representing terror and exclusion for others. Brad and Rachel examine the evolution of the NRA from a gun safety organization into a political and quasi religious force, the role of masculinity and whiteness in defining who is seen as a “good guy with a gun,” and how moments like January 6 reflect a kind of live action role play driven by these myths. The episode closes with a powerful reflection on democracy itself, emphasizing that dialogue, complexity, and empathy are incompatible with the certainty promised by violence. It is a challenging conversation that invites listeners to confront the stories Americans tell about guns and what those stories cost us.
Interview: 

https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-555aw-298d22fb

Immigration agents STORM New York family's home at gunpoint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHDhTUvHQdg

 

In Guns We Trust: The Unholy Trinity of White Evangelicals, Politics, and Firearms (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

Journalist William J. Kole tells us about his book, “In Guns We Trust: The Unholy Trinity of White Evangelicals, Politics, and Firearms.” Then, we speak with historian and poet Jennifer Michael Hecht, author of “The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives.”

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/freethought-radio/freethought-today-october-16-2025/

Inventing Saint Charlie (Conspirirtuality podcast #276)

Charlie Kirk became the latest victim of gun violence in America on September 10. And he wasn't the only person shot on a school campus that day, nor was he the only political figure killed this year.

Unlike Melissa Hortman and her husband, the motivation for Kirk’s murder remains unclear. That hasn’t stopped right-wing pundits and politicians from framing it as typical extremist left-wing violence.

In between calls for civil war and censorship, the ramping up of police-state authoritarianism, and painting of the slain Christian Nationalist activist as a noble martyr, anti-racist icon Ta-Nehisi Coates called out the strange reflex from some left-of-center figures (like Ezra Klein) to participate in whitewashing Kirk's hateful politics. Today we discuss what happened and what it might mean.
Interview: 

https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/276-inventing-saint-charlie-kirk

The Second Amendment is Killing America (Andrew Seidel; One Nation, Indivisible podcast Episode #030)

In the wake of the murder of Charlie Kirk, Andrew explores the meaning of political violence and the toll the Second Amendment is taking. Trigger warning. Guns. Gun Violence. Suicide. 

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please reach out immediately to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255.

• One of Carl Bogus’s many writings on the Second Amendment 
• Sam Perry’s article in Time 
• Understanding Christian Nationalism Reading List 
• Elie Mystal’s brilliant book

Interview: 

https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-23zbf-27849577

It’s Never the Guns (Conspirituality podcast #275)

Less than two weeks after a shooter unloaded 500 rounds at the CDC in Atlanta, RFK Jr gutted that agency's violence prevention research by firing 100 employees. Less than a month later, Charlie Kirk was shot in front of a crowd of 3K at a Utah university. Millions saw the graphic clip online, which ignited a propaganda and disinformation culture war. Meanwhile, yet another child shot his classmates at a Denver high school that same day.

It's not the guns though, say the GOP pundits and politicians, it's the violent rhetoric from the left, and those hateful transgender antifascists. Just ask RFK Jr. He'll confirm that it's not the guns, but all those kids overmedicated on dangerous antidepressants.

What are SSRIs anyway, do hurt people hurt people, and do gun laws have any effect?
Interview: 

https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/275-its-never-the-guns

Political Violence Before and After Charlie Kirk’s Murder (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

Brad discusses the political and cultural climate surrounding the murder of Charlie Kirk, focusing on the rise of political violence, the Supreme Court’s recent decision enabling racial profiling, and the rhetoric of white Christian nationalism.

Joined by Alan Elrod, they explore how online culture and screens have changed the way Americans process violence and empathy, the impact of status anxiety in the heartland, and the dangers of exclusionary ideologies. The conversation highlights the erosion of empathy and civic connection in the digital age, the manipulation of tragic events for political gain, and the urgent need to foster both meaningful social interactions and reflective solitude to sustain a healthy democracy.
Interview: 

https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/political-violence-before-and-after-charlie-kirks-murder/

Telling stories of gun violence deaths almost cost this reporter his life (Tonya Mosley; Fresh Air podcast)

When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee was 38, he suffered a sudden heart attack that nearly killed him. The incident made him reconsider the years he had spent reporting on the lives cut short by gun violence — and the stress it had put on his body.

"For the first time really, I had to look deep and engage with what was truly bearing down on my heart," he says. "And for me that had been more than a decade of telling stories of Black death and survival."

As a reporter in Trenton, Philadelphia and New Orleans, Lee covered the deaths of young men who looked like him. The victims were "wearing my same sneakers, same haircut," he says. "And you have to wrestle with seeing yourself in some ways, repeatedly gunned down, your body repeatedly falling. Tears for your death over and over and again."

Lee's new memoir, A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America, is part history, and part personal turning point. He traces the bloody history Black Americans have with firearms, recalls gun violence in his own youth and follows his ancestors' path back to Ghana.

The book reads like a plea for people to see the humanity of those lost to gun violence — and for this country to care enough to act.

"We have an opportunity and we still have this opportunity to be the great nation that we've professed," Lee says. "I'm not a policy maker. I don't profess to be an expert in gun policy. But what I do believe is that until we break our lust for these guns, nothing will change."
Interview: 

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/15/nx-s1-5539315/trymaine-lee-a-thousand-ways-to-die

‘Do you care about our kids?’ parents demand gun ban after deadly shooting

Yet the state legislature remains divided, with Republicans focused on improving school safety and mental health resources, while many Democrats push for stricter gun regulations...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/08/minnesota-school-shooting-gun-safety