After the Massacre

After the Massacre

Dissent contributors reflect on the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. Read posts by Saul Cornell, Bryce Covert, and Elliott J. Gorn.

Dissent contributors reflect on the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut:

…[T]he libertarian impulses that gun rights advocates invoke don’t seem to apply to the First Amendment or academic discussion of this issue: the NRA uses its money to squelch any research that contradicts their interest in unrestricted gun ownership. While we debate the future of gun policy, the time has surely arrived to stand up for freedom of information.

-“Time for the Second Amendment to Meet the First,” Saul Cornell

If the hero figure demonstrates to men that the only way they can prove their worth is through a gunfight or a fistfight, good riddance. Rather than pining for an imagined time when men were all white knights, perhaps it would be better to expand that definition of heroism.

-“The ‘End of Men’ in Sandy Hook,” Bryce Covert

How many parents would have the courage to do what Mamie Till Mobley did, to say, “Let the world see what they did to my child”? But Ms. Mobley helped change the world, and her courage made it possible that young Emmett did not die in vain.

-“From Money, Mississippi to Newtown, Connecticut,” Elliot J. Gorn