Robert VerBruggen
Wisconsin native, @MedillSchool alum, @NRO deputy managing editor, @FamStudies research fellow, metalhead, gamer. Dad of two. Tweets my own.
Thought Leader
| #313 | The New Center |
Last synced from Twitter 15m ago
Officer in ‘I Can’t Breathe’ Chokehold Was ‘Untruthful,’ Judge Says
The account Officer Daniel Pantaleo gave after Eric Garner died was “implausible and self-serving,” according to the opinion obtained by The New York Times.
Robert VerBruggen
NYT gets the ruling on whether the hold used on Garner was a prohibited chokehold
7h
Man who attacked real estate agent in Commerce City threatened her with knife, bear mace, police say
A real estate agent who was attacked by a man posing as a potential home buyer fired a shot at him after he threatened her with a knife and sprayed her with bear mace, according to Commerce City po…
The Medicaid Expansion’s Fraud Problem
Many enrollees are apparently not eligible for the program.
Robert VerBruggen
A new study suggests a lot of people enrolled in the Medicaid expansion are not eligible for it. Quick thoughts from me
3d
Do Oren Cass’s Justifications for Industrial Policy Stack Up?
Oren Cass asserts that markets cannot generally allocate resources efficiently by industry. Yet he provides no meaningful metrics to show this is the case, nor shows why his policies would deliver better outcomes.
Probing Birth-Order Effects on Narrow Traits Using Specification-Curve AnalysisPsychological Science - Julia M. Rohrer, Boris Egloff, Stefan C. Schmukle, 2017
The idea that birth-order position has a lasting impact on personality has been discussed for the past 100 years. Recent large-scale studies have indicated that...
You have a better chance of achieving "the American dream" in Canada than in America
Raj Chetty, called "the most influential economist alive," and Ezra Klein discuss the state of social mobility in the United States today.
The death of Michael Brown, legal facts and messaging
Two Democratic presidential candidates recently observed the fifth anniversary of Michael Brown’s death by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo. — a case that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement as well as days of unrest locally. Sen....
Robert VerBruggen
Gawd, people, stop focusing on irrelevant, legalistic, purely semantic distinctions, such as that between "entirely justified self-defense shooting" and "murder."
4d
James Alan Fox: There Is No Evidence of an 'Epidemic of Mass Shootings'
The nation's leading scholar of mass shootings explains how media coverage of horrific events such as El Paso and Dayton stoke unwarranted fear and anxiety.
Robert VerBruggen
This is probably still true if you take James Alan Fox's broader definition of mass shooting - 4+ fatalities, and don't exclude gang/domestic shootings IIRC - but the rise in terrorism/rampage shootings is hard to keep denying at this point.
4d
Why We Panic about Immigration
The native-born are having fewer children, leading to a fear that new entrants into American society will replace the existing culture rather than assimilate into it.
Max Boot’s Dishonesty
Max Boot is a narcissistic, dishonest, calculating, manipulative writer who engages in the same willfully dishonorable conduct he claims to disdain in others.
How Online Gun Sales Can Exploit a Major Loophole in Background Checks
Federal law doesn’t require private gun sellers to make background checks so millions of guns are sold without them. The internet has made these sales much easier.
Robert VerBruggen
Is there any evidence that people are finding private gun sales online who would've had zero access to private sales via classifieds, shows, friends, bulletin boards, etc.?
Believe it or not there was a lot of info flying around even before the internet. nytimes.com/2019/08/13/us/… pic.twitter.com/lgHl5ErcQ4
5d
Targeted in Walmart attack, Hispanics in El Paso flock to firearms...
More El Paso residents than ever before crowded into a class over the weekend to...
Max Boot’s Tired White Supremacy Smear
Max Boot has devoted much of the past 12 hours to distorting a response I wrote to his column ‘Get a grip, white people. We’re not the victims.’
The Science of Gun Violence | DiscoverMagazine.com
Robert VerBruggen
Tfw you say the "number" of articles fell 64% but your source says the number rose, and it's also obvious you ended your period before the study did to inflate the stat (which actually pertains to gun articles/total articles, not # of gun articles). discovermagazine.com/bonus/gunviole… pic.twitter.com/0s7lgMnbhO
6d
NYPD Deputy Commissioner slams bail reform, says 99% won’t see jail cell
Almost everyone arrested in the Big Apple — aside from those facing murder or attempted murder charges — will not see a jail cell until convicted under new bail rules, according to an NYPD top cop.…
The Promise and Pitfalls of Universal Background Checks
This is one of the better gun-control proposals around, even if that’s not saying much.
1
Robert VerBruggen
Since my mentions yesterday were all people mad that I doubt assault-weapon bans have any measurable effect on anything that matters, here is a piece about why I think universal background checks are the most promising gun control proposal around. Enjoy!
6d
Robert VerBruggen
I say this as someone with some sympathy for universal checks. But the internet doesn't totally revolutionize the basic fact that you've always been able to buy from a private seller with no check.
5d
Is an Assault-Weapon Ban the Solution?
Louis Klarevas of the University of Massachusetts at Boston contends that an assault-weapon ban would result in “drastic reductions in what I call gun massacres,” meaning incidents in which s…
Robert VerBruggen
I'll also re-up this post I did on a previous study similar to the one I wrote about today.
6d
Joe Biden Is Wrong. There Is No Compelling Evidence That Assault-Weapon Bans Work.
By Robert VerBruggen / National Review. View the full context on memeorandum.