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Just days after the school shooting in Nashville that left three students and three adults dead, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D–N.Y.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) got into a fiery exchange captured on video by Emily Brooks, a reporter for The Hill.

"There has never been a school shooting in a school that allows teachers to carry," said Massie. "More guns lead to more deaths," countered Bowman, "more guns lead to more deaths!"

It's understandable that tempers flare and voices rise in the aftermath of such horrific events. When faced with such situations, the urge to do something—to do anything—is nearly impossible to resist.

But is Rep. Bowman right that "more guns lead to more deaths?"

The short answer is no. That's great news, especially since reducing the number of guns in circulation presents not just immense pragmatic challenges but almost certainly insuperable constitutional barriers.

Over the past few decades, the number of guns in America has increased massively, so much so that there are now more guns than people in the United States. Yet federal crime statistics show that firearm homicides dropped about 40 percent between 1993 and 2018, from 7 per 100,000 people to 4.3 per 100,000 people (for nonfatal crimes involving guns, the decline was 71 percent). Violent crime, including homicides, did spike during the pandemic, and while the most recent data is incomplete, it's clear that gun-related violence remains far below where it was 30 years ago despite more guns than ever being out there.

When it comes to schools, the 2020–21 academic year, the latest for which full data is available, did see the highest number of school shootings with casualties this century. There are thankfully too few violent deaths to generate statistically significant conclusions, but the long-term trends show no increase in homicides or suicides among students, staff, and teachers.

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Overall, schools are becoming safer and safer, with the government finding that between 2009 and 2020, "the rate of nonfatal criminal victimization (including theft and violent victimization) decreased for students ages 12–18, from 51 to 11 victimizations per 1,000 students." (See Figure 2.)

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What about Rep. Massie's contention that there has never been a school shooting in a school that allows teachers to carry? He appears to be correct, though contrary to his claim that there's never been an accidental weapons discharge by a teacher, a January 2023 RAND Corporation study found that educators and school resource officers have been involved in accidental discharges of weapons. On the larger question of arming teachers, RAND found that there is simply no good data on whether doing so would increase gun violence or reduce it across eight categories, including mass shootings and suicides.

What, then, can be done?

Most schools are already gun-free zones or have strict controls on who is allowed to carry while on campus; many have armed officers on campus despite no evidence that such a presence deters violence.

Recent school shootings—like the one last year in Uvalde, Texas, where law enforcement officials not only did nothing to prevent an active shooter but restrained parents trying to rescue their children—underscore that police need better and more effective training. The 2018 school shooting in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida drove home how many red flags school staff, law enforcement, and social workers had ignored.

To simply say that the people in charge of school safety need to do better is deeply unsatisfying, but it might be the best option, especially if the rush to "do something" means trying something that we already know is impossible, ineffective, or both.

Photos: Camden Hall/Newscom; Mickey Bernal/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Mickey Bernal/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; ERIC PAUL ZAMORA/MCT/Newscom; Sun Sentinel/TNS/Sipa USA/Newscom; Giorgio Viera/EFE/Newscom; KatRam / MEGA / Newscom/KRMET/Newscom

Music: "Lullaby No 3 in E Minor" by Ran Raiten via Artlist; "Autumn Pizzicato" by Veaceslav Draganov via Artlist; "Premiere" by ANBR via Artlist 

• Video Editor and Graphics: Justin Zuckerman
• Audio Production: Ian Keyser

The post Do 'More Guns Lead To More Deaths'? appeared first on Reason.com.

Why is the government trying to ban TikTok? The popular social media app, which is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, has come under fire from both Republicans and Democrats who are determined to get rid of it. They're worried the Chinese government has too much influence on the platform.

Never mind that more than 150 million Americans use TikTok to express themselves creatively, consume news they wouldn't find elsewhere, and keep themselves entertained—nanny state politicians like Sen. Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) and President Joe Biden think they should have the power to control what kinds of foreign content you're allowed to see.

Not everyone in Washington thinks banning TikTok is a good idea. Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) recently denounced the idea of giving the Biden administration more power to control social media.

Paul is right. Here are three reasons why letting the federal government prohibit TikTok is an idiotic idea.

First off, the dangers of TikTok have been overstated. Yes, it's true you can find really vile content on the platform—it's not all dance videos, recipes, and makeup tutorials. But that's not unique to TikTok; there's bad stuff in all corners of the internet. Just because a website or an app is bad sometimes for some people doesn't mean we should violate the First Amendment rights of millions of others. Censorship is censorship, even if it's well-intended. We should leave it to individuals, families, and schools to set restrictions on social media usage—not the federal government.

It's true that TikTok is unique in that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can pressure the company in ways that are bad. It's very likely that TikTok mutes certain controversial subjects, and takes down the accounts of dissidents in order to protect the CCP.

But the sad truth is that the U.S. government has applied similar pressure to American social media companies like Facebook and Twitter. Journalists have discovered that federal agencies like the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security regularly asked Twitter to delete content the government didn't approve of. My own reporting for Reason has revealed that the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention applied constant pressure on Facebook during the pandemic to restrict speech. If members of Congress are really so worried about government propagandists controlling the discourse on social media, they should start by putting their own house in order.

Lastly, any new law that gives the feds the power to ban TikTok could easily be weaponized against other companies. The RESTRICT Act, which is co-sponsored by Sens. John Thune (R–S.D.) and Mark Warner (D–Va.), empowers the Commerce Department to take action against foreign threats on social media. But lawmakers, national intelligence experts, and mainstream media pundits are constantly accusing Facebook of allowing too much foreign misinformation on the platform. This is the PATRIOT Act 2.0: If we give the government more tools to police TikTok, it's going to use them against all of us.

So let's leave TikTok alone. Not just because of the dance videos—but also because of the First Amendment.

Edited by John Osterhoudt; camera by Isaac Reese

Photo: Imagine China/Newscom; Petr Svancara/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Ron Sachs/CNP/ SplashNews/Newscom; Chris Kleponis - CNP/picture alliance / Consolidated News Photos/Newscom; Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom; Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA/Newscom

• Video Editing and Audio Production: John Osterhoudt

The post Rand Paul Is Right: Banning TikTok Would Be Idiotic appeared first on Reason.com.

Vernon Smith received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering work in experimental economics. I caught up with the 96-year-old recently in Southern California and conducted a long interview about his life and work that will appear as a Reason podcast.

Here's part of our conversation about President Joe Biden's massive $6.8 trillion budget plan, the role of government spending and Federal Reserve policy in causing inflation, the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank, and why Smith believes "it's very hard to keep Democrats [from] wanting to make the world better by spending other people's money."

Produced by Nick Gillespie and Justin Zuckerman; sound editing by Ian Keyser.

Credits: Evan Cantwell/UPI Photo Service/Newscom; PPS Vienna/ZUMA Press/Newscom; CNP/AdMedia/Newscom; Gripas Yuri/ABACA/Newscom; Rod Lamkey - CNP / MEGA / Newscom/RSSIL/Newscom; Ingram Publishing/Newscom; Rod Lamkey - CNP/Sipa USA/Newscom; Bastiaan Slabbers/Sipa USA/Newscom

The post Nobel Prize–Winning Economist: Democrats Are Committed 'To Spending Other People's Money' appeared first on Reason.com.

It's a surprise bonus Thursday episode of The Reason Roundtable! Peter Suderman is in the driver's seat this time, alongside editors Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and special guest Robby Soave, who taped this episode live during the recent Reason Weekend in Pasadena, California. Enjoy!

1:13 - President Joe Biden and persistent inflation

14:20 - The CHIPS Act, and never-ending government subsidies

27:08 - Irrational re-editing of children's literature

38:48 - Cultural recommendations

Mentioned in this podcast:

"Biden's 'Economic Plan' Is Industrial Policy That Will Be Terrible for Workers and Consumers" by Peter Suderman

"Inflation Isn't Going Away" by Eric Boehm

"Is Inflation Sneakily Starting To Rise Again?" by Eric Boehm

"America Needs a Better Kind of Capitalism" by Veronique De Rugy

"Politicians Use Subsidies To Squeeze Semiconductor Manufacturers" by J.D. Tucille

"Now the CHIPS Act Is Going To Subsidize Child Care Too" by Eric Boehm

"Kat Rosenfield: Why It's Important for Novelists To Speak Freely" by Nick Gillespie

"Save Roald Dahl Books From the Dreaded Sensitivity Readers" by Robby Soave

Send your questions to [email protected]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Audio production by Ian Keyser

Assistant production by Hunt Beaty

Video edit by Adam Czarnecki

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

The post A Thursday Bonus Reason Roundtable! Live From Reason Weekend in California appeared first on Reason.com.

Most people have no idea that pinball was illegal in New York from the early 1940s until 1976, when a journalist named Roger Sharpe finally won his crusade against the city to free the flippers.

The story of that insane ban is the subject of the new movie Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game, which Richard Brody of The New Yorker called "better than all ten of the Best Picture nominees."

The film is written and directed by Austin Bragg and Meredith Bragg, longtime producers at Reason best known for collaborating with Remy on his massively popular song parodies, and for making "libertarian" versions of Star Trek, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and other pop culture franchises. A production of MPI Original Films, Pinball is available for streaming on Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon Prime Video, and other platforms.

Nick Gillespie talked with the Bragg brothers about how they came to tell Roger Sharpe's story, what goes into making the perfect satire in an era when reality is far stranger than anything we can imagine, and the libertarian message of Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game.

Produced by Nick Gillespie and Justin Zuckerman; Sound editing by Ian Keyser

Credits: Steve Bealing/Landmark Media / Landmark Media/Newscom; akg-images / Paul Almasy/Newscom; Everett Collection/Newscom

The post He Ended New York City's Insane Ban on Pinball appeared first on Reason.com.

"I'm right in the battlefield of why Texas is Texas," says Vince Cantu, who runs Moses Rose's Hideout, a San Antonio, Texas, bar that's on the site of the Alamo and the famous 1836 battle that was memorialized on the big screen by the likes of John Wayne and Billy Bob Thornton.

Cantu opened Moses Rose's—named ironically after the Texas legend who fled the Alamo instead of standing his ground and fighting—in 2010 after it had sat vacant for many years. He comes from four generations of San Antonio tavern owners.

"I feel like I am on the shoulders of giants," says Cantu. "I like what I do, and I like where I do it. "

The Alamo Trust, a nonprofit that manages the site, wants to expand the Alamo museum, which would include building a theater and civil rights exhibit where Moses Rose's Hideout currently stands. Cantu says that in 2016, the group made its first offer of a million dollars, signed by then-Land Commissioner George P. Bush, which would've barely covered his outstanding loans. Four years later, they upped it to $2 million.

At the outset, the $400 million museum expansion project was supposed to be paid for by private donors. When funding fell through, the state of Texas stepped in to cover the cost. The Alamo project leads made two more offers, which Cantu rejected. He said he'd sell for $15 million. So state officials, who declined to participate in this story, countered by threatening to take his property using eminent domain. Cantu would receive a so-called "fair market price" based on an independent appraiser's estimate of the property's current value.

The appraiser valued it at $2.1 million today and at an estimated $2.8 million in 10 years. In December, the Alamo Trust offered $3.5 million, which Cantu quickly declined.

"They've wanted to negotiate with me over my property, but they wanted a loaded gun to do it," says Cantu, who says the offer is a lowball when he's seen his property values increase by about 18 percent year-over-year and only expects the business to become more valuable as downtown San Antonio grows. "They've wanted the threat of eminent domain hanging over my head [to force] me to take their number."

A pissed-off Cantu started tacking on an extra million-dollar fee to his offer each year that the government threatened him with eminent domain.

Then, earlier this year, George P. Bush (the son of Jeb and the nephew of George W.) called Cantu's refusal to sell at the state's price "dishonorable."

"I told my wife that if I saw [Bush], I would challenge him to a duel in front of the Alamo," says Cantu, laughing. "We'd use squirt guns, not real guns…just to avenge my honor."

Bush didn't respond to Reason's request for comment.

Cantu says he's willing to sell but that he just wants a good enough offer to justify walking away from a successful business that he struggled to build in what he says was once a dilapidated part of town.

"It was a bunch of homeless people [in this neighborhood]," says Cantu, who says the early days of live music at Moses Rose's Hideout consisted mostly of "homeless guys with guitars."  As downtown developed over the following decade, Cantu's attracted wealthier clientele, including tourists visiting the Alamo. "It just kind of started clicking downtown, started opening up a little bit."

The San Antonio City Council voted in late January to authorize the use of eminent domain, which would allow the city to condemn and acquire the property to hand to the Alamo Trust—if Cantu doesn't take their state-backed offer.

After his interview with Reason, Cantu met with the Alamo Trust's attorneys. He says they offered him $2.4 million, more than a million dollars less than what they had offered him before the city authorized the eminent domain process.

"​​It was just a bad faith bullshit negotiation that they had to have before they could start [the] eminent domain [process]," says Cantu.

But he has vowed to keep fighting.

"A Texan is [for] small government and fiercely independent," says Cantu. "It's totally un-Texan. It's stupidly ironic."

Produced by Liz Wolfe and Zach Weissmueller; edited by Danielle Thompson; camera by Andrew Miller. 

Photos: Bob Daemmrich/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; JAMES GREGG/TNS/Newscom

Music: "Do It Again" by Jay Putty via Artlist; "Restless" by Sunriver via Artlist; "For the City" by Sean Magwire via Artlist; "Restless Rebels" by Evert Z via Artlist; "Outlaws of the Old West" by Evert Z via Artlist   

Update: The Alamo Trust emailed after publication to say that following the failed mediation session, it upped its offer to $4 million plus relocation expenses. Cantu has rejected that latest offer.

The post A Tavern Keeper's Last Stand at the Alamo appeared first on Reason.com.

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