The Conversation

The NRA's journey from marksmanship to political brinkmanship

Written by Robert Spitzer, Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department, State University of New York College at Cortland

Late actor and former National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston held a rifle aloft at a 2002 get-out-the-vote rally. AP Photo/Jim Cole

The mass shooting on Valentine’s Day in Parkland, Florida, ripped at the hearts of Americans in a way perhaps not seen or felt since the Sandy Hook Elementary School bloodshed in Newtown, Connecticut...

How the firearms industry influences US gun culture, in 6 charts

Written by Michael Siegel, Professor of Community Health Sciences, Boston University

AR-15-style rifles on display in a Texas retail shop.AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane

Americans have blamed many culprits, from mental illness to inadequate security, for the tragic mass shootings that are occurring with increasing frequency in schools, offices and theaters across the U.S.

Yet in our nation’s ongoing conversation about the root causes...

How working with men and boys could stop domestic violence

Written by Richard Tolman, Professor of Social Work, University of Michigan

Rob Porter, left, an aide to President Trump, resigned after reports surfaced that he had abused his two ex-wivesAP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Can President Donald Trump’s recent repudiation of domestic violence actually help prevent it?

Rob Porter, a high-level aide to Trump, was accused of serial domestic violence by his two ex-wives. The...

Mad cows, Oprah Winfrey and communicating the science in a high-profile court case

Written by Larry Lemmons, Doctoral Student in Communications, Texas Tech University

A reporter interviews a protester outside the Amarillo courthouse.AP Photo/Eric Gay

Twenty years ago, images of staggering cattle and descriptions of brains resembling Swiss cheese became associated with one of the most popular television programs of the day when Texas Panhandle cattlemen sued “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for defamation...

Why is breast cancer mortality higher for African-American women than for white women?

Written by Padmashree Rida, Research Scientist, Georgia State University

African-American women at a breast cancer awareness walk in New Jersey.Anthony Correia/Shutterstock.com

White women in the U.S. are slightly more likely to develop breast cancer than black women – but less likely to die of it. There has been a 35 percent decrease in breast cancer mortality rate from 1990-2012. The breakdown by race over this...

This $75 million gift might make higher ed question its obsession with science and tech

Written by Peter E. Knox, Eric and Jane Nord Family Professor, Case Western Reserve University

Investor Bill Miller is betting that today's students can prosper from studying philosophers like Socrates and Plato. Anastasios71/Shutterstock.com

During his unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Marco Rubio made the dubious (and grammatically unsound) assertion that “we need more welders and less...

A former prosecutor reimagines how the criminal justice system can serve victims of domestic violence

Written by Andrew King-Ries, Professor of Criminal Law, The University of Montana

Victims of domestic violence may not get the services they need.Shutterstock

For nearly a decade, I believed I was helping improve victims’ lives by prosecuting people who committed domestic violence in Seattle, Washington.

I aimed to advance the goals of the criminal justice system: Stop the violence, hold the defendant accountable and...

Is it wrong to ask your doctor for opioids?

Written by Travis N. Rieder, Research Scholar at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University

When should you ask your doctor for opioids?Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com

More than 42,000 people died in 2016 from an opioid overdose. Forty percent of these deaths involved a prescription opioid. Overall, deaths from opioid overdoses have contributed to a decrease in American life expectancy for the second year in a row. The last time th...

Operation Gunnerside: The Norwegian attack on heavy water that deprived the Nazis of the atomic bomb

Written by Timothy J. Jorgensen, Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program and Associate Professor of Radiation Medicine, Georgetown University

The Nazi atomic effort relied on work done in this remote lab.grob831, CC BY

After handing them their suicide capsules, Norwegian Royal Army Colonel Leif Tronstad informed his soldiers, “I cannot tell you why this mission is so important, but if you succeed, it will live in Norway’s memory for a hundred years.”

These commandos did...

A record 29,000 Mexicans were murdered last year – can soldiers stop the bloodshed?

Written by Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong

Mexico’s war on drugs has left 234,966 people dead in the last 11 years. In 2017 alone, the country saw some 29,000 murders, the highest annual tally since such record-keeping began in 1997.

For years, incensed Mexicans have demanded that President Enrique Peña Nieto – now in the final stretch of his six-year term – take...