They are connected to one another like never before. And they are as disconnected from American politics as ever.

They're avid volunteers for community causes, yet most hardly seem to care about government or campaigns. They see a government that's not deserving of their trust, resistant to change and barely caring about their needs. They don't think their vote counts.

They are the young. Old enough to vote, numerous enough to pick a president or a Congress. And they don't seem to care.

"I don't pay taxes. I don't pay for my health insurance," said Emilia Pascarella, a sophomore at Penn State University. "I don't feel I'm being affected."

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/young-americans-connected-to-the-world-disconnected-from-politics/

It seems that not a week passes without a new report of a mass shooting in the United States.

The gun epidemic, long simmering, has in the past few weeks seemed to reach a new phase in the public discourse. The shootings in San Bernardino, California occasioned a nearly unprecedented front-page editorial in The New York Times, the country’s “paper of record,” together with comments, once again, from the president, urging congress to act on regulating firearms and firearm violence.

The top-level data on the problem are at this point familiar. There are about 32,000 gun deaths a year in the United States, approximately the same number as deaths from motor vehicle accidents. The number of firearm deaths has been stable essentially since 2000. There are another 180,000 or so people injured by firearms annually in the country. These numbers far outstrip the consequences of firearms among our peer high-income countries, with stricter gun regulations.

What ails us? Why do we continue to accept these consequences of firearms when other countries do not?

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/studying-gun-violence-is-the-only-way-to-figure-out-how-to-stop-it-but-we-dont/

Gun violence has been a problem for a long time, but the recent shootings in Paris and San Bernardino have focused new attention on the issue.

Americans no longer just worry about someone shooting up a school or workplace for personal reasons. The threat of terrorism has added an alarming new dimension to the problem.

Coming up with effective and realistic solutions is not easy. Guns pose a tricky dilemma, because they can be used to do good or bad things. They can be used to commit heinous crimes, but they can be used to protect lives as well.

The challenge for lawmakers is to come up with ways to reduce the risk of criminal misuse of guns while preserving and even promoting the likelihood of guns being used in beneficial ways.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/its-time-to-repeal-the-gun-industrys-exceptional-legal-immunity/