Wall Street Journal, Sept 15, 2020

choi

Both appeared on [age A17, the first being a column (whose name is "Main Street") and the second, a submitted opinion. There is no need to read the rest of either article.

(1) William McGurn, Confessions of a New Gun Owner; Even in suburbia, people are losing confidence the police will keep them safe.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/con ... n-owner-11600124943

quote:

(a) "On Monday it became official: The police issued me a gun permit.

"Never did I imagine I'd be here. Not because I was anti-gun. My dad was a career FBI agent, so my siblings and I grew up with guns.

"At the same time, my father was never particularly interested in guns. To no avail, we would beg him to go to shoots to show off his skills. More frequently he would remind us that many who keep guns in the house are more likely to shoot a friend or family member than a would-be robber or rapist. His proudest boast about his own career was that not once did he have to shoot anybody.

" * * * What changed [Why do I want to own a gun now?]? Certainly, the rioters played a key part. But far more shocking than the rioters themselves has been the associated spectacle of police and political authorities across America standing down in the face of night after night of criminal behavior directed at the lives and livelihoods of innocent, law-abiding citizens.

"Even in suburbia, many are no longer confident our authorities would or could keep us safe. In a small suburb such as mine, what would happen if even 100 or 200 people bent on violence were to arrive at once? Could our small police force really handle it? Or would we be left to fend for ourselves like Mark and Pat McCloskey in St Louis, who defended their home and were then treated as if they were criminals?

(b) "in today's New Jersey [where I, the columnist, live with his family] —a state ranked by the Giffords Law Center's annual Gun Law Scorecard as the nation's most restrictive after California * * *

(c) "This year a record five million law-abiding Americans, like us, have become new gun owners. Many don't fit the stereotype: African-Americans account for the largest percentage jump in gun ownership, while women are 40% of first-time buyers. These new buyers join an even larger demographic: the 43% of American households that already have a gun.


(2) Brett Joshpe and Edward Paltzik, From the Classroom to the Courtroom; Outrageous Covid-19 policies join speech restraints as causes of collegiate litigation.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/fro ... urtroom-11600124727

Quote:

(a) "Austin Tong, a Chinese-born senior at Fordham University in New York City, was disciplined for for two social-media posts he made this summer.  One featured a photo of David Dorn, a former St Louis police captain who was killed in a June riot, with a comment from Mr Tong, 'Y'all a bunch of hypocrites.' The second depicted Mr Tong himself -- an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party -- holding an unloaded rifle with a reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre.

"The university decided Mr Tong's posts were a threat, threatened him with expulsion, and demanded an apology. Rather than capitulate, Mr Tong sued, and now Fordham faces two federal investigations, one for accepting undisclosed foreign gifts from China, and the other for violating its own published free-speech guidelines in contravention of federal law [but not First Amendment; amendments to federal constitution apply to governments only]

"school officials are using Covid-19 to justify logic-defying rules * * *

"Northeastern University, which is using the Westin Hotel in downtown in Boston to house incoming freshmen, announced publicly t the media that it had dismissed 11 students for gathering inside a hotel room --with masks on after testing negative for Covid-19 -- to watch a basketball game. These students, many of whom were away from their families, some from foreign countries, had been effectively confined to a private prison [in fact, quarantined] for days during orientation with few avenues for socializing or engaging in normal human behavior. Northeastern is telling these students they may not take classes remotely and won't get a refund of their $36,500 tuition, even though classes had not begun. Many other schools are conducting all classes remotely but charging the usual absurdly high tuition prices.

(b) "Messrs Joshpe and Paltzik are partners at New York law firm Joshpe Mooney Paltzik LLP, which represents Austin Ting and several families whose children were dismissed from Northeastern.  

Note: shooting of David Dorn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_David_Dorn