Francis Wilkinson

The Covid-19 Class of 2020

The Class of 2020 has been doubly cursed. They entered college in the late summer of 2016. A few months later their elders ushered Donald Trump into the presidency. Now their final weeks at school are a sad, sputtering fiasco of remote learning, social distancing and mounting dread. My own…

Fear of the Coronavirus Comes to Rescue the Gun Industry

The National Rifle Association, which traffics in hysteria to juice both its membership ranks and gun sales, has actually done the right thing when confronted by a genuine threat: Citing the coronavirus, the NRA canceled its annual convention, which was scheduled for next month in Nashville,…

New Zealand Has Banned Rifles. Why Can't America Do the Same?

New Zealand banned semi-automatic rifles this week, and made the ban effective immediately to prevent “stockpiling of weapons while the legislation is being drafted.” The Kiwis are apparently not big on the “hopes and prayers” mantra that the US Congress adopts after each gun massacre. It’s…

Trump is Making Americans More Immigrant-Friendly

President Donald Trump may ultimately be a unifying force on one of the most divisive issues in US politics: immigration. That’s not Trump’s intent, of course. Having launched his presidential campaign in 2015 with a demagogic assault on immigrants, Trump has been a reliable fount of calumny…