(WASHINGTON) — As House Democrats on Wednesday surprisingly moved to add paid family leave back into the $1.75 trillion social spending and climate policy bill — word came that none other than Meghan Markle was lobbying senators on the issue — personally.
In what might show that she’s clued into congressional politics, she didn’t go after West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin — who doesn’t support including family leave in the spending bill — but made calls to Republicans, trying to get their votes instead.
Markle, the mother of two young children, including a daughter born in June, phoned Manchin’s West Virginia colleague, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who said she first thought it was Manchin, because the caller ID was blocked, in a story first reported by Politico.
“I’m in my car. I’m driving. It says ‘caller ID blocked’,” the senator recounted, details confirmed by her spokesman. “I thought it was Senator Manchin. His calls come in blocked. And she goes, ‘Senator Capito?’ I said, ‘Yes?’ She said, ‘This is Meghan, the duchess of Sussex.'”
Markle then called another, more moderate, Republican — Susan Collins of Maine — who was in the gym at the time and also thought it was Manchin on the phone, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The duchess once again pitched paid family leave, Collins said.
“Much to my surprise, she called me on my private line and she introduced herself as the duchess of Sussex, which is kind of ironic,” Collins added.
“I was happy to talk with her, but I’m more interested in what the people of Maine are telling me about it,” she said.
Last month, Markle, who now lives in the California with Prince Harry and their two children — Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor and Archie Mountbatten-Windsor — posted a letter to Congress on the website PaidLeaveforAll.org advocating for paid family leave in the U.S.
“I’m not an elected official, and I’m not a politician. I am, like many, an engaged citizen and a parent. And because you and your congressional colleagues have a role in shaping family outcomes for generations to come, that’s why I’m writing to you at this deeply important time—as a mom—to advocate for paid leave,” Markle wrote.
In the letter, she describes how hard her family worked to provide for her growing up and how the pandemic has pushed millions of women out of the workforce.
“Over the past 20 months, the pandemic has exposed long-existing fault lines in our communities. At an alarming rate, millions of women dropped out of the workforce, staying home with their kids as schools and daycares were closed, and looking after loved ones full-time,” she wrote. “The working mom or parent is facing the conflict of being present or being paid. The sacrifice of either comes at a great cost.”
Markle acknowledged that she and her family in no way face the same challenges other families do when it comes to raising a family.
“Like any parents, we were overjoyed. Like many parents, we were overwhelmed,” Markle wrote, recalling the moment she brought home her newborn daughter. “Like fewer parents, we weren’t confronted with the harsh reality of either spending those first few critical months with our baby or going back to work. We knew we could take her home, and in that vital (and sacred) stage, devote any and everything to our kids and to our family. We knew that by doing so we wouldn’t have to make impossible choices about childcare, work, and medical care that so many have to make every single day.”
Markle noted that, unlike the U.S., most other nations already have paid leave policies for all workers.
“Many other countries have robust programs that give months of time for both parents (birth or adoptive) to be home with their child. The United States, in stark contrast, does not federally guarantee any person a single day of paid leave. And fewer than one in four workers has dedicated paid family leave through their employer. I’m sure you agree that if we are to continue to be exceptional, then we can’t be the exception.”
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 748,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 67.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 03, 2:46 pm
Colorado now has its highest hospitalization rate since December
Health officials in Colorado are growing increasingly concerned as the state’s daily case rate has more than doubled in the last month.
Nearly 200 COVID-19 patients are being admitted to hospitals each day — the highest number of people seeking care since December 2020, according to federal data.
There are currently more than 1,300 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 across Colorado, the majority of whom — 80% — are unvaccinated, according to state data.
With the statewide hospital capacity falling under 10%, Gov. Jared Polis has signed a “particularly urgent” executive order that would permit the state’s health department to order hospitals to transfer or stop admitting patients after reaching or nearing capacity.
Federal data show just 61.7% of the state’s total population is fully vaccinated.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 03, 1:31 pm
Aaron Rodgers tests positive
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss this Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs, ESPN reported, citing a source.
The NFL considers Rodgers unvaccinated, ESPN reported. Coach Matt LeFleur did not confirm Rodgers’ vaccination status when he addressed reporters Wednesday.
LeFleur said he’s not sure if Rodgers has symptoms.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Disney is the parent company of ABC News and ESPN.
Nov 03, 1:05 pm
LA mayor tests positive
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has tested positive for COVID-19, his office said.
Garcetti, who is in Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, “is feeling good and isolating in his hotel room,” his office said.
The mayor is fully vaccinated, his office added.
Mayor Garcetti tested positive for COVID-19 earlier today.
He is feeling good and isolating in his hotel room. He is fully vaccinated.
Nov 03, 12:26 pm
US death toll forecast to approach 775,000 by Thanksgiving weekend
The COVID-19 Forecast Hub at UMass Amherst, which is used by the CDC, predicts about 15,000 more Americans will die from COVID-19 over the next two weeks. This would bring the nation’s death toll to about 774,100 by Nov. 27, which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
A person reaches out to touch a panel of the COVID Memorial Quilt, part of a project by…Read More
The ensemble model estimates that 13 states and territories have a greater than 50% chance of seeing more deaths over the next two weeks compared to the previous two weeks.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 03, 11:37 am
Biden to label COVID an occupational hazard for workers
The Biden administration is finalizing details on an emergency rule compelling companies to mandate employee vaccinations or regular tests.
This would be the first time Washington has set a federal safety standard for the workplace that regards a respiratory virus as an occupational hazard outside the health care sector.
Industry groups have pushed for a 60-day waiting period so enforcement of the rule doesn’t take effect until after the holidays.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Nov 03, 10:04 am
Case rates falling in the South
Case rates are falling in the South, according to federal data.
In Florida, which was reporting high transmission in every county during the summer, is now only reporting high transmission in two of its 67 counties. Cases in Louisiana, Georgia, Texas and Mississippi are also improving.
Although new fatalities are down by approximately 36.4% since mid-September, when about 1,800 deaths were reported daily, the death toll still remains high, with nearly 1,200 deaths reported each day.
Nov 03, 9:04 am
Don’t give kids pain reliever before vaccine, CDC says
The CDC has updated its website urging parents of children ages 5 and older to get the vaccine “as soon as you can.”
The CDC is also reminding parents not to give kids a pain reliever before the vaccination to try to mitigate side effects. The CDC says pain relievers prior to a shot are not recommended because it’s not known how it might affect the vaccine.
Instead, the agency urges parents to talk to their doctor about a non-aspirin pain reliever after the shot if needed.
In general, the CDC also recommends that people who have recovered from COVID-19 still get the shot. (Waiting 90 days is only necessary if the person received monoclonal antibodies.)
Nov 03, 8:24 am
CDC director: ‘We’ve taken the time to get this right’
“We’ve taken the time to get this right,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky told “Good Morning America” Wednesday, the day after she signed off on the Pfizer vaccine for young kids. “It’s taken us almost a year compared to where we had a vaccine for adults.”
Parents should have peace of mind with the vaccine’s safety, she argued. “We reviewed the evidence, we reviewed the safety profile,” she said.
“You may have questions, and we are here to answer your questions,” she said. “Go talk to your pediatrician, your trusted health care provider, your pharmacist, and get the information that you need.”
Nov 02, 8:46 pm
Biden calls CDC greenlight for child vaccinations ‘a major step forward’
President Joe Biden called Tuesday’s move by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to allow Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations for children 5 to 11 years old “a turning point.”
“It will allow parents to end months of anxious worrying about their kids, and reduce the extent to which children spread the virus to others,” he said in a statement. “It is a major step forward for our nation in our fight to defeat the virus.”
The president said his administration has secured enough pediatric vaccines for every child in America and has begun shipping out doses.
“The program will ramp up over the coming days, and fully up and running during the week of November 8,” he said.
Nov 02, 8:21 pm
CDC director signs off on child vaccinations
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky approved the agency’s recommendations for administering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children between 5 and 11 years old.
MORE: In promising milestone, Pfizer vaccine soon available for kids 5 and up
Vaccinations for this age group, which includes over 28 million children, can begin as early as Wednesday morning.
The two-dose vaccine has been approved for an emergency use for children 12 to 15 years old and for full authorized use for patients above 16 years old.
Hartford HealthCare was one of the first locations in the country to administer the vaccine to kids Tuesday evening. The young patients cheered and gave doctors high fives after they received their shots.
Nov 02, 7:14 pm
Pharmacies readying COVID shots for young children
Two major pharmacy chains announced Tuesday evening they are getting ready to offer Pfizer COVID-19 shots to children 5 to 11 years-old.
Pending signoff from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, which could happen as early as Tuesday night, Walgreens told ABC News it expects to begin administering shots to that age group starting Saturday.
Walgreens said its online scheduler for children’s appointments will be available starting Wednesday.
The Pfizer pediatric vaccine will arrive “later this week in select locations throughout the country,” CVS said in a statement. Appointments will be available at individual stores after each receives vaccines.
(WASHINGTON) — The nation’s highest court on Wednesday spent nearly two hours wrestling with the concealed carry of handguns in public places and discretionary permitting requirements in nearly a dozen states that impose limits in the interest of public safety.
The oral arguments on Second Amendment rights — the court’s most consequential in more than a decade — focused on a century-old New York state law that requires gun owners to show “proper cause” — or a specific special need — to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.
Eight other states have similar “may issue” laws that give local authorities discretion to decide who receives a license based on particularized circumstances. Most states have looser requirements giving otherwise law-abiding gun owners easier ability to carry.
Many of the court’s conservative justices appeared skeptical of New York-style regimes that subject a constitutional right to bear arms to the discretion of a government official. At the same time, several raised concerns about public safety if carry restrictions were rolled back too far.
The Second Amendment “is to be interpreted the same way you’d interpret other provisions of the Constitution,” said Chief Justice John Roberts. “The idea you need a license to exercise the right is unusual in the context of the Bill of Rights.”
“Why isn’t it good enough to say, I live in a violent area and I want to be able to defend myself?” asked Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “That’s the real concern, isn’t it, with any constitutional right, if it’s the discretion of an individual officer, that seems inconsistent with an objective constitutional right.”
“There is a history and tradition, and it exists to the present day, of permitting regimes,” Kavanaugh added later. “But it’s a narrow legal issue of ‘shall issue’ versus ‘may issue’ [a permit].”
New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood vigorously defended the state’s “may-issue” law as consistent with the history and tradition of U.S. states enacting reasonable limits on the carrying of firearms in public.
“New York is not an outlier,” Underwood argued. “Many ordinary people have licenses.” But, she insisted, the Supreme Court itself has ruled that the right to carry a gun is not unlimited.
Less restrictive concealed carry regimes would “multiply the number of firearms carried in high-density places,” Underwood said. “Proliferation of arms on subways terrifies a lot of people.”
Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Stephen Breyer all acknowledged concerns about concealed carry of weapons in public places, each pressing attorney Paul Clement, who represented a group of New York gun owners challenging the law.
“They are dangerous guns,” said Justice Stephen Breyer. “In your opinion … you want no restrictions?”
“We’re asking for the [permitting] regime to work the same way for self-defense as it does for hunting,” Clement replied.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who have long held an expansive view of the Second Amendment, suggested New York needed to better tailor its requirements to accommodate residents living in less-densely-populated rural areas.
“You can’t hunt with a gun in Central Park,” said Justice Thomas, “but I’m certain there are places in Upstate or Western New York where you can … If you can have that difference for the purpose of hunting, specifically, why can’t you have a similar tailored approach for the Second Amendment based upon if it’s density in New York City, if that’s a problem, the subway, then you have a different set of concerns than Upstate New York?”
The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, an NRA-affiliate, which brought the case has been hopeful that the Court’s 6-3 conservative majority would affirm a sweeping right to carry guns outside the home for self-defense across the state.
The text of the Second Amendment offers a guarantee “not just to keep arms, but to bear them,” insisted Clement.
An attorney for the Biden administration argued that history and tradition of gun ownership in the US has featured limits on concealed carry for decades. Such laws “span 150 years in all regions of the country,” argued Principal Deputy Solicitor General Brian Fletcher. “The question before the court is, of all the approaches [states have] taken, is this one the Second Amendment must take off the table?”
The debate over concealed carry rights come has gun sales continue to soar across the country and gun violence deaths have continued to climb. More than 35,000 Americans have been killed by guns so far this year, according to the independent National Gun Violence Archive.
In a nod to those circumstances, the court’s liberal justices seemed ready to vote to uphold New York’s law and affirm discretionary permitting programs.
Outside the court, a group of gun violence victims and survivors — including representatives from mass shootings in Parkland, Fla., Dayton, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky. — held a small rally to make their voices heard. Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords also addressed the crowd.
“Today’s argument made clear that even the court’s most conservative justices have hesitations about granting the gun lobby its ultimate goal in this case – the unrestricted right to carry guns in all public places at all times,” said Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law.
“There are a number of ways the court could ultimately decide this case, and the details of its ruling matter,” he said. “As the justices heard today, this is ultimately about whether elected officials will continue to be able to make decisions about protecting their communities – including by limiting who can carry guns in football stadiums, university campuses and shopping malls.”
ABC News’ “Rethinking Gun Violence,” is examining the level of gun violence in the U.S. — and what can be done about it.
(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in a letter to colleagues on Wednesday that Democrats will add paid family and medical leave back into their large social spending bill, but soon after, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin called the move a “challenge.”
Democrats had initially called for 12 weeks of leave but it was cut down to four before being dropped altogether last week after Sen, Manchin, D-W.Va., raised concerns.
Now, Pelosi is saying it’s back in the bill with a source familiar confirming to ABC News it will be four weeks of paid family and medical leave.
However, from the Senate side, a source told ABC News the addition of paid family and medical leave is “far from reality yet” — and Pelosi acknowledges obstacles ahead in the upper chamber in her “Dear Colleague” letter.
“Because I have been informed by a Senator of opposition to a few of the priorities contained in our bill and because we must have legislation agreed to by the House and the Senate in the final version of the Build Back Better Act that we will send to the President’s desk, we must strive to find common ground in the legislation,” she wrote.
Walking into the Capitol Wednesday morning, Pelosi told reporters that she is “very sad” over Democrats’ loss in the Virginia governor’s race but said his loss does not change Democrats’ agenda in the House and is not the reason for the push to bring back the paid leave measure.
Manchin, meanwhile, did not explicitly say he would vote against the package if paid leave is included. But when asked about it shortly after word surfaced on Wednesday, he said he remains strongly opposed to it being included in the reconciliation package — a process Senate Democrats are using to avoid a Republican filibuster, but a tactic that requires all 50 Democratic votes, including Manchin’s. He told reporters he was unaware of the newly announced plans to include it in the package, but that House colleagues were familiar with his position on it.
“I just think it’s the wrong place to put it because it is a social expansion,” Manchin told reporters, repeating his concerns about the cost. He worries about “getting more debt and basically putting more social programs that we can’t pay for that we’re having problems with now.”
Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement that paid family and medical leave will be fully paid for, and it is means-tested.
“We do this responsibly, fully paying for the means-tested program,” he wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the lead sponsor of the family paid leave effort in the Senate, told ABC News she’s “very excited it’s back in the bill” and that she plans to speak to Manchin on it.
“Speaker Pelosi, I think, has decided it’s essential for the country and for workers to be able to rebound, and I trust the Speaker. I trust her judgment,” Gillibrand said.
Manchin, however, has for days said he’s concerned about insolvency in Medicare and Medicaid, and on Monday he said social expansion beyond those programs, for things like paid leave, is “aspirational”.
While he ultimately said he supports paid leave, he said he wants to see it shepherded through in a separate bill, not in reconciliation.
“We’re trying to force it through reconciliation which has guardrails and rules and regulations,” Manchin said. Let’s do it and do it right and not do it in this.”
Progressives have said they trust President Joe Biden to deliver 51 Senate votes he promised on the larger social spending and climate bill, and Biden predicted Manchin would support that in a speech on Tuesday, despite Manchin expressing new concerns.
Manchin said on Wednesday that the House will ultimately “do what the House does” and then the Senate will need to work through the bill “deliberately.”
Pelosi said updated bill text for the social spending plan will be released later Wednesday, and she anticipates the House Rules Committee will meet later in the day to debate the legislation and prepare it for votes on the House floor.
In a subtle message to House moderates, who are demanding at least 72 hours to read the bill text, Pelosi also noted that text was initially released six days ago, meaning they’ve had plenty of time to read up.
Based on Pelosi’s letter, it’s clear Democratic leadership intends to vote on both the already Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill and the social spending bill Democrats plan to pass through reconciliation this week.
ABC News’ Trish Turner contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A crew member on the movie set of “Rust” talked to “Good Morning America” about his safety concerns on that set.
Lane Luper, formerly first camera assistant on the film, had quit and left the production the day before the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Hours before Hutchins was shot by actor Alec Baldwin on set, Luper and half a dozen other members of the camera department walked off the set in protest of poor working conditions.
“What I put in my resignation letter was: lax COVID policies, the housing situation — driving to and from Albuquerque — and specifically gun safety, a lack of rehearsals, a lack of preparing the crew for what we were doing that day,” Luper told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.
When Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set, it killed Hutchins and injured the film’s director, Joel Souza, who was hospitalized. Production of “Rust” was paused.
Luper claims that there were very few safety meetings and that complaints about safety were ignored. He said safety bulletins, which are manuals for how to run a safe set, were ignored and not attached to call sheets.
In his resignation letter, Luper said gunfights on the set were often played “very fast and loose” and that there had been “two accidental weapons discharges and one accidental [sound effects] explosives that have gone off around the crew between takes.”
“In my 10 years as a camera assistant, I’ve never worked on a show that cares so little for the safety of its crew,” Luper wrote.
“Rust” producers deny Luper’s claims.
“Mr. Luper’s allegations around budget and safety are patently false, which is not surprising considering his job was to be a camera operator, and he had absolutely nothing to do with, or knowledge of, safety protocols or budgets. As we continue to cooperate with all investigations, we are limited in what we can say,” producers said in a statement to ABC News. “However, safety is always the number one priority on our films, and it is truly awful to see some using this tragedy for personal gain.”
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said investigators suspect a real bullet was loaded in the firearm that Baldwin discharged.
According to a search warrant affidavit, assistant director David Halls handed the gun to Baldwin and yelled “cold gun” to alert the crew of a gun with no live rounds in it. Halls told investigators that he didn’t know there were any live rounds in the gun when he gave it to Baldwin.
The film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is also being scrutinized for her potential role in the incident. Her attorney has stated that she had no idea where the live rounds came from.
Three guns — a Colt revolver, an apparently non-functioning .45-caliber revolver and a plastic non-functioning prop gun — were seized from the set. Some 500 rounds of ammunition — a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and live rounds — were also found on set, according to Mendoza.
Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said no decision has been made on whether charges will be filed and that “no one has been ruled out at this point.”
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson, Meredith Deliso and Catherine Thorbecke contributed to this report.
This report is a part of “Rethinking Gun Violence,” an ABC News series examining the level of gun violence in the U.S. — and what can be done about it.
(NEW YORK) — Just before 11 p.m. on an April night, a 19-year-old man arrived at his former job site, an Indianapolis FedEx facility, and chatted with security about his status at the company.
The young man then exited his car with two legally purchased rifles and opened fire indiscriminately, at employees inside and outside the building, authorities said.
After killing eight employees — ranging in age from 19 to 74 — and injuring at least seven others, the gunman died by suicide, an attack “which he believed would demonstrate his masculinity and capability of fulfilling a final desire to experience killing people,” the FBI in Indianapolis said this summer, months after the attack.
According to the nonprofit research center The Violence Project, men are responsible for 98% of mass shootings, and according to an analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety, a grassroots organization aiming to combat gun violence, men were behind 94% of 240 mass shootings (four or more killed regardless of location) from 2009 to 2020 in which the shooter’s gender could be confirmed.
In 40 active-shooter incidents in the U.S. last year, 35 shooters were male, three were female and four were unspecified, according to FBI data.
The gender gap goes beyond active shooter incidents. Of 16,245 murders in the U.S. in 2019, in those for which a suspect’s gender was identified, 10,335 (63%) were committed by men, according to FBI data.
Gun violence victims also are predominantly male, accounting for 85% of fatalities and 87% of injuries through May, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But women are also deeply affected by gun violence, often as grieving family members or because they’re left as sole caregivers of children in the wake of the violence.
Or as victims themselves.
So why are American men so much more prone to gun violence? Experts cite a variety of reasons, from brain chemistry and evolution to how men and boys are socialized, said Jillian Peterson, co-founder of The Violence Project and a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University.
“The ideology of masculinity is not all that different in Spain or Britain than it is here. But they don’t have mass shootings like this. Why? I think that has to do with a specific version of American masculinity.”
But other experts said it really just comes down to what they say is arguably America’s most dangerous combination: toxic masculinity and gun availability.
‘Only America’
Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, said toxic masculinity, the cultural idea that manhood is defined by violence and aggression to maintain power or strength, is at the root of both domestic violence and mass shootings, adding that there’s one reason gun violence is a “uniquely American issue” — it’s easy to get guns.
Men commit about 90% of murders worldwide (including but not limited to the use of firearms), according to a 2019 United Nations report. But America’s gun homicide rate is 25 times higher than other high-income countries, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
“Every country has racism, xenophobia, hatred. Only America gives those same people” access to guns, Watts said.
Michael Kimmel, a distinguished professor of sociology and gender studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, agreed.
The traditional idea of masculinity is, “You don’t get mad, you get even,” Kimmel said. “The capacity for violence has been a hallmark of masculinity since the beginning of writing. Go back to ‘The Iliad.’ The Bible is filled with stories about vengeful violence.”
“That is true for masculinity in other countries, in other cultures,” Kimmel said. “So you have to also ask yourself: Why is it that gun violence at the scale that we see it is a phenomenon” in the U.S.?
“You have to ask the question,” Kimmel continued, ‘Why here and not elsewhere?’ The ideology of masculinity is not all that different in Spain or Britain than it is here. But they don’t have mass shootings like this. Why? I think that has to do with a specific version of American masculinity.”
Kimmel said American men are responsible for such a staggering sum of shootings because of that ideological masculinity, American culture, which he said gives a “constant presentation of enemies,” real or imagined, and — the most significant contributor — easy access to guns.
The power of ‘protection’
Kimmel says protection also plays an important role.
“If you ask American men, what’s the role of a man? He will tell you, ‘To provide for and protect my family,'” Kimmel said. “In this uncertain economic world, being a provider is actually far more difficult than it was in my father’s generation, than it was in his father’s generation. I think some part of American men’s fascination with guns and arming themselves has to do with, ‘If I can’t be a provider, at least I can be a protector.'”
About 45% of American men last year said they owned a gun, according to Gallup, and 19% of American women said they did.
In a 2017 Pew Research Center poll, 67% of gun owners said protection was a major reason for ownership, Iowa State professor Craig Rood noted in a Gender Policy Report through the University of Minnesota. Protection was followed by: hunting, sport shooting, as part of a collection and for one’s job.
Only 26% mentioned protection in a 1999 Pew Research Center poll in which hunting ranked No. 1, Rood noted.
“I could imagine several explanations why Americans are more afraid today than they were in 1999,” Rood told ABC News. “For instance, gun sales spiked after several high-profile mass shootings and again when the COVID-19 pandemic began. But not everyone has responded to that fear by turning to guns.”
“When we are talking about ‘protection,’ we are talking about perception of danger, and perceptions of danger can be real, imagined or some place in between,” Rood said. “Statistically, the United States has been relatively safe for most people, as crime and homicide rates started falling from the mid-1990s until quite recently. Yet the perception of danger has increased. So, there’s an obvious mismatch.”
Rood added, “I would bet most men acquire guns for commendable reasons: They want to protect themselves or their family, they enjoy hunting or they simply like guns. But the very presence of a gun in the home opens the possibility for accidents. Guns also heighten the risk for completed suicide and deadly intimate-partner violence.”
What can be done?
Peterson, of the Violence Project, said the key to fewer shootings is prevention, and offered four prongs.
1. Prevention should start early, by teaching boys how to understand emotions and trauma.
“Think about things like trauma screening and teaching social and emotional learning in schools … teach young boys how to cope with emotions and have empathy,” she said.
When it comes to male mass shooters, Peterson said many tend to have an attitude that “the world owes me more than what I have.”
“They feel disappointed where they’re at in life, or they feel frustrated that they lost their job or that they can’t get a girlfriend or whatever it is … so they pick a target of who to blame, whether they pick women or their school or a racial group,” Peterson said.
In July, a 21-year-old Ohio man was charged for allegedly trying to carry out a mass shooting of women, prosecutors said. He allegedly compared his “extremely empowering action” to Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old man who carried out a mass shooting at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014 after videotaping his rage over his rejection by women and vowed “retribution.” The Ohio 21-year-old allegedly had a manifesto, according to prosecutors, in which he wrote he “would ‘slaughter’ women ‘out of hatred, jealousy and revenge.'”
2. Peterson said the U.S. also needs better systems for crisis training and how to recognize and report someone’s potential crisis.
According to The Violence Project, 82% of men who commit shootings are suffering from a noticeable crisis, with most showing at least one of the following symptoms and more than one-third exhibiting five or more: increased agitation, abusive behavior, isolation, losing touch with reality, depression, mood swings, paranoia and an inability to complete daily tasks.
Peterson said she considers the lack of a social safety net, which impacts trauma and crisis, to be a uniquely American problem.
3. Potential mass shooters often look online for others who validate their thoughts and feelings, or research past or potential shooters, Peterson said, so internet companies, especially social media platforms, must be pressured to better regulate hateful rhetoric and content.
Watts said parents also have a part in this.
“Every nation is home to young men being radicalized online to believe that somehow a loss of power means that they need to become violent,” Watts said.
Watts said she’s constantly talking to her 20-year-old son about how the internet is home to platforms “where this kind of violent rhetoric can become ingrained.”
“It’s a conversation that all parents need to have, in particular with their sons,” she added.
4. Peterson said another uniquely American problem is the struggle to regulate access to guns, like through red flag laws, which allow the court to remove an individual’s guns for a certain amount of time if a judge finds he or she is a danger.
Watts stressed the need for more background checks, noting that only 21 states and Washington, D.C., require background checks on all gun sales — meaning that in every other state, someone looking to acquire a gun quickly can do so at a gun show or via a private transaction.
Watts is also pushing for substantive legislative change, including advocating for an update to the Violence Against Women Act that would include a provision that would prevent abusive dating partners or alleged stalkers from accessing a gun.
The current law doesn’t define abusive dating partners or alleged stalkers as domestic abusers, and instead focuses on spouses and live-in partners, which Watts called a loophole.
Every 16 hours a woman in America is shot dead by a current or former partner, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Further, an Everytown analysis found that in at least 53% of American mass shootings from 2009 to 2020, the gunman also shot a current or former intimate partner or family member.
The VAWA, initially passed in 1994 and expanded in later years, has since expired.
“It’s really toxic masculinity that’s at the root of domestic violence and mass shootings — misogyny and easy access to guns,” Watts said. “Guns are the weapons of choice for extremists, for misogynists, for insurrectionists and, ultimately, women are paying the price with their lives.”
(WASHINGTON) — Lobbying firms with ties to President Joe Biden and his administration are thriving, with some doubling and quadrupling their lobbying revenues from last year, disclosure filings show — but overall lobbying revenues haven’t increased much over the last year.
Earlier this year, three firms led by former Biden aides and others with close ties to key members of the Biden White House kicked off 2021 with a slew of new big-name clients and an early jump in their lobbying revenues, lobbying disclosure filings at that time showed.
Fast-forward nine months, and these firms have brought in far more in lobbying revenues in just the first three quarters of 2021 than the amount they brought in during the entire previous year.
The jump showcases how lobbyists with connections to Biden, the Biden administration, and Biden’s key advisers have been prospering under the new — and at the same time, familiar — presidency.
The lobbying firm run by the brother of Biden White House Counselor Steve Ricchetti nearly quadrupled its lobbying revenues in the first three quarters of this year from what it brought in during the same period last year. The firm reported more than $2.4 million in revenues from January through September of 2021, compared to just $635,000 through September of last year, filings show.
Ricchetti Inc, the firm that Jeff Ricchetti previously shared with his brother Steve, had reported a relatively quiet lobbying operation over the last few years, until late 2020 when the firm began picking up several new clients and reported a major spike in lobbying revenues.
Now, with major clients like Amazon and TC Energy Corporation, as well as several pharmaceutical and health care companies, Ricchetti Inc is enjoying its most lucrative year since Steve Ricchetti sold his stake in the firm and left in 2012 to joined the then-Obama White House as Biden’s adviser.
Ricchetti Inc earlier this year reported lobbying the office of president on behalf of health care companies, and the National Security Council on behalf of General Motors — but otherwise has mostly focused its efforts on lobbying Congress.
Jeff Ricchetti, who is now the only registered lobbyist for Ricchetti Inc, did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Earlier this year, a source close to Steve Ricchetti told ABC News that Jeff Ricchetti “has never and will never lobby his brother on behalf of any of his clients” and that “Steve and Jeff keep their professional activities distinctly separate.”
Entering the White House earlier this year, Biden committed himself and his administration to a set of ethics rules that some experts have described as more stringent than those of the Trump administration, including extending bans on so-called revolving-door and shadow lobbying.
“President Biden has established the highest ethical standards of any Administration in history, and his team has put in place stringent safeguards to protect against any potential conflicts of interest,” White House spokesperson Michael Gwin told ABC News.
Although many firms with connections to the Biden White House have been thriving, lobbying revenues overall are relatively flat compared to last year. Overall spending on lobbying has only increased by 3% so far this year compared to the same period in 2020, the final year of Donald Trump’s presidency.
“Under the last administration we saw firms with links to President Trump prosper, and now we are seeing a similar windfall for firms that hire lobbyists with connections to President Biden,” Dan Auble, a senior researcher at OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan research organization that tracks campaign finance and lobbying data, told ABC News. “It is clearly evidence that connections matter in Washington.”
Despite the rapid growth of several Biden administration-connected firms, Auble says that none of them top the way Ballard Partners took off during the Trump presidency.
“None of these have come from nowhere to become one of the biggest grossing firms like Ballard Partners did under Trump,” Auble said of the firm headed by Trump confidant and fundraiser Brian Ballard, which quickly became one of the leading K Street shops in Washington after it was launched in 2017. The firm reported nearly $19 million in lobbying revenues during the first three quarters of Trump’s last year in office.
Top-grossing firms so far this year include TheGROUP DC, which reported $5.2 million in lobbying revenues from a Rolodex of big name clients that includes Facebook, Lyft, BP, Pfizer, Lockheed Martin and JPMorgan Chase. Putala Strategies reported bringing in $2.8 million in lobbying revenues through work that includes lobbying on behalf of major clients like TransCanada Pipelines, Comcast, T-Mobile, and several other pharmaceutical and energy companies.
Neither Putala Strategies or TheGROUP DC responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.
In a sign of evolving influence, the American Health Care Association is now one of TheGroup DC’s highest-paying clients since signing on in December of last year — after previously being a top client of Ballard Partners. After several years of billing the AHCA $320,000 a year for its services, Ballard Partners’ filings for April through September of this year list “No Activity” for the AHCA.
The firm, however, isn’t standing pat; since Biden’s victory it’s been transitioning into a more bipartisan enterprise, adding some big Democratic names to its team over the last few months, including Courtney Whitney, a top Democratic fundraiser who was a consultant for the pro-Biden super PAC Priorities USA.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A group of New York gun owners on Wednesday will ask the Supreme Court to establish a fundamental right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home, an expansive view of the Second Amendment that could reshape gun laws nationwide if a majority of justices agree.
The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association and two individual gun owners are challenging a century-old New York statute that requires applicants for concealed carry permits to show “proper cause,” or a specific special need, for possessing a firearm in public places.
Gun rights advocates say the standard is so tough to meet that it violates the Second Amendment. The state argues that gun rights are not unlimited and that reasonable barriers to concealed carry are in the public interest.
The case is the biggest test on gun rights at the high court in more than a decade, and its reach could extend far beyond New York. Roughly a quarter of Americans live in 29 states that require concealed carry permits. Eight of those, including New York, give authorities discretion to deny permits to anyone who can’t show a special need.
“If the law gets struck down in New York, it would have ripple effects across other places that have similar regimes,” said Eric Ruben, a Second Amendment law scholar at Southern Methodist University Law School. “It would mean that you could expect more people to be carrying handguns in places like New York City, Boston and Los Angeles.”
In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that Americans have an individual right to possess a handgun inside their homes but said nothing about that right in public places.
“The Second Amendment does not end at your doorstep,” said Tom King, president of NYSRPA, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association. “‘Proper cause’ is a restriction. It’s something the ‘anti-gunners’ put in there to keep guns out of the hands of lawful citizens in New York state.”
Gun control advocates warn that if the court rolls back restrictions on the carrying of handguns, American streets could become even more dangerous at a time when gun violence deaths are already surging.
“Even people who are well trained, who are prepared and carry a gun, oftentimes have to make split-second decisions that they then regret,” said Albany, New York’s Mayor Kathy Sheehan, who had to declare a state of emergency in the city last summer because of an outbreak of gun violence.
“The fewer guns, the fewer gun deaths. That’s what the data shows us. The more guardrails that you have in place with respect to gun ownership, the lower the number of gun deaths,” Sheehan said.
New York State Police, the agency defending the state’s permitting law in court, argues in court documents that, historically, no state has “allowed the right to carry a handgun everywhere… based on speculation that a confrontation warranting the use of deadly force might suddenly arise.”
“This case is going to present a lot of opportunity for the defenders of the law to present evidence on the special risks that guns can present in public and also evidence that limits on concealed carry in public can, on the whole, lead to less crime, less deaths and less injuries,” Ruben said.
Nationwide, gun sales and gun violence deaths have been climbing to near-record levels. More than 35,000 U.S. deaths from guns have been reported so far this year, according to the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive.
“The uptick in violence has just been astronomical. The gun violence — just violence alone,” said Cheryl Apple, a small business owner and mother of five from Albany, who obtained her first handgun this year. “I just felt that I needed to be able to protect myself.”
Late last year, Apple applied for an unrestricted license to carry her 9-mm pistol almost anywhere she goes, a process that took her 10 months to complete and included a background check, a safety seminar and an interview with a judge.
“I explained to the judge that I am a woman-owned business, and that I traveled to and from my job at night, sometimes late, sometimes early in the morning, and that I just felt that it would make me feel safe,” she said.
The judge approved Apple’s request, but other gun-owners say the standard is overly discretionary and unfair.
“We don’t feel we should have to show a special reason that if you’ve been deemed eligible to own a firearm you should have the ability to have concealed carry,” said Shawn Lamouree, vice president of the Liberty Group, which operates a chain of gun stores and shooting ranges in upstate New York.
Lamouree said fear of rising crime should be sufficient cause for any law-abiding citizen to arm themselves if they so choose.
“The bottom line: If a criminal wants a gun, there’s a very good chance the criminal is going to find a way to get a gun,” said Lamouree, who is a former sheriff.
Gun rights groups are optimistic that the Supreme Court’s six-member conservative majority will be sympathetic to arguments in favor of broad concealed carry rights.
“There are indications the new justices on the court share a broader view of Second Amendment rights than what currently exists as a consensus view within the lower courts,” said Ruben.
King, who helped bring the case on behalf of New York gun owners, said he’s optimistic but not certain about the outcome.
“This could change everything,” he said.
In the meantime, gun safety groups and local leaders like the mayor of Albany are watching the case with a wary eye.
“We will enforce the law as the Supreme Court finds it,” Sheehan said. “But I think that New York State should have the right to put into place common-sense guardrails that it believes help to keep our state and the residents of our state safe.”
The court’s decision is expected by the end of June 2022.
ABC News’ “Rethinking Gun Violence,” is examining the level of gun violence in the U.S. — and what can be done about it.
(WASHINGTON) — It’s likely to become President Joe Biden’s most hotly contested COVID policy yet: a sweeping new nationwide safety standard for the American workplace that demands large businesses require their employees to either get the vaccine or test regularly.
The temporary emergency rule would apply to every U.S. private business that employs 100 workers or more — from grocery clerks to meatpacking plant employees — impacting some 80 million Americans.
It would be the first time Washington has set a federal standard that regards a respiratory virus as an occupational hazard outside of the health care sector, essentially putting COVID in the same category as other workplace safety concerns as asbestos and dangerous machinery.
Details were expected to be released as early as Wednesday or Thursday on the rule, drafted by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.
“It’s the biggest thing OSHA has ever done in terms of the number of workers it will cover,” said Jordan Barab, a longtime top official at the agency during the Obama administration.
Union and industry groups say they have yet to see a draft of the new rule. Among the most pressing questions is when employers would have to comply, with Republicans warning that mandates ahead of the holidays might exacerbate the nation’s worker shortage.
It’s also unclear how long the temporary standard would be in place and if it would apply to short-term “gig” workers, like freelancers and Uber drivers, or smaller franchises that are part of nationwide chains, like small restaurants or gyms.
How employers will be expected to enforce the standard is another question mark.
“We don’t know what they’re looking it. It’s a black box,” said one industry official involved in recent discussions with the administration.
Since taking office, the Biden administration had avoided imposing nationwide vaccine mandates, focusing instead on incentives for businesses and individuals. But with the arrival of the delta variant, a surge in pediatric cases and pockets of the country remaining hesitant to get a shot, Biden’s COVID strategy shifted in recent weeks.
“We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said of unvaccinated Americans on Sept. 9 when announcing his plan to draft the rule.
Federal contractors now have until Nov. 22 to become fully vaccinated, while contractors that work with the government have until Dec. 8.
Testing for these workers is not an option.
Biden also has required that health facilities like hospitals and nursing homes that accept federal dollars mandate vaccines for their workers, a total estimated at 17 million workers.
The latest OSHA rule would significantly expand that pool of Americans, putting two-thirds of the nation’s workforce under a kind of mandate.
Once divided on how to address the pandemic, Republican governors have united against the plan, insisting it represents dangerous federal overreach and would cripple business owners already dealing with worker shortages.
“Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian,” tweeted the South Carolina GOP Gov. Henry McMaster when Biden on Sept. 9 promised to draft the rule.
Supporters counter that many large businesses have already embraced vaccine mandates to both entice employees who want a safe workplace and end a pandemic that has hobbled the economy. They argue too that whenever employees are
“This is not a vaccine mandate. It’s a safe workplace mandate — getting vaccinated or tested,” said Barab, the former deputy assistant secretary of labor for OSHA.
“You want to do it as soon as you can to protect as many people as you can,” he added.
A Labor Department spokesperson and the White House declined to discuss the specifics of the rule ahead of its release, other than to confirm that the White House’s Office of Management and Budget completed its regulatory review on Monday.
“The Federal Register will publish the emergency temporary standard in the coming days,” a Labor Department spokesperson said.
As an emergency standard, the rule would take effect immediately. But the administration was widely expected to give businesses at least some time to comply, although it’s not clear how long. Several industry groups were pushing for a 60-day implementation period that would push any enforcement into 2022.
The rule was expected to call on employers to give workers time off to get the shot and recover from any side effects.
It’s unlikely that workers would be required to get booster shots — at least as of now. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a person “fully immunized” as one shot of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine or two shots of Moderna or Pfizer. CDC officials warn, however, that definition could change as new research develops.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that the rule also would allow employers to force workers who refuse to get the COVID shot to pay for any weekly tests and masks.
ABC News producer Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A COVID-19 vaccine is now available for kids ages 5 to 11, marking a major milestone in the nearly two-year coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Tuesday signed off on recommendations made earlier in the day by an independent CDC advisory panel, making the Pfizer vaccine available to the approximately 28 million children aged 5 to 11 in the United States.
“We know millions of parents are eager to get their children vaccinated and with this decision, we now have recommended that about 28 million children receive a COVID-19 vaccine,” Walensky said in a statement. “As a mom, I encourage parents with questions to talk to their pediatrician, school nurse or local pharmacist to learn more about the vaccine and the importance of getting their children vaccinated.”
Here are five things parents should know about COVID-19 vaccines and kids under the age of 12:
1. The vaccine will be distributed to kids through pediatricians, pharmacies, health clinics and more.
Shipping has already begun on the first batch of 15 million Pfizer pediatric vaccine doses after the White House purchased 65 million doses, more than enough to fully vaccinate all kids ages 5 to 11 in the U.S.
The vaccinations are expected to become widely available the week of Nov. 8. They will be accessible at pediatricians’ offices, children’s hospitals, pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid, and school and community-based clinics.
Parents can search for appointments at Vaccines.gov to find a local provider.
Once they receive their first shot, children will be given a vaccine card, just like adults and adolescents.
2. The Pfizer dose is different for kids under age 12.
Kids ages 5 to 11 will be given a 10-micrograms dose, one-third of the adolescent and adult dose.
Like with adults and adolescents, the pediatric vaccine will be delivered in two doses, three weeks apart.
A child will be considered fully immunized two weeks after their second dose.
To troubleshoot any confusion in the distribution of Pfizer’s vaccine, orange-capped vials will contain doses for kids aged 5 to 11, while purple-capped vials will contain doses for adult and older adolescents.
3. The new dose is because of kids’ immune systems, not their size.
Children have different immune systems than adults, so it should be reassuring for parents the Pfizer vaccine has been shown to be safe in kids.
Differing immune systems among people of different ages also help explain why the cutoffs for vaccine eligibility rest on age and not body size.
In addition to the COVID-19 vaccine, other immunizations are also scheduled and administered based on age and not weight. This is partially due to the fact that the body’s immune responses to vaccinations and infection are known to be different based on age.
4. The FDA will decide later on full approval for the vaccine.
Following normal protocol, the FDA will continue to review data to decide whether to grant full FDA approval for the vaccine in kids ages 5 to 11.
The FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for people ages 16 and older in August. It is currently authorized for emergency use in children ages 12 to 15.
The two other vaccines currently available in the U.S., Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are currently available only for people 18 years and older.
Moderna announced in late October that it plans to submit data to the FDA soon showing its vaccine for children ages 6 to 11 produces a strong immune response and appears safe.
5. Families need to remain vigilant against COVID-19.
Unvaccinated children can not only become ill from COVID-19 themselves, but they can also spread the virus to more vulnerable family members and other adults with whom they interact.
Both the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend universal mask-wearing in schools to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
Experts said that in addition to unvaccinated children wearing face masks, parents and siblings who are vaccinated should also continue to wear face masks indoors because of the rates of breakthrough infections in the U.S.
Families should also continue to follow other safety guidelines shared throughout the pandemic, including social distancing and hand-washing.
