A way forward? As President Biden asserts that “the Second Amendment was never absolute,” U.S. lawmakers have been talking across party lines about ways to respond to the horrific massacre at a school in Uvalde, Texas …
■ … including the lure of actual federal cash for states that adopt “red-flag laws” allowing seizure of guns from people found to be dangerous.
■ The House Judiciary Committee meets Thursday on an omnibus guns bill that would, among other protections, raise the age for buying semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.
■ Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pushing a plan to freeze handgun ownership across Canada—which would mean it would be, in his words, “no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada” …
■ … a pledge U.S. conservatives perceive as fighting words.
■ The Conversation examines school shootings’ lasting consequences for students who survive them.
Tragically memorable. Chicago endured its most violent Memorial Day weekend in five years …
■ Nationwide, gun mayhem cost more than 130 people their lives …
■ … at least eight of them in 12 mass shootings.
■ The Tribune’s Jason Meisner takes you to “a new frontier in gun trafficking investigations,” examining the case of a man charged with making virtually untraceable “ghost guns” in his Chicago apartment.
■ Ex-Chicago Police Superintendent Terry Hillard was shot with a paintball Sunday.
Illinois, winning. The New York Times’ Greg Bensinger praises the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act for demonstrating that “strong privacy laws in a single state can have nationwide ramifications.”
■ WBEZ: Illinois collects data about who gets abortions, but it hides race and ethnicity—a practice it’s reconsidering.
■ Congressional Democrats are asking Google to stop retaining people’s location data, which they fear could be used to identify women seeking abortions.
‘A special kind of evil.’ Prosecutors credit surveillance cameras for the arrest of a 27-year-old suburban man charged with attempted first-degree murder in the burning of 75-year-old Joseph Kromelis, the homeless person long known as Chicago’s “Walking Man.”
■ An assistant state’s attorney says the suspect offered no explanation beyond saying that he “is an angry person and decided … to set something on fire.”
■ As Chicago’s bicycling season gears up, bikers are sounding an alarm about one of the city’s deadliest routes: Milwaukee Avenue between Kilbourn and Addison.
‘He won’t hate the city of Chicago.’ The Trib editorial board’s made its choice in Illinois’ Republican gubernatorial primary.
■ Ex-Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas is edging toward a run for mayor—maybe with an announcement Wednesday.
■ Wonder whom the Trib will back for mayor? Consider all the Vallas opinion pieces the paper’s been running.
Ready to vote? Early balloting’s begun in Chicago.
■ The AP: Democrats across the country have been voting in Republican primaries to block Donald Trump’s candidates.
■ Don’t cast your vote in ignorance. Check the Chicago Public Square Illinois Primary Election Guide.
Not so fast. Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says five days of isolation are enough after a positive test for COVID-19, The Wall Street Journal reports people can test positive 10 or more days later.
■ Poynter’s Al Tompkins: “Viruses that took time off during the pandemic are back with a vengeance.”
Oh, Emanuel. Ex-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s brother Ari, a Hollywood talent executive, got married over the weekend …
■ … in a wedding that prompted cultural critic Bob Lefsetz to observe, “Ari is what’s wrong with America.”
■ Before his death in September at 61, comedian Norm McDonald recorded a Netflix comedy special with no stage and no audience, and critic Richard Roeper gives it 3 1/2 stars.
The roll call rolls on.
Chicago Public Square is free for all thanks to support from a relative few—including Stephen Brown, Ronald B. Schwartz, Tim Brandhorst, Jessica Werley, G C Bien, Roy Plotnick, Thomas Gradel, Alan Solomon, Maria Mooshil, Frank Heitzman, William Wheelhouse, Thom Clark, Robert Feder, Tom O’Malley, Allan Hippensteel, Jan Kodner, Brian J. Taylor, Phil Huckelberry, Debbie Becker, Michelle Damico, Jeff Weissglass, Janet Grimes, Carol Morency, Wendy Greenhouse, Ann Spittle, Libbey Paul, Paul Pasulka, Julia Winn, Stephen Nidetz, Melisa Goh, Edward White, Sarah Russe, Kevin Parzyck, Robert Toon, Theodore Naron, Kate Arias, Joseph Sjostrom, Cynthia Martin, Jack Hafferkamp, David Layden, Thomas Yoder, Linnea Crowther, Christine Cupaiuolo, Tom Marker, the Skubish family, Melissa Leeb, Beth Kujawski, Aris Georgiadis, Michael Kelly, Mark Nystuen, Melanie Minnix, Owen Youngman, Molly Besta Allscheid, Jennifer Fardy, Angela Mullins, Ellen Mrazek, Heather Alger, Diana Lauber, Jason Sherman, Randy Young, Charles Pratt, Susan Beach, Peter Fuller, Bill Merrill, Bob Konold, Paul Noble, Stephen Schlesinger, Fredric Stein, Donna Renneke, Bob Rowley, JoBeth Halpin, Neela Marnell, Ben Segedin, John McClelland, Joan Richmond, Mark Thurow, Ellen Cutter, Sandy Heitzman, Bill Oakes, Cate Plys, Stephan Benzkofer, Patricia Skaja, Jim Prescott, Michael Levin, Mike Fainman, Virginia Mann, Peggy Conlon-Madigan, Dawn Haney, Suzanne Fraker, Matt Baron and Jon Hilkevitch,
■ You can join ’em—for any amount you choose—here.
■ And then you get a code good for $5 off a Square T-shirt.
■ Pam Spiegel made this edition better.