Opinion Roundup: Las Vegas shooting reignites gun debate

Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017 -- A roundup of opinion, commentary and analysis on reactions to the Las Vegas shooting, the ongoing legislative fight over GenX funding, the concerns some parents have over N.C.'s new class-size mandate and more.

SCOTT SEXTON: Can we at least discuss assault weapons, large-capacity magazines? (Winston-Salem Journal column) -- Flipping on the TV Monday morning, you expected talk about the cool autumn weather or a football score. That wasn’t what we heard.

A storm of bullets wounds Las Vegas (Greensboro News & Record) -- Las Vegas found itself in the middle of a war Sunday night, absorbing a sudden, unprovoked military-style attack.

When will the carnage finally wake us up? (Charlotte Observer) -- The Las Vegas shooting, like other mass shootings, horrifies us. But only temporarily.

Past the platitudes (Winston-Salem Journal) -- The president and members of Congress are speaking solemn words of sorrow over the latest mass shooting, this one at a Las Vegas concert late Sunday. But the GOP leaders’ words ring hollow, for they steer clear of talk of reasonable gun control.

RICK SMITH: Can social media answer questions about Las Vegas shooter? (WRAL-TV/TechWire column) -- Moments after the identity of a man suspected of being the shooter in the Las Vegas massacre, social media exploded with authorities search for information and people tweeting rumors. But is social media accurate in providing information about someone involved in such a tragedy? And where does social media as well as other online information in the form of "big data" fit into the investigation?

ERIC HOLDER: Redistricting has broken our democracy. The Supreme Court should help fix it. (Washington Post column) -- When the Supreme Court hears arguments today in Gill v. Whitford, contesting Wisconsin’s legislative map, it will have a chance to rein in an aggressive new breed of data-driven gerrymandering that divides communities and diminishes the voice of many Americans. The record is clear, and the Supreme Court must take this opportunity to protect the right to fair representation that is embedded in our Constitution and our values.

ALEXANDER BURNS: Holder-Led Group Challenges Georgia Redistricting, Claiming Racial Bias (New York Times) -- A Democratic group led by the former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. has accused the State of Georgia of flouting the Voting Rights Act, claiming that Georgia Republicans reshaped two state legislative districts to minimize the electoral influence of African-American voters.

NATE COHN & QUOCTRUNG BUI: How the New Math of Gerrymandering Works (New York Times analysis) -- The Supreme Court is considering a gerrymandering case in Wisconsin. At the core of the debate is a new way to measure gerrymandering.

You lose if you skip this primary vote (Fayetteville Observer) -- When we saw the numbers, we weren’t sure if we should cheer or cry. The latter is probably more appropriate, although we’ll take progress wherever we can find it. So we’ll give the voters their due and praise the folks who have already ventured downtown to the Board of Elections to cast an early ballot for the city primary election.

In this legislature, bad ideas never die (Wilson Times) -- On National Newspaper Week, North Carolina lawmakers will consider yet another last-ditch effort to punish the free and independent press in an influential state senator's home district.

KIRK ROSS: GenX Battle Expected As Legislature Returns (Coastal Review) -- Another short legislative session opens this week with a number of environmental measures on an evolving to-do list, including another round in the ongoing fight between the legislature and Gov. Roy Cooper regarding funding for the response to GenX contamination in the Cape Fear River.

KIRK ROSS: Scientists Push Ahead With GenX Plans, Studies (N.C. Health News analysis) -- A flurry of studies will examine the extent of GenX contamination in the Cape Fear, and what can possibly be done about it.

KATHRYN BROWN: Parents say class-size mandate 'not looking out for best interests of students' (WRAL-TV analysis) -- Dozens of parents are preparing to rally outside the Legislative Building Tuesday to voice frustration over the new class-size mandate.

LISA PHILIP: Durham Parents Feel 'Taken Over' By School Takeover Process (WUNC-FM analysis) -- Parents at a Durham school facing possible takeover are criticizing state officials' handling of the process. In a video posted to YouTube, they called state efforts to engage parents inauthentic.

JASON BOYD: Perdue named to National Assessment Governing Board (WCTI-TV) -- Former Gov. Beverly Perdue, a New Bern resident, is one of six leaders from around the country named to the National Assessment Governing Board for the next four years. The announcement was made by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and went into effect Oct. 1. Below is a full press release on the announcement.

D.G. MARTIN: A lost college still shines (Winston-Salem Journal column) -- What is North Carolina’s best-known and most influential college? It might be an institution that went out of business 60 years ago, Black Mountain College. Still today, educators praise and criticize the college’s progressive and collaborative approach.

DENNIS OVERBYE: 2017 Nobel in Physics Awarded to LIGO Black Hole U.S. Researchers (New York Times) -- Rainer Weiss, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, both of the California Institute of Technology, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for the discovery of ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago but had never been directly seen.