What I'm reading: Court protects gun owners from common sense

By Fareed Zakaria

“U.S. federal courts have issued two noteworthy rulings on guns in the past week,” writes Francis Wilkinson for Bloomberg View. “One is constitutionally significant: It overturns the District of Columbia's ban on carrying handguns outside the home, while showcasing the gun-rights movement's aggressive legal and political efforts to eliminate virtually all regulation. It may go all the way to the Supreme Court, where the justices could potentially use it to establish ground rules for concealed and open carry.”

“The other case has all the gravity of a Daffy Duck cartoon. It exposes an insular gun culture, addled by paranoia and determined to shut itself off from even the most anodyne expressions of common sense.”

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“Just because Putin hasn’t succeeded in instigating a larger pro-Russian uprising doesn’t mean that a quick resolution is in sight,” writes Lucian Kim for Slate. “Ukrainian politicians from all camps have proved themselves to be singularly shortsighted and self-interested. Last week, with the battle for the East still far from won, the government coalition collapsed and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk resigned. When cold weather returns in the fall and the Ukrainian government discovers it doesn’t have enough money to pay Russian natural-gas giant Gazprom, the energy crunch will start to bite. And without a decisive victory on the battlefield, frustrations both within the military and on the homefront could boil over. It’s far from clear whether Ukraine can win its war for independence.”

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“Highly organized, ISIS recruits foreign fighters via Twitter, publishes glossily produced propaganda videos, provides social services in the areas it controls and even issues annual military reports,” write Chams Eddine Zaougui and Pieter Van Ostaeyen in the New York Times. “Contrary to what many counterterrorism experts believe, however, ISIS has so far shown no interest in Western targets.”

“The group’s overarching objective is to consolidate its dominion in the Levant, a place of great religious significance. Some foreign fighters have proved their devotion by burning their passports; others reportedly have had their passports taken from them. The one thing that might change the attitude of foreign fighters is the United States’ launching military action against them.”