Good News for D.C.'s Gun Owners
Plus: Homeownership myths and realities, discrimination at the theater, career diplomats brought home, and more...
Trump administration pursues a loosening of D.C.'s gun laws: Yesterday, the Justice Department filed suit against the government of Washington, D.C., "alleging that the District government and MPD [Metropolitan Police Department] unconstitutionally ban the AR-15 and many other firearms protected under the Second Amendment" and that "broad registration ban[s]" on certain firearms represent "an unconstitutional incursion into the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens seeking to own protected firearms for lawful purposes," per a DOJ press release.
"MPD's current pattern and practice of refusing to register protected firearms is forcing residents to sue to protect their rights and to risk facing wrongful arrest for lawfully possessing protected firearms."
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Back in 2003, a D.C. policeman—Dick Anthony Heller—sued the District to be able to own a handgun and keep it in his home; by 2008, the Supreme Court had ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment does secure a right to individuals to keep arms in their homes for lawful purposes. "The newly established Second Amendment Section filed this lawsuit to ensure that the very rights D.C. resident Mr. Heller secured 17 years ago are enforced today," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon in a statement, "and that all law-abiding citizens seeking to own protected firearms for lawful purposes may do so."
The Americans giving up on homeownership: Economists Seung Hyeong Lee (of Northwestern University) and Younggeun Yoo (of the University of Chicago) "built a mathematical model of consumer behavior," per The Washington Post, that attempts to model out what happens when people believe early in their careers that they will never be able to afford a home purchase.
"Using a database that has tracked the transactions of more than 500,000 Americans since 2014, they examined what happened when home prices rose in a given county. In communities where such spikes occurred, they discovered that renters within the top income quintile (who earned more than $7,500 a month, on average) pulled back on credit card spending, especially on luxuries and non-necessities. This suggests they were trying to save more for a home purchase, the researchers said," per the Post's writeup. "But renters in the lowest income quintile (generally those earning less than $3,000 a month) did the opposite: They upped credit card spending, by 3 percent on average, the paper said."
Though their research may be sound, there is something rather odd about people seeing homeownership as the only—or even the best—way of investing their money and building toward a financially secure future. The idea that one must buy a home before they can move on toward other markers of adulthood retains a firm grip on the American psyche but has become increasingly difficult to effectuate, particularly in the high-cost-of-living areas where the best-paying jobs can be found. Still, there are lots of other ways to save your money for your future, and feeling that a home purchase is out of reach doesn't render those useless.
Scenes from New York: "A New Jersey musician filed a lawsuit on Monday against a prominent Off Broadway theater, alleging that a discount offered to people of color to attend a recent performance of a play was racially discriminatory," reports The New York Times. "The lawsuit, filed against Playwrights Horizons, a highly regarded Off Broadway theater in Midtown Manhattan, was facilitated by Edward Blum, a nationally known lawyer who for years has challenged affirmative action and other race-based policies in higher education and beyond. Blum leads an organization, American Alliance for Equal Rights, that has filed 21 lawsuits in the last two years, including one last year that successfully challenged an internship for Latinos at the Smithsonian Institution."
QUICK HITS
- This is my last Roundup for a while since I'm having my second baby this Friday. I'll be back on February 2 (God willing) and will miss you all while I'm gone! Send any high-quality documentary recommendations my way—bonus points if related to surfing, skateboarding, China, the Balkans, cooking, baking, or Milton Friedman—as I'll be recovering for a bit.
- "The US Federal Communications Commission said it would ban most foreign-made drones and critical components for unmanned aircraft systems going forward, a day ahead of a deadline for adding Chinese drone-maker SZ DJI Technology Co. to the agency's so-called covered entity list," reports Bloomberg.
- "The Trump administration has recalled more than two dozen career diplomats from ambassador positions and other senior posts around the world as it works to enforce adherence with President Donald Trump's 'America First' agenda, current and former U.S. officials said," reports The Washington Post. "The directive has infuriated State Department personnel who say it will leave key embassies without critical leadership and may effectively end the careers of many ambassadors who will have only 90 days to find new jobs in the department, a tall order during a moment of limited high-level positions."
- This seems fair to me:
New: See the memo Bari Weiss sent to some 60 Minutes staff on Sunday: pic.twitter.com/3ERieIGXLh
— Isabella Simonetti (@thesimonetti) December 22, 2025
- A good point:
I realize that it's very chic to take an American Current Thing and assume that everybody else is doing a better job because they're not endlessly bloviating about it, but most of the countries you're thinking of right now have had more measles per capita than the US this year https://t.co/KxJI0PvL6j
— Mason (@webdevMason) December 21, 2025
