News and Views 8/19/20: They're coming for your guns, Covid statistics dramatically misunderstood, Protests have become riots....

They’re Coming for Your Guns...Analyzing The Democratic Party’s Gun Control Platform...This platform, if adopted, means a lot more federal gun control and a lot more incentives for states to pass even more restrictive measures. It would also amount to a giant leap towards an eventual complete prohibition and/or confiscation...

Most say ‘protests’ have become ‘riots,’ new high in support for police ...That opposition to slashing police is the highest of any recent poll, and a strong indicator that the type of law and order message pushed by President Trump and the GOP has support in Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where the survey was conducted...

De Blasio's wife has 14 staff while 22,000 city workers face job cuts... including a $70,000 videographer who filmed her baking cookies ...Chirlane McCray, who is mulling a run for Brooklyn borough president, enjoys a core team of eight full-time staff who cost the city a combined $1.1 million in annual salaries, according to her office.  Sources at the Mayor's Office told The City the mayor's wife also has at least another six staff who do not feature on the official roster, taking her total workforce to 14 with a hefty price tag of $2 million...

NY AG’s efforts to dissolve NRA look even worse upon closer examination
...It’s thuggery on an industrial scale, where we see an ambitious Democrat in a very blue state with future dreams of national office using the power of the DA’s office to attempt what amounts to a hit job on a political opponent....

Americans still misperceive the risks of death from COVID-19 for different age cohorts—to a shocking extent
Six months into this pandemic, Americans still dramatically misunderstand the risk of dying from COVID-19:

-On average, Americans believe that people aged 55 and older account for just over half of total COVID-19 deaths; the actual figure is 92%.

-Americans believe that people aged 44 and younger account for about 30% of total deaths; the actual figure is 2.7%.

-Americans overestimate the risk of death from COVID-19 for people aged 24 and younger by a factor of 50; and they think the risk for people aged 65 and older is half of what it actually is (40% vs 80%).

Chinese hospitals aborted late-stage pregnancies and killed newborns as part of a campaign to purge the Uighur culture, report says    Hospitals in Xinjiang aborted late-stage pregnancies and killed newborns as part of China's mission to erase Uighur culture, a doctor who worked in the region told Radio Free Asia on Monday.

Since 2016, China has interned at least 1 million Uighurs in hundreds of prison camps, which it euphemistically calls "reeducation centers," where Uighurs are forced to abandon their heritage and religion.

A large part of this crackdown involves limiting Uighurs' reproductive rights and slashing the birth rate....