Welcome to Tuesday, August 6th, odds and evens...

President Donald Trump delivered remarks at the White House Monday condemning the “evil” and “barbaric” mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, which killed or wounded more than 80 people.

“We are outraged and sickened by this monstrous evil: the cruelty, the hatred, the malice, the bloodshed, and the terror. Our hearts are shattered for every family whose parents, children, husbands, and wives were ripped from their arms and their lives. America weeps for the fallen.”

Trump also expressed disdain for the ideology behind the white supremacist manifesto written by the El Paso shooter:

“In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul.”

Trump pointed to the bipartisan Fix NICS Act & Stop School Violence Act which he signed into law last year as part of an omnibus spending bill, along with his administration’s bump stock ban, as examples of the reforms he wishes to pursue.

Do you support bipartisan efforts to prevent mass shootings?

On the Radar

Trump Blames Video Games & Mental Illness

President Trump wants to “stop or substantially reduce” the amount of violence in video games following the two mass shootings.

"We must stop the glorification of violence in our society," Trump said in remarks from the Oval Office. "This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace."

He added, "It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this and it has to begin immediately."

#VideogamesAreNotToBlame was trending on Twitter Monday afternoon as gamers, politicians, and academics pushed back on the idea that violent video games invoke violent behavior.

Many pointed out that while an estimated 2.3 billion people around the world play video games, only the U.S. has a mass shooting epidemic.

Do you support a crackdown on violent video games?

‘Red Flag’ Laws

President Trump said on Monday that he wants “red flag” laws to help prevent the mass shooting tragedies that occurred over the weekend.

Red flag laws – also known as “extreme risk protection orders” - allow law enforcement and family members to petition a judge to confiscate firearms from people determined to pose a danger to themselves or others.

Shortly after Trump made his statements, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he planned on introducing bipartisan legislation encouraging states to adopt red flag laws.

In the past, the National Rifle Association has fought red flag legislation in at least 17 states, calling it "anti-gun."

“The biggest issue with all these bills is due process,” Dan Reid, western director of the NRA, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in February. “A person is going to lose their rights based on a third-party allegation. They’ve never been convicted of a crime. They’ve never been adjudicated mentally ill. That’s not how our system of justice should work.”

Do you support "red flag" gun-control laws?

Under the Radar

Stock Drop

Major stock markets experienced their biggest sell-off of 2019 on Monday after China allowed its currency, the yuan, to fall below 7-per-dollar for the first time in a decade and later said it would stop buying U.S. crops.

The moves come in response to President Trump’s announcement last week of 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods beginning in September amid the escalating trade war.

President Trump took to Twitter to blast China for “currency manipulation”:

PIC-UB

Yi Gang, the governor of China’s central bank, denied that China is manipulating its currency:

“We will not engage in competitive devaluation, or use the exchange rate for competitive purposes. Neither will we use the exchange rate as a tool with external pressure such as trade disputes.”

Do you support tariffs against China in response to currency manipulation?

Shutting Down 8chan

The suspected gunman in the El Paso mass shooting apparently posted a racist manifesto on anonymous chat server 8chan shortly before his attack.

The 2,300-word screed announced that “this attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” detailed a secret plan to separate America into territories by race, and warned that white people were being replaced by foreigners.

At least three mass shootings this year have been announced in advance on the site: the online message board was the go-to destination of the perpetrators behind March’s Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand and April’s San Diego synagogue attack.

8chan briefly shut down Sunday evening after CloudFare – its cybersecurity provider - cut ties with the site.

“8chan has repeatedly proven itself to be a cesspool of hate. They have proven themselves to be lawless and that lawlessness has caused multiple tragic deaths,” said Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince.

“If 8chan is shut down here is what will happen: someone else will spin up a new image board, say 20chan or whatever. People will flock to that,” Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab.ai, a far-right social media network, told BuzzFeed News.

Should platforms like 8chan be shut down?