Weekend Reads 11/30/19

Eye-popping rise in BB-gun injuries, study finds

Between 1990 and 2016, the data suggests there were 364,133 children (less than 18 years old) injured by nonpowder firearms, which include BB, paintball, airsoft, and pellet guns.

BB guns accounted for 80.8% of all the injuries. The injuries were mostly from unintentional accidents among young boys at their homes. The average age of the injured was 11.8 years old, 99% were unintentionally injured, 87% were boys, and nearly 90% of the injuries happened at home—in other words, the Ralphie scenario.

Why Don't Environmentalists Just Buy the Land They Want To Protect? Because It's Against the Rules.

Marvel's focus on state-owned lands was, in retrospect, brilliant. State trust lands were granted to Western states by Congress at statehood for a singular purpose: to earn money for schools and other public institutions. States have a constitutional mandate to maximize revenues from trust lands, typically by leasing them for grazing, drilling, or logging. But "the Idaho Constitution does not give an ongoing birthright to public land grazing," Marvel told local newspapers after the state rejected his initial bids. "Other valuable uses exist on these lands."

Google fires four employees for 'clear and repeated violations' of its data security policies, apparently including one whose suspension inspired a protest at a Google office

Speaking at that rally on Friday, Rivers said she never spread confidential information outside the company, and insinuated that Google's investigation focused more on her activism against the company's work with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE). Berland, for his part, similarly said at the protest that he had been targeted for "retaliation" by Google for his criticism of how YouTube handles hate speech.