Word: backgrounder
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...four lithographs in the series, the most iconic "Young Danish Woman" has gold skin and copper hair. Her head and ravishingly long neck float against the shadowy depths of a black background. Beneath her neck, a small rectangle suggests her shirt collar. Her face is sensuously smudged, unlike Warhol's perfect "Marilyn." Lushly foliated, she is as static as a figure on an ancient Egyptian coffin...
...year ago, on Feb. 28, Brady became law. Its five-day waiting period allows local law-enforcement authorities time to perform the background check that is intended to weed out felons and others who are denied handguns. The law applied immediately to the 30 states that had no similar regulations on the books and prompted others to put in place computer checks that permit a yes or no answer within minutes, sparing buyers the five-day wait...
...within the narrow definition of what it was intended to do. The law was never supposed to prevent legal sales or, all by itself, to significantly reduce gun crimes. It was expected to make life more difficult for criminals by denying them legal gun sales. Because the Brady-mandated background checks are carried out by a patchwork of state and local authorities, just how effective it has been is hard to say. By federal estimates, 40,000 felons have been kept from getting handguns. In West Virginia, for example, ``we've had at least 180 denials this past year...
Brady also quickly lost one of its most effective provisions, which required a background check and waiting period for anyone reclaiming a gun from a pawnshop. According to Handgun Control, Houston police reported that of 199 gun sales that were blocked in the first three weeks after Brady went into effect, 177 involved pawnshop transactions. But the crime bill passed by the last Congress contained a little-noticed provision that removed from scrutiny anyone reclaiming pawn merchandise...
...theory, that reasoning makes sense. During the mid-term elections, G.O.P. leaders let such potentially divisive issues as abortion fade into the background as welfare reform and the Republican economic agenda grabbed headlines and votes. There is no mention of abortion in the ``Contract with America,'' and Gingrich made it clear, in his first few weeks as Speaker, that he hoped to sidestep the issue. The White House bungling, however, has given Republicans an irresistible opportunity to appease the antiabortion crowd on the ground that they were deceived. As Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed puts it, ``This nomination is dead...