The Shooting Gallery: Given the unlikelihood that Congress will act, Democratic leaders in several states are moving ahead with efforts to control guns. In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy wants to raise to 21 the legal age for buying long guns and provide for civil lawsuits against gunmakers.

  In New York,  Gov. Kathy Hochul also wants to ban people under 21 from buying AR-15-style rifles.

  And in California, legislative leaders and Gov. Gavin Newsom are moving quickly to impose tougher controls on firearms.

  In Uvalde, Texas yesterday one resident called out to President Biden, “We need help!” and Biden promised, “We will.”

  Since Friday, there have been 12 more mass shootings in this country.

  But Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott accused Democrats of politicizing the situation with calls for gun control. “Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge, period,” Abbott said. In mass shootings, they’ve also had an assault rifle.

  The automatic rifles used in mass shootings are based on the M16 military rifle first issued 65 years ago. The current version is the M4. Our friend Lucian Truscott, a West Point graduate, points out in his Substack column that the Pentagon has contracted for a new and more lethal rifle that will inevitably show up in the civilian market. Truscott quotes Pentagon releases that say the XM5 “integrates, among other things, a variable magnification optic, backup etched reticle, laser range finder, ballistic calculator, atmospheric sensor suite, compass, visible and infrared aiming lasers, and a digital display overlay.”

  Bluntly, they say, it will increase “soldier lethality” and Truscott says it will then increase lethality in school massacres. 

The War Zone: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Saturday that his country will “take everything back” from Russia. “This is an imperative,” Zelensky said, “And it’s just a matter of time. Every day at this same time, the time until liberation grows shorter. Everything we do is for this.” 

  Zelensky has also warned of famine and a hunger “catastrophe” if Russia is allowed to continue blocking grain exports from his country. Ukraine’s major ports on the Black Sea have either been captured or subjected to a naval blockade.

  Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelensky said that Russian forces are blocking Ukraine from exporting 22 million tons of food products that include “our grain, barley, sunflower and more.”

  “If we do not export in the coming months, if there are no political agreements with Russia through intermediaries — there will be famine, there will be a catastrophe, there will be a deficit, there will be a high price,” Zelensky said.

  As the war grinds on, Russia is already short of soldiers and equipment. With his forces getting chewed up in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has signed a law eliminating the upper age limit for Russians and foreigners to join the military. Previously enlistment was limited to Russians aged 18 to 40 and foreigners 18 to 30. 

  Putin is also rolling out old military equipment to replace all the modern stuff his army has lost. Cold-War era T-62 tanks have been photographed at the Melitopol rail station in southeastern Ukraine near the current front lines. They don’t stand a chance against modern anti-tank weapons.

  Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the President of the Ukrainian President’s Office, said the Russians became hysterical after the US decided to provide Ukraine with multiple rocket launch systems. Podoliak said on his Telegram page that the Russians have used “All types of heavy artillery, heavy flamethrowers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, heavy aircraft bombs, and cruise missiles of various modifications with a range of over 1000 km.” 

Truckin’: At around $5.57 a gallon, diesel prices recently blew past the all-time record and are up a whopping 75% over last year. Because the world of commerce depends on diesel, everything you buy will be more expensive. 

  The national average for a gallon of gas is $4.62, but despite all the complaints, that didn’t seem to stop many people from travelling over the Memorial Day weekend.

A Pox Upon Them: A leading adviser to the World Health Organization says the   outbreak of monkeypox in developed countries is “a random event” that may have resulted from sexual activity at two recent raves in Europe.

  Monkeypox is a virus in wild animals like rodents and primates that sometimes jumps to people. Most human cases have been in central and west Africa. 

  Dr. David Heymann told The Associated Press that “We know monkeypox can spread when there is close contact with the lesions of someone who is infected, and it looks like sexual contact has now amplified that transmission.”

The Spin Rack: Five people are dead, including four members of a Savannah family, after two boats collided at a convergence in Georgia’s Wilmington River. Six people were aboard one boat and three on the other. The dead include Chris, 51, and Lori Leffler, 50, and their sons, Nate, 17, and Zach, 23. — A plane with 22 people on board is missing in the mountains of Nepal. — Former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway writes in her new book, “Here’s the Deal,” that she was surprised that her Husband George Conway turned against Trump. She says, “This was so out of character for George: the name-calling, the spitefulness, the passive-aggressive nature.” Hmm. Where did he learn that?

The Book Section: Nancy Brophy, a 71-year-old romance novelist who once wrote a blog post about “How to Murder Your Husband,” has been convicted in Portland, Oregon of murdering her husband. 

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