Land O Links

* Regardless of where you stand on gun control, isn't it always better to do the actual research on an issue? "Now, a huge problem when delving into gun safety research, as I wrote about in July, is that Congress has suppressed, and in some cases explicitly outlawed, the use of government funds to research gun safety. Government funding is the largest source of basic scientific research like this, so the consequences of that decision are huge. Still, there is more than enough research out there to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that more guns lead to more violence."

* The Washington Post rounds up facts about guns and gun control in the United States.

* More than half of the children living in the city of Detroit live below the federal poverty line. And the ranks of the poor have been increasing in suburban Detroit, too. In Macomb County, for example, the percentage of children in poverty more than doubled between 1999 and 2010, going from 7.3 percent to more than 17 percent.

The Detroit Free Press has created a searchable database on child poverty by school district. It gives citizens of any community a chance to assess just how much

* "The Deer Paradox" -- no, it's not a new movie: "Here are some curious facts. One: more white-tailed deer live in the United States today than at any other time in history. Two: fewer hunters are going after them than did even 20 years ago. And yet, three: deer hunting now rivals military combat in its technological sophistication."

* Here's something you haven't seen debated in halls of Congress: The federal government is collecting huge amounts of information about law-abiding Americans AND sharing it with foreign governments.