Commentary on Laboratories of Democracy

In a compelling argument made by Vanessa Hendricks in her blog Laboratories of Democracy, abortion laws in primarily Republican states has gotten out of control.
Vanessa's blog is well written and informative. I also agree with Vanessa when she says that republican laws about abortion have gotten out of control. Many of these laws, as she states, are just made to perpetuate stigmatisms about abortion and create more scare tactics for people who may be uneducated in the matter. I also appreciate that she suggested looking at these laws not only at a local level but also at a national level. These laws are turning into an epidemic that is plaguing out state and nation alike.
The only thing that I wish Vanessa had added to her blog is how these laws relate to women's rights. For example, these laws don't only scare people but that also limit women's health rights by controlling their bodies. By limiting how, when, and where a woman can have an abortion, lawmakers are choosing for women how they treat their bodies. Like Vanessa says at the end of her post "Most abortions after 21 weeks are performed for unviable pregnancies", lawmakers are not only making a horrible decision harder but that are putting the mother's life in danger.
Overall I think that Vanessa's post was informative, accurate, and well-written.

Gun control in America is a very heavily disputed topic, but it feels like it is especially prevalent in Texas. Maybe it is because of the high concentration of conservatives that live in the Texas area, 26% of Texas republicans say they want less strict gun control and 58% of them want gun control regulations to stay the way they are. This is a staggering amount of people as compared to the 80% of Texas democrats that say they want stricter rules on gun control. 
Personally, I believe that if Texas, and America, doesn't make a change when it comes to gun control, that our problems  about gun will only get worse and conflicts will only escalate. There have been "23 incidents where there were deaths of injuries" during a school shooting in 2018 alone! (BBC News) This is an insanely high number that could have been lower if there were stricter rules about how was allowed a gun. This isn't to say that all shootings would be avoided, but it would greatly diminish this tragic number.
To lessen the possibility of gun violence a few ideas have been proposed that I strongly agree with. If the age limit for buying guns increases from 18 to 21 this is lower the possibility of young, mentally disturbed kids from buying guns ans threatening to shoot someone, including themselves. Another possibility is updating and improving the background check system. As of now superficial background checks are preformed before someone buys gun, but this check is not deep enough. There are multiple instances where if someone had been thoroughly checked out before purchasing a gun they wouldn't have been given the gun and mass shootings wouldn't have occurred.
These two simple idea would drastically improve the gun control issue that faces us today. Texas Legislators need to push these agendas in our local government and with our National Government as well.