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Covering Democratic candidate Beto O鈥橰ourke in New Hampshire was like watching a 鈥渇reight train of fervor,鈥� says our writer. But voters there are testing him on something else as well: his ability to answer tough questions.

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The 鈥淟ake Erie Bill of Rights鈥� is the latest example of a nascent global movement to grant legal standing to nature. But it's not clear this view of nature can square with U.S. law.

How important is it that a job title reflect your gender? In France, an official change to add feminine titles has people debating whether the change increases equality or lessens it.聽

This story is about a reporter who arrived in New England this winter with high expectations for huge snowdrifts and maybe even snowpocalypse. He waited. And waited. And finally headed north.

Just six days after a gun massacre killed 50 people, New Zealand鈥檚 government leaders, both left and right, have decided to ban military-style semi-automatic weapons such as those used in the shootings. The speed of the consensus is certainly noteworthy. Australia took 12 days after a 1996 mass killing to pass similar laws. Many in America are still waiting for such a ban. But what is important to note is how the Kiwis did it.

The compromise announced March 21 was made possible because top political leaders on either side of the gun debate finally listened to each other鈥檚 fears with a certain civic compassion. The national trauma of last Friday鈥檚 killings at two mosques certainly made sure of that.

As in the United States, emotions over guns run deep in New Zealand, with a gun lobby on one side and gun-control advocates on the other. Even though the country has no equivalent of a Second Amendment and enjoys far fewer gun murders per capita than in the U.S., many previous efforts at tightening gun restrictions have failed. This time, there was a mutual acknowledgment of each other鈥檚 concerns.

Under the agreement, hunters and farmers will be able to keep guns with little rapid firepower. Owners of military-style semi-automatics and high-capacity ammunition magazines will need to surrender their weapons and then be compensated. In other words, guns with the highest fear factor 鈥� and designed for maximum slaughter 鈥� must be forsaken.

As one New Zealand hunter put it, 鈥淢ost of us aren鈥檛 keen on seeing idiots in the bush with [AK-15 assault rifles].鈥� Another owner said the convenience of owning an AK-15 rifle 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 outweigh the risk of misuse.鈥�

This is a lesson for the U.S., where opposing camps remain stuck in their respective narratives of fear. The different emotions 鈥� fear of crime, fear of government, fear of suicide, etc. 鈥� must first be addressed before facts and reason can prevail. In fact, in its decisions recognizing a fundamental聽gun聽right, the Supreme Court has acknowledged that gun rights are not unlimited, especially for the kind of weapons commonly used to instill fear.

Justice聽Antonin Scalia,聽the conservative who wrote the key decision, cited laws written in 18th-century America that ban 鈥渄angerous and unusual鈥� weapons used to 鈥渁ffright鈥� people. 鈥淚t鈥檚 clear that certain restrictions on the bearing of arms are traditional and can be enforced,鈥� the late justice told a journalist.

Those countries with too many guns designed for mass killing must find their own path toward political unity on gun restrictions. New Zealand just set one example by showing how civic respect and listening can replace many fears about guns and gun control.