Podcast Episodes 2 – Gun Rights and Gun Control
Join Travis and Christina, a husband and wife team discuss the values and beliefs behind the controversial topic of Gun Control and Gun Rights. They approach the issue with respect with the intention and hope of bringing people together one disagreement at a time.
Episode 2 Show Notes
Today’s show is about Gun Control and Gun Rights. This is an enormous topic. We could spend hours worth of episodes going into each facet of it. It’s full of emotion due to the death and destruction caused by firearms, as well as the horrific results in not having one when needed to defend oneself against a violent criminal or authoritarian government. We think it’s important to go into the show with some ground rules of understanding.
- We know this is a sensitive topic. Whether your pro-gun rights, or pro-gun control, please, put down your weapons of confirmation bias and be open to listen to each side.
- Death from a firearm is a tragedy, even if it is in self-defense. No reasonable person would disagree with that. Both sides of this issue believe with sincerity that mass shootings, especially the ones where kids are the victims, are horrible and need to be prevented. [Repeat that]. It’s important for you to know this going into the discussion. When you’re listening to an opposing view and you start to feel triggered and angry, remember, each side here, believes these are tragedies.
- There are no easy solutions to this dilemma. Removing guns will not stop tragedies from happening. Not having any restrictions or safety measures in place will not help either. This issue is vast in its complexity because human rights and lives are involved. Please marinate on this fact going into the show. Too often we are told the solution is simple and it is not.
Gun Control Beliefs
Guns are the root cause of gun deaths and therefore should either be eliminated or reduced drastically.
Easy access to guns are why there are so much gun violence in this country.
There should be a centralized database storing every gun sale with detailed records and each firearm should be registered in such database. This includes private sales to eliminate the “gun show loophole” [Not having a central place for firearm sales makes tracing guns to crimes very arduous.]
Military style guns have no place in the hands of citizens. These include “assault” rifles.
Mass shootings of schools or events have increased and are the result of easy access to high power guns and high capacity magazines.
More Gun restrictions would reduce gun deaths and gun crime.
Do not believe in the likelihood of U.S. Government tyranny or that the threat of such warrants the right to own weapons that are not for sporting, hunting, or self-defense purposes.
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee the right of a citizen to own a firearm but only for the right of a group of citizens to form a militia and be armed.
There should be laws on how guns should be kept and stored in a household to help prevent accidental shootings at home, these are called “family fire”.
There need to be strict measures/laws in place preventing violent or potentially violent people from getting guns, such as having restrictions for people with mental health issues.
The NRA is a corrupt organization that bullies legislators through lobbying efforts, which prevents proper gun control measures from becoming law.
Values:
Value life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
Value safety.
Value regulations and rules.
Value government intervention and oversight.
Gun Rights Beliefs
Believe in the right to protect one’s property, family, and liberty and those rights are protected by the U.S Constitution and secured in the Bill of Rights.
Believe the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights protects our right to own firearms.
Believe the Second Amendment was included in the U.S. Constitution to secure the rights of its citizens to hold the government accountable and protect themselves from a tyrannical and/or corrupt government.
Citizens should have access to all types of firearms, however, believe certain restrictions to firearms are acceptable for certain conditions.
Weary of more gun restrictions or registration requirements, as such measures can lead the government to remove a citizen’s firearms, as history has shown in other nations. (For example, a national registry of guns to gun owner can be used to remove all firearms from the citizens.) Such measures are slippery slopes and should be considered with great caution and forethought.
Believe in firearm safety and such safety should be taught to all citizens or at least greatly expanded. This type of education and training will reduce firearm related accidents.
Believe gun violence is a tragedy.
The NRA, while not a perfect organization, works towards protecting the citizens’ right to firearms.
Believe guns are tools/weapons and are not the problem in gun violence. People are the root issue.
Values:
Value life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
Value safety.
Value autonomy from government.
Value freedom.
Value the U.S. Constitution and the form of government outlined in it.
Here are the stats mentioned on the show:
Interesting Stats: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm and https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/fatal.html
- 1999-2018 (20 years), the average gun related deaths total per year is 32,603
- From 1999-2018 (20 years), there have been an average of 13,359 non suicide gun related deaths per year.
- From 1999-2018 (20 years), there have been an average of 19,243 gun related suicides per year.
- 1999-2018 (20 years), the rate of gun related deaths has increased by 17%
- 1999-2018 (20 years), the violent crime rate has decreased by 29% (FBI data table)
Five years average
- Every day on average approx. 313 people are shot, and 103 people die.
- Every day on average approx. 21 children are shot (ages 1-17) 4 are fatalities, 17 are injuries.
- Every day on average approx. 8 children and teens are shot by family fire (a shooting involving an improperly stored firearm found in the home resulting in an injury or death.)
School shootings (Data from shootings of 4 or more people, including the perp) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States_by_death_toll
- From 1966 – 2018, there have been 23 Mass Shootings at Schools (including universities and trade schools). A Span of 52 years
- Out of those 23 shootings:
- 222 Total deaths over 52 years (including the perpetrators).
- 14 (61%) were done by current or former students.
- 7 (30%) were done by people under 20.
- 13 (56%) have occurred since 2000.
- 1 was done by the government, where national guard soldiers shot unarmed students at a Vietnam protest.
- This data does suggest a rise in mass school shootings over the years.
- Many of the mass shooters in recent history have been on or were recently on an anti-depressant/anti-psychotic – For example, Eric Harris of the Columbine shootings was on Luvox. Prozac is also well known for producing extremely violent behavior in some people.
The Suicide Rate in the U.S. has increased 35% from 1999 – 2018 (https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide.shtml) The rate of males was 3.7 times higher than that of females.
The rate of suicide rate of teenagers age 13-18 increased 56% from 1999-2018
An estimate of 128k people die each year from an adverse reaction to an FDA approved drug. The European Commission estimates around 200k people in Europe die each year. https://ethics.harvard.edu/blog/new-prescription-drugs-major-health-risk-few-offsetting-advantages
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2282014
There were 36,560 deaths from auto accidents in 2018 – https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/early-estimates-traffic-fatalities-2019
Summary of Federal Law – taken from Giffords.org
Resources:
Scalia, Antonin (2008). “DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA et al. v. HELLER” (PDF). United States Reports. 554: 576. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
https://www.sandersinstitute.com/blog/the-gun-control-debate-what-debate
https://gun-control.procon.org/
https://bigthink.com/against-the-new-taboo/two-important-arguments-from-both-sides-of-the-gun-debate
http://connection.ebscohost.com/us/gun-control/overview-gun-control-debate
https://www.thoughtco.com/us-gun-control-timeline-3963620
https://www.thoughtco.com/gun-show-laws-by-state-721345
Links
Mexico and the most violent cities in the world
https://www.businessinsider.com/most-violent-cities-in-the-world-2018-3
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-most-dangerous-cities-in-the-world.html
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/murder
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2018-crime-statistics-released-093019
Common Antidepressants prescribed – https://www.medicinenet.com/what_is_the_most_prescribed_antidepressant/article.htm
SSRI drugs not designed to be on for long term- people get addicted. – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/apr/03/is-britain-a-nation-hooked-on-antidepressants
https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/harvard-health-antidepressant-use-400-america/
https://themighty.com/2019/08/guide-to-antidepressants/
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/11/numbers
https://www.webmd.com/depression/features/antidepressants#1
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/ssris/art-20044825
America, with 5% of the world’s population, consumes 50% of the world’s pharmaceuticals and 80% of the world’s prescription narcotics.
Top Lobbying companies: https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/371523-lobbyings-top-50-pour-540m-into-influence-campaigns – NRA is not even in the top 50 in 2017.
NRA spent 5.12 million on lobbying in 2017 which was approx. 2 million more from the previous years.
Big Pharma spent 298 million on lobbying in 2019 – https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/industries/summary?cycle=2019&id=h04
What is an assault rifle: It’s a fully automatic rifle, typically used in the military. – https://www.britannica.com/technology/assault-rifle
Dad-deprived children are less likely of being empathetic, assertive, and more likely to do poorly in every subject in school, suicidal, homicidal, and end up in prison. Warren Farrel Ph.D – Ted Talk “The Boy Crisis: A Sobering look at the state of our Boys”
Licensed Firearm dealers are required by federal law to maintain sales records for at least 20 years. The FBI is required to destroy approved background checks after 24hours.
The evolution of gun laws in Mexico and the result: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_regulation_in_Mexico
https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mexico-tijuana-violence-20190314-story.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_keep_and_bear_arms
Gun ownership and murder rates across countries: https://thefederalist.com/2018/04/03/gun-control-reduce-murder-lets-run-numbers-across-world/
Countries with Arms rights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_keep_and_bear_arms
Federalist Paper 29, 46
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed46.asp
https://krisannehall.com/index.php/resources/articles/175-a-lesson-on-gun-control