- Download:
- MP3 Audio47 MB
- M4A AAC49 MB
- OGG42 MB
Last week, we examined the Second Amendment’s history and the seductive allure of guns. This second of our two part program includes our efforts to contact the National Rifle Association, reveals how gun-related crimes have affected human lives, and shows how a flood of affordable large magazine semiautomatic pistols altered the course of American history.
Thank You for Calling the NRA
The NRA, along with other pro-gun organizations such as Pink Pistols, refused or didn’t bother to answer our requests for interviews by telephone, email, or Facebook. In an effort to get somebody from the NRA on the record, we contacted the NRA Member Services hotline and had a very strange conversation. (Beginning to 7:12)
The Night the Sky Opened Up
On October 28, 2000, three days before Halloween, Sezin Koehler was out for a night on the town in Los Angeles. But what she did not know, as her best friend Wendy Soltero rolled up in her car, was that the sky was about to open up. Koehler reveals the little discussed pain of living with the consequences of a gun-related murder and talks about how she’s still coping more than twelve years later. (7:12 to 27:25)
The History of the Glock
To understand how handguns with large magazines have become a greater part of American culture, we spoke with After Paul Barrett, assistant managing editor at Businessweek and author of Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun. Barrett discusses Gaston Glock’s parallels with Samuel Colt, reveals how Glock’s savvy marketing strategies were used to cajole city police departments, how gun manufacturers exploited the grandfather clause of the 1994 assault weapons ban, whether Glock feels any remorse, the 2005 ban on civil lawsuits against gun manufacturers and suppliers, and the NRA’s failure to compromise on any issue. (27:25 to end)
Loops for this program were provided by Exoflex and JoeFunktastic.
Follow Your Ears #2: Guns, Part Two (Download MP3)
Excellent programme. Am sharing the site with friends in the Granny Peace brigade, our MoveOn group against gun violence and million moms against gun violence.
Thanks for this work you are doing. I really can’t believe the arguments used against the most basic of gun laws: national registration, issuance on a basis of “may” not “shall”, interstate trafficking, and a ban on assault weapons and their magazines. It makes no sense, and most Americans agree yet the congressmen feel the 2nd Amendment allows free, open without restraint ownership…..I just don’t get it.
Amen. And agreed. Many thanks to Ed and Follow Your Ears for tackling this oddly contentious topic in America.
Sending out thankfulness to Sezin for wholeheartedly sharing her righteous and enriching story of witness.
Ed,
The series as it’s shaping up is marvelous–intelligent and bold!
If you do a part 3 (and I hope this conversation on guns is a recurring thread) you might consider focusing a segment on the ways in which the “gun control issue” is shamelessly exploited by demagogues to manipulate their constituencies.
I loved spending part of my morning here with you two. Thank you both.
Such a shocking, visceral description of what it feels like to be in that terrible moment.
Its unfortunate that we seem to be indoctrinated or persuaded by particular stories without considering, or researching the subject for factual information only. There are more police reports of family utilized firearms scaring off intruders that never hit mainstream. No excitement in “I fired a warning shof” or “I pointed my AK at them”,”and the intruder ran off”,
A massacre here , one there,are they real or false flags? These are precarious times, with an out of control government, debt, scandal, and regarding this article, an attack on second amendment rights. etc.
Its never the instrument, its the mind behind the instrument. 3000 deaths in 911 within a few hours, as well as suicide bombers,. How is that linked to gun control?
Their are psychological viewpoints to also consider. In a nut shell, there is a percentage of “low energy+, “emotionally damaged”, or Clinically “psychotic” people that exist in our ever expanding population. As population increases so the number of lesser evolved correspond.
I own guns, as do most people I know. Many carry legally concealed. None of them, or in our community, county, have shot anyone. Has there been gun murders nearby? Yes, primarily contributed by gang, drug related incidents. There again we cannot package the mind/instrument in a particular category. However accurate determination may more likely be that “low energy” people are generally associated with gangs, drugs, robbery and related crimes.
Until we find a way to accurately determine the psychological condition, past and future, is it possible to stop violent crime? How can we measure the breaking point of any individual? The question itself and any answer to it is ridiculous.
We are evolving, people will do what they do in the evolutionary energy field that they are in. In the US, I’m not certain what the rating is off hand, but consider if 13% of the population exists on the border of committing a violent crime. That.is a huge number, but leaves 87% innocent. Yet the minority subjects the majority to unconstitutional laws when it comes to gun control.
I don’t have an answer, apparently neither does anyone else. I own a gun, if necessary I will use it to protect my family or the innocent. Taking someones life may be a traumatic experience, however out weighed by saving an innocent life.
Peace be with all