EPISODE 78 — The Gun Show

[JulyDiaz 2797]

The recent tragedy in Charleston, SC sparked, among other things, another flurry of debate in what appears to be our new twisted national pastime: arguing about guns. We'll hear in the media proposed solutions to the problem of gun violence in America, and we'll also hear the realities of why they wont work. We'll hear about magazine restrictions and closing the gun show loophole, but we'll also hear about how gun ownership is a tradition and a hobby across America that would be as easy to prohibit tomorrow as it would be to prohibit driving a car or owning a boat.

 

The gun debate is a nuanced, complex issue with elaborate roots that stretch back generations. This week on the podcast, Jack O'Brien is joined by editors Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) and Josh Sargent to discuss both sides of the gun debate, the statistics about gun violence that you almost never hear, how the debate is painted by race, how gun ownership is more deeply rooted in a person's identity than we think, and how trying to predict the next mass shooter will always be impossible.

[jackstar7 108]

If this were only required listening for anyone using the internet.

 

Not even gun-owners, just people on the internet, so people can understand nuance.

[DirkBender 31]

One of the best discussions I've ever heard on the topic.

[BenBradshaw 1]

If you guys ever get around to boning up on how the sexual selection component of evolutionary theory applies to humans, many of the points you bring up are going to coalesce into a much clearer picture of what's going on with gun violence in America.

 

The analytical tools are just sitting right there for you to notice. I swear, the sexual selection component of evolutionary theory right now is the fucking nitrous oxide of the late 18th and early 19th century. People in the future are going to wonder how in the hell we managed to miss something so obvious.

 

I strongly recommend that everyone look into the patterns of and logic underpinning male-male competition in terrestrial mammals, a group of species which includes humans.

[markserletic 24]

I used to like this podcast until I heard this episode. I have never heard more uniformed people talk about a topic since the last time I heard Bill O'reiley say anything. You mentioned that lots of children die from finding guns in the home. What you dont know is that swimming pools kill more children than guns. But who wants to hear that when all of us California kings are wasting water and enjoying our staus on the west coast on our moral high ground. Fuck you.