Guns in America
In a six-part Revisionist History podcast series, Canadian Malcom Gladwell, dives into the gun debate.
The way America deals with guns is absolutely bonkers
No kidding. I’ve had plenty of long discussions with my NRA card carrying and gun enthusiast neighbor. I love those conversations as they are always cordial. However, our discussions often end with “That doesn’t make any sense”.
Fourteenth century Bristol merchant John Knight is one of main characters in episode one. Right away, Gladwell lives up to the name of his podcast: history is not what you think it was. Episode one also covers one of my favorite topics, the Supreme Court, in a case New York Rifle and Pistol (the Bruen case). A double whammy.
I wont’ spoil the broth here. It is fair to say that the ending won’t surprise the regular listener of Revisionist History.
Episode 2 gets into the topic of assault weapon regulation. Also here, there is a major surprise.
The assault rifle is not the most lethal weapon in mass shootings. Sarani’s group found that more people were shot by rifles than handguns, but those differences did not translate into a higher percentage of people killed. The people most likely to die were the ones hit by handguns.
And therefor,
There shouldn’t be separate laws for rifles than for handguns. We think there should be just common laws that apply to both types of weapons.
Convictions, incarceration, and survival rates depend a lot on how far you are from a trauma center. Further, trauma centers aren’t built in poor areas as they are expensive to run and few carry insurance to pay for the services. So crime-ridden poor areas both see more gun-related crimes and are further from trauma centers. The odds are stacked against folks here. Bonkers, but no surprise.
I am glad that in season 8, Malcolm Gladwell, is back to his usual detective self. It makes for great podcasts, and surely a new book soon.