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Short Stuff: HR8 Gun Legislation · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff on Josh, there's Chuck.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Jerry's here in the saddle for Dave and this is
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: short stuff. Like I said, that's right, and we're gonna
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: try and get through this next twelve minutes without our
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: brains exploding and without screaming into the microphone and without
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: receiving death threats when this episode comes out. That's right,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: because we are talking about h R eight. It is, uh,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the Bipartisan Background Checks Act. It is a bill that
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: originated in the House in the United States to try
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: and close loopholes on gun purchase background checks. And uh,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: we thought this might be a good way to dip
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: our toe into the gun debate after the events at
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Valdi and uh, here we go. Yeah, the the you've
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: all the shooting is definitely if you've paid any attention,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: what's over to the news really kind of breathed some
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: um energy into the concept of background checks and some
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: bills that were already out there, like that HR eight. Um,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the Bipartisan Background Checks Act one was introduced in March,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and now all of a sudden, it seems like it's
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: got some legs like it didn't have before because of
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: that shooting, which is surprising to me, Chuck, because like,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: we didn't do anything after Sandy Hook somehow, I don't know.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe two is too many now, Um, who knows, But
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: it does seem like the zeitgeist is kind of shifted
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: after you've all the Yeah, I think so. Uh, just
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: nuts and bolts of the bill. It passed the US House, uh,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: like you said last March to two oh three, but
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: of course died in the Senate, as so many bills do,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: because it gets filibustered by the Republican Party and they
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: won't even talk about it. And there's a fifty fifty
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: chamber right now. We want to thank Patrick Kaiger at
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: how stuff works for this uh, for this Newsy article again,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and um, you know, Democrat wanted to. I think they
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: were hopeful that they could at least put it on
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the UH Senate Democrats on the legislative calendar. That has
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: not happened. But let's talk for a minute on how
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: people buy guns in the US. Hey, UM, So when
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: you buy a gun, especially if you buy a gun
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: from a federally licensed gun dealer, Um, they say, here,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: fill out this form, and this form is submitted to
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the National instant criminal background check system, and it has
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a bunch of different questions on it, rather personal questions,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: but they make sense when you're buying a gun in
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: that context. They say, have you ever been indicted for
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: a felony, have you ever been convicted of a felony UM?
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Have you ever used drugs? Um? Have you ever been
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: committed to a mental institution by a court order? Or
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: have you ever been dishonorably discharged by the military. Have
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: you been convicted of domestic violence? Are you a legal
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: resident of the US? Are You're gonna fill this out
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: and then the fire armstealers going to turn around, contact
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the FBI, s n i c S Service and they're
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: going to run a background check on you, that's right,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and see if everything checks out and if you are
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: eligible to buy that gun. This was created in with
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act because if we all remember,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: after UH Ronald Reagan had an assassination attempt on his life,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: there was gun legislation and they actually did something back
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: then about it, including Ronald Reagan and Republicans. Well, yeah,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: because Brady was one of his staffers and he was
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: paralyzed UM as a result of that that assassination attempt,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and so any any gun control legislation that came after
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: that usually bears his name. That's right. We are in
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: a different place these days. It's a different um Republican
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: party and Savir emails. We're not just picking on one
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: party over the other. This is just straight up facts
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: on how these bills go down. UM a lot of
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: people and eventually we're going to get around to an
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: n r A episode in full. I guess a lot
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: of people will a lot of people will blame the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: n r A, But I personally believe, and I've seen
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: articles sort of backing this up these days that like
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the n r A has already sort of done its job,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and even if they went away completely, things would still
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: be about the same, because what they have created is
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: a situation where a more moderate Republican who might be
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: in favor of common sense gun legislation that anywhere from
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: sixty nine of Americans are in favor of UH won't
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: even consider this legislation because they want to hold onto
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: office because they will get primaried out by a further
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: right Republican who says, I will not touch any gun legislation,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: So vote for me, and that's kind of where we
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: are today. So so back to background checks like that
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and i c S service UM started. Um, there just
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: wasn't background checks before then. And since then they've done
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: three hundred million plus background checks for gun purchases. So
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: that means that at least three hundred million guns have
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: been sold legitimately since in the US, and that out
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: of those three hundred million, chuck one point five million
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: were flagged and were denied um that the ability to
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: purchase that firearm because they didn't pass the n i
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: c S background check. And so on the one side,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of people say one point five million out
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: of three hundred that's pretty good math. On the other side,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: they say, yeah, like a bunch of that one point
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: five million people were denied unfairly. There was, it was
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: ungrounded and there is a process to appeal your denial
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: if you are actually denied. But the point is is
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: society is saying there are certain kinds of people that
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: we don't trust with firearms, and we're trying to root
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: them out. In the best place to root them out
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: is when they go to buy a gun. It makes sense,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: but there's a loophole to this that is so huge
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: that anybody, including convictive felons, can walk right through it
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: and purchase a gun on the other side. That's right,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: We're gonna take a break, let you ponder that ridiculousness,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: and we will talk about that loophole right after this,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: all right. The big loophole is that there is a
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: lot of gray area of what constitutes a licensed or
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: a non licensed gun dealer. Uh. They talk about occasional
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: sales or purchases being exempt from the background check requirement,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and there is no real clear line establishing what that
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: even means. It's a rule of thumb. It's very vague.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Uh that someone who just sells a lot of guns
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and they want to make their living selling guns or
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: make a profit selling guns. Yeah, not even make a living,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: make a profit selling guns, has to be licensed to
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: conduct these background checks. But you've heard about gun shows
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: and the internet and things like that. If you sell
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: guns at a gun show, you can claim to not
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: be like, you know, like, hey, I'm just an occasional seller.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I just go to these gun shows and sell tons
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and tons of guns for profit. And that enables people
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: to walk in there and buy a gun without having
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: any kind of background check. Yeah, so if you sell guns,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: you're still selling a gun. But if you say I
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: only do it occasionally, the government basically has to say, Okay,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: well you don't need a license, and there's no requisite,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: there's no definition, there's no Like you said, it's a
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: very great area on what constitutes occasional or who who's
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: required to have a federal license. But if you aren't
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a federally licensed gun dealer, that means that you can
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: go sell a gun without doing a background check. Right,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And uh, that's the most recent stat we have. Uh,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: they estimated gun owners bought their weapon within the previous
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: couple of years without going through a background check. It
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: is undoubtedly bigger now because whenever there are mass shootings,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: there is a rush on buying guns in the United States. Uh,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: people don't back off from buying them, they buy more
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: of them. So I don't know what the percentages now,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: but if even if we go with that's a lot
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: of people buying guns without a background check. So if
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: you're a person who you know that you are going
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to be like you're going to be flagged by the
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: n i c S background check, all you have to
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: do is find yourself a gun show, or go on
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the internet and find somebody who's selling guns on the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: internet and buy from an unlicensed firearm dealer, and that
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: that ends up. And like I said, like with background checks,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: were saying, society doesn't want certain people to have We
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: don't we don't trust them with firearms. And one of
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: those people are again convicted felons. They're not legally allowed
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: to own a firearm in the United States after they've
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: been convicted of a felony, unless I believe that there um,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: they are granted clemency by the president or the governor. Right.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: So um, there's a kind of an unnerving stat then
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: that that ties into that, and that is that in
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: that same two thousand, fifteen Annals of Internal Medicine study,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: they found that nineties of prison inmates who had been
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: previously prohibited from owning a gun and that that was
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: the gun that they used in the crime that they
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: were in prison for. Now they'd obtain that gun from
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: an unlicensed seller. And that is a big problem for
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: every law abiding citizen of these United States, right, and
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: every law abiding gun owner. Frankly the citizens too. That's right,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: if you are a UM, if you're thinking like, well,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: there should be exceptions to this, like you should be
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: able to hand your gun down to your child if
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you're a hunter, or sell your gun to your uncle,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: if you know, instead of them having to go to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: a gun shop. They can do that. They have carved
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: out some exceptions in h R eight that still hasn't passed. UM.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Law enforcement obviously could transfer guns without background checks. Family
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: members could gift them to family members or sell them
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: to family members. You could inherit a gun without a
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: background check, or like in the movies, if the zombies
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: are coming in and you throw somebody the gun and
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: they go, I don't know how to use this thing,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and they say, just pointed at them and squeeze the trigger.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: You can even do that, uh, and not have to,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: you know, face a penalty as long as after the
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: zombies are are killed off, they say, here's your gun back. Right,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Because anybody can agree the zombies would get to you
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: and eat your brain during the background check process. It's
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: not that fast, so they carved it out, especially if
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: there's a ten day waiting period, which is another House
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: bill that might be voted on in the Senate soon
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: along with HR eight, Right, um, this is not And
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: when it comes to polling the American public, this isn't
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: something where it's like, oh, it's it's like fifty six
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: percent in favor of UH. Pole after pole comes in April. Uh,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: can a PIAC University poll? Can it? PIAC? How do
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: you pronounce that? Can? Can a pack? Okay, it's one
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: of those eight nine percent of Americans favored universal or
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: nearly universal background checks. Pole in March from Morning consult
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: h including seventy seven percent of voting Republicans, and then
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: a gallop pole the CRIM deal, a CRIM of poles
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: UH found that Americans favored mandatory background checks by to seven.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: The role of our elected officials is supposedly to act
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: on their constituents desires. But again this is not happening
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: because of the things that I mentioned earlier. Now and
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: again I think it really bears repeating. There's nothing about
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: closing the guns show loophole for background checks that is
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: taking guns from people who have guns, preventing um UH
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: legal law abiding citizens from buying as many guns as
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: they want under the law. It's simply saying we're going
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: to shut down this huge loophole that allows people who
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have guns to go buy guns as many as
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: they like. Um, And yeah, that's just common sense, that's
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: extremely mainstream thinking. And it doesn't violate the constitutional rights
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: given by the Second Amendment in any way, shape or form.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: And again it has the backing of the public. And
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: so again it's a it's about to go die in public.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: They actually tied a blindfold around it and gave it
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: a last cigarette as they're shoving it out into the Senate. Um,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: and it's just not going to go anywhere. But Joe
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: manchin Um apparently was quoted as saying he believes that
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the Uvaldi shooting is going to is going to impel
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the Senate to actually start cutting deals and that something
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: will get past, even if it's not exactly hr eight. Yeah,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I'm reading this on an hourly basis, and there are
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: bipartisan talks that seem promising. Uh, so we'll see, I
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: mean I read uh some someone in Congress was quoted
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: as saying, like, I've been here for many years and
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I've never seen this, this genuine bar bipartisan conversation about
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: this in my life and my whole career. So it
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: does feel like things might be a little different now,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: but yeah, we'll see. It's also possible that nothing will
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: change again. I know it's hard to even talk about
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: quiet Slee, and I don't think anyone is fool enough
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: to think that this and other gun legislation laws will
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: completely stop something like a mass shooting or in gun violence.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: But it is something that can help curb these horrific acts.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: And these these people in the Senate will have to
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: live with themselves for the rest of their lives if
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: they continue to sit on their hands. For sure, I agreed. Uh,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: you got anything else, Chuck? Nothing? Well, since Chuck said nothing,
• 14:34
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