Latest / The People's News / Trump Puppet Abbott Attacks Houstonians Rights; Orion Splashes Down; NRA in Houston Again - TPN 4/19/26

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Trump Puppet Abbott Attacks Houstonians Rights; Orion Splashes Down; NRA in Houston Again - TPN 4/19/26 · The People's News

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the week of April nineteenth, twenty twenty six, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: this is what's on the People's news. The governor strikes
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: back an ordinance which directs the interactions between ICE and
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: HPDE is in jeopardy as the Republican Trump supporting governor
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: threatens funding cuts. Tens of millions of dollars are spent
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: on school districts, sport complexes across Texas, achievements in space,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: as Artemis Tube broke records, and history. The National Rifle
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Association met in Houston to sparse crowds. All that and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This is
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the people's News, and the people's news starts now. Last week,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: we reported that Houston City Council voted to further define
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the interactions between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: with the HPD. The ordinance, introduced by council members Aleandra Salinas,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Abbie Kayman, and Edward Pollard, was supported by more than
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: fifty prominent legal, labor, faith, and community organizations representing tens
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: of thousands of Houston families. The ordinance would end the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: thirty minute waiting rule, cutting down on unnecessary detention. And
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: exposure to ICE during routine stops, reinforce constitutional protections, making
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: clear that stops must end when their lawful purpose ends,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: not when ICE arrives, and adding transparency through regular public
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: reporting on HPD's interactions with ICE. Shortly after the ordinance
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: was passed by Houston City Council, Texas Republican governor and
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Ardent Trump supporter Greg Abbott issued an ultimatum stating that cities,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: including Houston and Dallas, will face budget cuts for safety
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: for this year's World Cup. He gave the city until
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  Speaker 1: the twentieth to come up with a better plan that
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  Speaker 1: will leave in place the constitutional violations that ICE is perpetrating.
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  Speaker 1: With the help of HPD, we talked again the City
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  Speaker 1: council Member at Large District for Alejandra Salinas well.
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  Speaker 2: The policy remains in the satisfact right now, and we
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  Speaker 2: have an opportunity as a city to come together and
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  Speaker 2: fight for Houstonians constitutional rights, and I have urged the
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Mayor and the City Attorney to fight for those rights
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: in court, and now that the Attorney General has sued us,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: that's exactly what we must do. And we have a
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: strong argument. The City attorney deemed this ordinance legal. It
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: simply protects Houstonian's constitutional rights and creates transparency around our operation,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: around our operations with ICE, and so we should defend that.
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  Speaker 2: That is what cities across the state are doing to
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: the governor's threats. You have to stand up to a bully.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: The only way a bully will back down is if
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: you show them that you're going to stand up for yourself.
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  Speaker 3: And that's what he Ston needs to do.
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  Speaker 4: Is the mayor and others to the council members, supporting
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  Speaker 4: supporting the illness.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I believe why. I believe there are a number
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  Speaker 2: of my colleagues that believe the right thing to do
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  Speaker 2: is to stand up for Houstonians. They have said so publicly,
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  Speaker 2: and so I'm hopeful that we will do the right.
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  Speaker 5: Thing and fight for Hisstonians' constitutional.
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  Speaker 4: Rights and the dangers of the governor are trying to
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  Speaker 4: take away funds from a city, especially with a big
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: against someman of the.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Town, Well, I don't think that the choice is repeal
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: the ordinance or lose the funding. The third choice is
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  Speaker 2: to take the governor to court and seek a temporary
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  Speaker 2: restraining order that prevents the governor from pulling our funding
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  Speaker 2: puts his threat on hold and allows us to litigate
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  Speaker 2: the question of whether or not the ordinance is lawful.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: So it's not lose the funding, repeal the ordinance. We
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  Speaker 2: have a third choice. It is sitting right there. All
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: we can do is make the argument in court and
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  Speaker 2: we can get a ruling that same day that says
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  Speaker 2: the ordinance is lawful and the governor cannot pull our funding.
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  Speaker 4: The timeline tomorrow next week, I think tuesday people can
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  Speaker 4: come and speak to city council.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, they can come speak on Tuesday.
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  Speaker 4: Is it going to be another vote?
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  Speaker 2: So we passed the ordinance. The mayor called a special
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: meeting that was supposed to happen today in which he
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: was going to attempt to repeal the ordinance. He unilaterally
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: canceled that meeting, likely because he did not have the
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: votes to repeal the ordinance. We are told he's going
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  Speaker 2: to attempt to pass something else at next week's meeting,
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  Speaker 2: but we have not yet seen what he is attempting
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  Speaker 2: to do.
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  Speaker 4: What about the police chief with the police chief said
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  Speaker 4: that they're not going to put the ordinance into effect.
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  Speaker 4: They have to look at it. They have to look
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  Speaker 4: at the ordinance of some more before they passed it
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  Speaker 4: down to the officers.
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  Speaker 2: I am not familiar with that statement, but that the
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  Speaker 2: ordinance is currently the law of the city.
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  Speaker 4: But this but the what the police chief is the
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  Speaker 4: one of us to put it in place for for
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  Speaker 4: those officers to abide.
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  Speaker 6: Buyer Torebit.
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  Speaker 2: No, the ordinance is the law of the city. The
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  Speaker 2: police chief does not have a choice as to whether
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  Speaker 2: or not he wants.
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  Speaker 5: To follow it.
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  Speaker 2: It is the law of the city.
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  Speaker 4: And so so next Tuesday people can come down and
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  Speaker 4: talk and say their grievances or in support for the
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  Speaker 4: for the ordinance.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Hewstonians who share views on the ordinance or any
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  Speaker 2: other items before Council have the opportunity to come speak
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  Speaker 2: on Tuesdays. It's our constitutional rights are at issue. The
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  Speaker 2: governor is saying that he gets to dictate that our
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: constitutional rights don't matter. That is wrong, and we need
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: to stand up as a city and say we're going
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  Speaker 2: to fight for Houstonians constitutional rights. Because if we don't
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  Speaker 2: stand up now, what constitutional rights is the governor going
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  Speaker 2: to come for next? We can't afford to take that risk.
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  Speaker 1: City Council will meet in a special session on Tuesday
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  Speaker 1: of next week. The govern owner says that all grants
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that are to be used for public safety in these
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: cities would be cut if the vote was not in
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  Speaker 1: his favor. Texas school districts have some of the largest
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  Speaker 1: and most expensive sports complexes in the country. In the
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  Speaker 1: top ten most expensive high school football stadiums in the country,
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  Speaker 1: eight were located in Texas. Katie recently opened up a
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  Speaker 1: stadium costing over eighty million dollars. Cyprus Stadium, right outside
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  Speaker 1: of Houston cost one hundred and twenty four point eight
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  Speaker 1: million dollars. Plains ISD is a very small district which
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  Speaker 1: supports just over four hundred students. They're spending twenty one
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  Speaker 1: million dollars in a major sports complex featuring a two
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  Speaker 1: story football facility with updated locker rooms, weight rooms, coaches offices,
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  Speaker 1: and a film room. James Quintero is a policy director
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  Speaker 1: with the Texas Public Policy Foundation who has studied these
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  Speaker 1: multi million dollar sports facilities across Texas.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah school district debt continues to balloon out of control.
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  Speaker 5: Some of the latest data suggests that Texas's local debt
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  Speaker 5: has now exceeded five hundred and fifty two billion dollars,
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  Speaker 5: and of that giant total. School districts represented about forty
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  Speaker 5: two percent, or two hundred and thirty four billion dollars
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  Speaker 5: of that total amount. And one of the reasons why
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  Speaker 5: I believe things continue to trend in a very bad
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  Speaker 5: direction is school districts find it easy to go into
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  Speaker 5: debt for wants instead of needs, and what we're seeing
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  Speaker 5: in planes ISD represents this problem where you have a
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  Speaker 5: very small district seeking after lots of excess. Right, there's
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  Speaker 5: no other way to put It's a very extravagant expenditure
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  Speaker 5: that I have as no real justification to it other
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  Speaker 5: than the school district wants it. And so when you
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: look at some of the expenditure and enrollment information, and
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: a lot of this becomes clear. You know, the principal
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  Speaker 5: amount that the district is going to spend on this
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  Speaker 5: sports complex, it's twenty one million dollars. Of course that
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  Speaker 5: doesn't include interest, but even without interest, it's a it's
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  Speaker 5: a very large expenditure for a small district. Speaking of small,
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  Speaker 5: the district only has about four hundred and twenty three students.
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  Speaker 5: Of that you're looking at probably around one hundred and
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  Speaker 5: thirty students that actually attend high school, which if you
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: divide that number by four grades, you're talking about thirty
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  Speaker 5: students per grade. So it's a very small district. Again,
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  Speaker 5: those numbers do not seem to justify the large expense
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  Speaker 5: that the district is now engaged. Then by its own account,
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  Speaker 5: the district is going to break down break ground on
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  Speaker 5: this project on April fifteenth, which means that you know,
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  Speaker 5: we're we're we're well under underway into the process. And
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  Speaker 5: unfortunately for voters, there's not a whole lot that can
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  Speaker 5: do at this point to to really right the wrong here,
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  Speaker 5: other than take their grievances to their local school district
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  Speaker 5: and make known that this sort of access is inappropriate
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  Speaker 5: for you know, a government of the size. So it's
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  Speaker 5: a really unfortunate situation.
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  Speaker 7: What this is something that they have two questions, Actually,
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  Speaker 7: where is the money coming from coming from? For the
• 9:45
  Speaker 7: small ip to these these small towns like that they're
• 9:50
  Speaker 7: like they're like a professional team, you know, because people
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  Speaker 7: come out that you know, people come out to support
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  Speaker 7: these schools because it's, you know, you must, the only
• 10:02
  Speaker 7: thing going on in those a lot of those places,
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  Speaker 7: at these small rural communities, and they they pump a
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  Speaker 7: lot of money into it because they could afford to
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  Speaker 7: do it, especially in West Texas where they have a
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  Speaker 7: lot of money to do this. So where is the
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  Speaker 7: money coming from for for for this, is this coming
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  Speaker 7: from the state, It comes from the state, or is
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  Speaker 7: it coming from boosters?
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  Speaker 5: Great question. So when you consider the nature of school finance,
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  Speaker 5: it's important to recognize that most school districts get a
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: combination of federal, state, and local moneies. Now, in this
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: exact situation, what some of the school district administrators made
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: clear via public comments is that actually this was made
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  Speaker 5: possible in large part because of of oil. Money is
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: generated from oil proceeds, and so, you know, because this
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  Speaker 5: district is situated in a favorable geographic location. There there
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: appears to be some rationale that the district is entitled
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: to this sort of of wealth and affluents. I think
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  Speaker 5: again that that mentality belies a larger problem, right, and
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  Speaker 5: the money is generated in that community don't belong to government,
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  Speaker 5: and government has no is not entitled to have much
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: nicer things simply because you know, some some extra measure
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  Speaker 5: of wealth exists. Government exists to provide the basics, and
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: in this situation, it's very clear that government has gone
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: well beyond that standard, and they're now seeking to build
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  Speaker 5: a taj Mahal sports complex that puts to shame many
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: college facilities.
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  Speaker 8: Right that.
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  Speaker 5: That's just there's there's nothing, there's nothing good and appropriate
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  Speaker 5: about this situation.
• 11:58
  Speaker 7: You know, I was gonna say, hey, what, how does
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  Speaker 7: this play into the governor, the Texas Governor's plan with
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  Speaker 7: the vouchers and a lot of the poor school districts
• 12:08
  Speaker 7: that don't have the finance and they do a lot
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  Speaker 7: of the things this school's doing. How does that plan
• 12:13
  Speaker 7: into the educational plans of Texas.
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: It's a good question. So let me step back for
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  Speaker 5: a minute and say this. If you look at the
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  Speaker 5: Bond Review Board's latest local debt data, what you find
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: is that planes ISD has fifty nine point one million
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: dollars in total debt service outstanding. If you divide that
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: fifty nine million dollars by the roughly four hundred and
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: twenty students that attend the district, what you find is
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: that the district's debt right now approaches one hundred and
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: forty thousand dollars ode for every student enrolled. That's a
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: level of debt that is simply shocking, and I think
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: it ought to prompt policymakers to really examine not only
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: the appropriateness of this situation, but also whether we need
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: a stronger school district debt limit, right, because it's not
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: okay for governments to spend this much money on some
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: extravagant want. And I think we really have to get
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: control of this situation because, as we all know, more
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: debt brings on higher taxes. Tax tax money, property tax
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: money helps to sustain a lot of this excess, and
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: we really have our fair share of property tax problems
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: in Texas and we need to take steps to really
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: get control of that situation.
• 13:54
  Speaker 7: Now, since you brought up property tax, one of the
• 14:00
  Speaker 7: things a lot of conservative groups and the government wants
• 14:04
  Speaker 7: to do is eliminate the property tax. So take take
• 14:07
  Speaker 7: a big chunk of people that people pay out on
• 14:10
  Speaker 7: property tax out, which also funds a lot of the
• 14:13
  Speaker 7: public schools in the states.
• 14:15
  Speaker 6: How is.
• 14:17
  Speaker 7: What you're saying, how is that effect that going to
• 14:21
  Speaker 7: affect the smaller schools?
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: Good question. So the plans that have been enacted thus
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: far largely rely on rate compression, where the legislature directs
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: surplus money down to the school district level and they
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: effectively tell school districts, lower your tax rates, we're going
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: to come in over the top with these extra state
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: surplus tax dollars. Right, So these have been largely revenue
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: neutral proposals that do not affect a school district's ability
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: to spend money moving forward. If the legislature continues down
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: this rate compression pathway, school district revenues won't be affected
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: because they're simply replacing local tax dollars with state tax dollars,
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: and so everyone's finances will be made whole. And I
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: think it will be to the benefit of the average
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: taxpayer because they're having their tax dollars both returned toward
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: them to them in the form of rate compression. And
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: also the legislature is beginning to get a better handle
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: on school district spending by assuming control of the appropriations process.
• 15:42
  Speaker 7: What do you see as far as the other rural communities,
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  Speaker 7: Because this is in West Texas there, you know this
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  Speaker 7: is not by the way, this is not the only
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  Speaker 7: school district that's doing this. We have schools around a
• 15:53
  Speaker 7: u Stonnaria that's also building like multimillion dollar sports complexes.
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  Speaker 7: I think the largest one is in is in the Dallas,
• 16:01
  Speaker 7: the Dallas Forwards area. If I'm not mistaken and trying
• 16:04
  Speaker 7: to justify that is you know, the the d justify
• 16:10
  Speaker 7: the means or the haves and the have nots. You know,
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: because if you're looking at if you're if you're you're
• 16:16
  Speaker 7: from Houston, from the Houston area, and you're looking for uh,
• 16:19
  Speaker 7: you're looking at this, you're going to ask yourself a
• 16:21
  Speaker 7: lot of the school district and I say, well, what
• 16:23
  Speaker 7: we need to compete?
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: Also a great question build. So there's a few different
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: issues at play here. One is school district officials are
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: taking advantage of soaring property values, right and and so
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: very often what you'll see with these bond issuances is
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: that they'll go to the public and they say, hey, look,
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: if you want to vote for this bond, you can
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: do so, and we won't raise your tax rate. And
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: because the public doesn't necessarily understand how property tax works,
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: they equate a stable tax rate with a able tax bill.
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: And of course that's not the case. Because your governing
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: body can leave the rate alone and its values rise,
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: that will produce more tax revenue for the governing body.
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: And so it's a kind of a complicated system. That
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: a lot of officials are taking advantage of and because
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: the public doesn't fully appreciate how the system works. The
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: other thing, though, that I'd point to is you're seeing
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: a lot of shifting happening in school district budgets right now,
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: and it's actually happened for the last probably five to
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: ten years. But the things that used to be paid
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: for out of the operating budget are now thrown onto
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: the taxpayer credit card, right and the school districts are
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: now borrowing a lot more for things like maintenance related
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: expenses or school buses, or technology and some other things
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: in there as well. Those things used to be paid
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: for out of M and O, but now they're put
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: onto the I in L side of the ledger. You know,
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: there's questions as to why that's happening. I think one
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: is school districts are doing far more today than they
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: used to, and because they're engaged in a much broader
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: set of activities that you know, some are related to reading,
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: writing and math and some are not. But because they're
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: engaged in so much, they have to figure out how
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: to pay for it, and so they're shifting some of
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: those some of those expenses onto the guy in s
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: side of the ledger, I think that's unfortunate. So you
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: got kind of multiple factors at play here. But you know,
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: I think a lot of this can be resolved at
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: the legislative level by the institution of strict fiscal rules
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: that really not only return school districts and every other
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: local government back to the basics, but also put in
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: place some common sense guard rails that help protect taxpayers
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: from really the cost of government activism.
• 18:58
  Speaker 7: This also shows out how high school football in Texas
• 19:02
  Speaker 7: is put on a higher pedestal than education in itself.
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, one of the most unfortunate aspects of
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: the Plains ISD story is that the district is devoting
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: all of it a lot of its time and resources
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: toward the creation of a twenty one million dollars sports
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: complex while its academic performance suffers. In fact, if you
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: go to TX Schools dot gov and just look at
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: some of the district's latest academic progress reports, what you'll
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: find is that the district is rated is given a
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: C on an A through F scale. And if you
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: dig into the data a little bit more, what you'll
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: find is that only thirty eight percent of students who
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: attend the district can read, write, and do mass at
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: or above grade level right, So the district's priorities are
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: are not in the right place and students are suffering
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: as a result.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: That was James Guintero Illsey, director with the Texas Public
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Policy Foundation. Their website is Texas Policy Put Together dot com.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: The Orion spacecraft successfully splashed down last week, ending the
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: ten day Artemis two space mission. The Artemis two was
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the first crude flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: seventeen in nineteen seventy two. Artemis two was the second
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: flight of the Space launch system and the first crude
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: flight of the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity by the four
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: person crew. The crew consisted of four crew members, three
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: men and one woman, one Canadian and one African American,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: testing the limits of space travel on a nine day mission,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: touching down in the Pacific Ocean on April tenth near
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: San Diego, California. The crew consisted of Read Wiseman, commander
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: responsible for overall mission execution, Victor Glover pilot, first black
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: astronaut to fly around the Moon, Christina Coke mission specialist,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: first woman to try to the Moon, and Jeremy Hanson,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: a mission specialist and the first Canadian to travel to
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the Moon. The People's News were in attendance at the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: press conference at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Thursday.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Here are some of the thoughts of the mission from
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the crew.
• 21:17
  Speaker 9: It's great to sit here and watch your mission go by,
• 21:19
  Speaker 9: and a short clip there. What an amazing journey that
• 21:22
  Speaker 9: was first and foremost, Victor Christina, Jeremy just thank you,
• 21:27
  Speaker 9: Like this was an unbelievable adventure and it was made
• 21:30
  Speaker 9: possible by this crew and the support of each other throughout.
• 21:33
  Speaker 6: The whole thing. And I've said it so many times.
• 21:35
  Speaker 6: We are just we are bonded forever.
• 21:36
  Speaker 9: I mean, that's the closest for humans can be and
• 21:39
  Speaker 9: not be a family. So it was just an amazing
• 21:42
  Speaker 9: adventure and every single person on that crew lifted each other.
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: Up the entire time. So I just can't thank the
• 21:47
  Speaker 6: three of you enough.
• 21:48
  Speaker 9: While we're giving thanks you, well, while we're giving thanks
• 21:52
  Speaker 9: as astronauts, I feel.
• 21:54
  Speaker 6: Like we're just always thinking the team. We're always thanking
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: the team.
• 21:56
  Speaker 9: So I think today we're just going to start by
• 21:58
  Speaker 9: thanking the world. Let's just thank the world and let's
• 22:00
  Speaker 9: break that down.
• 22:01
  Speaker 6: For one minute, and then I'll hand it back to Courtney.
• 22:03
  Speaker 9: But this NASSA organization and our international partners, they put
• 22:06
  Speaker 9: together this amazing vehicle, the Orion spacecraft that we named Integrity,
• 22:10
  Speaker 9: atop the space launch system, riding to the Moon on
• 22:13
  Speaker 9: a European service module. They provided this massive structure that
• 22:17
  Speaker 9: was able to push four humans around the Moon and
• 22:19
  Speaker 9: bring them safely back. So thank you to every single
• 22:21
  Speaker 9: person that had a hand in building that machine, because
• 22:23
  Speaker 9: it was a magnificent machine. But then we would also
• 22:26
  Speaker 9: be remiss if we didn't thank the media, if we
• 22:29
  Speaker 9: didn't thank the content creators, and if we didn't thank
• 22:31
  Speaker 9: the world for just tuning in for a second and
• 22:33
  Speaker 9: getting hooked on this mission.
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: We were certainly hooked on this mission.
• 22:36
  Speaker 9: But when we came home, we were shocked at the
• 22:38
  Speaker 9: global outpouring of support, of pride, of ownership of this mission.
• 22:42
  Speaker 9: And really, I think at the beginning that's what the
• 22:44
  Speaker 9: four of us wanted. We wanted to go out and
• 22:45
  Speaker 9: try to do something that would bring the world together,
• 22:47
  Speaker 9: to unite the world. And then I'll just wrap that
• 22:50
  Speaker 9: all up with the astronauts. Creed is always to.
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: Launch his friends and land as friends.
• 22:55
  Speaker 9: And when you live together in a small group for
• 22:57
  Speaker 9: as long as you do on the space station or
• 22:59
  Speaker 9: even ten day, it's a challenge. But I am here
• 23:02
  Speaker 9: to tell the world we launched as friends and we
• 23:06
  Speaker 9: came back as best friends.
• 23:08
  Speaker 6: Thank you. Oh you addressed to me, So I'll take it.
• 23:11
  Speaker 9: We've talked a lot about integrity, and for folks that
• 23:13
  Speaker 9: have followed us, there's a saying that we learned from
• 23:16
  Speaker 9: one of our national Outdoor Leadership School instructors. Integrity is
• 23:18
  Speaker 9: not a one or a zero. You don't either have
• 23:20
  Speaker 9: it or not have it. You can be in integrity
• 23:22
  Speaker 9: and you can be.
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: Out of integrity.
• 23:23
  Speaker 9: And I will tell you I'll be the first to
• 23:24
  Speaker 9: admit that there were moments on this mission where I
• 23:26
  Speaker 9: was out of integrity because sometimes the view or the
• 23:28
  Speaker 9: human experience would just pull me away from the work and.
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: It just it happens.
• 23:33
  Speaker 9: And it's a beautiful thing to get to witness where
• 23:35
  Speaker 9: we got the witness, but at the end of the day,
• 23:37
  Speaker 9: you got to do the mission too, and so there
• 23:39
  Speaker 9: were moments where I was out of integrity. There was
• 23:41
  Speaker 9: moments where each of us would would fall out for
• 23:43
  Speaker 9: a second. But the coolest part of that word. I
• 23:45
  Speaker 9: was reflecting on last night, like we named that spacecraft integrity,
• 23:49
  Speaker 9: and it just kind of coalesced this thread in the
• 23:51
  Speaker 9: four of us, and whenever someone would slip out, it
• 23:54
  Speaker 9: was amazing to watch the other three pull them back
• 23:56
  Speaker 9: in and it what a glorious thing.
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: Anybody, when I have.
• 23:58
  Speaker 9: Anythink for Intaigeroy is just such a such the perfect
• 24:00
  Speaker 9: name for this group, in this spacecraft.
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: It's a great question. I'll just look.
• 24:05
  Speaker 9: The only thing I can do is just share one
• 24:07
  Speaker 9: quick story.
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: When I got back on the ship. I'm not I'm not.
• 24:11
  Speaker 9: Really a religious person, but there was just no other
• 24:14
  Speaker 9: avenue for me to to explain anything or to experience anything.
• 24:17
  Speaker 9: So I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship
• 24:19
  Speaker 9: to just come visit us for a minute. And when
• 24:21
  Speaker 9: that man walked in, I'd never met him before in
• 24:23
  Speaker 9: my life, but I saw the cross on his collar
• 24:25
  Speaker 9: and I just I broke down in tears like that,
• 24:27
  Speaker 9: it's very hard to fully grasp what we just went through.
• 24:31
  Speaker 9: And in these short you just said, it's been a
• 24:33
  Speaker 9: week since we've been back, but it's been a week
• 24:35
  Speaker 9: of medical testing, physical testing, doctors, science objectives, like, we
• 24:39
  Speaker 9: have not had that decompression, we have not had that
• 24:41
  Speaker 9: reflection time. So I'm basing this on what we saw
• 24:44
  Speaker 9: and when the when the sun eclipse behind the moon,
• 24:46
  Speaker 9: I think all.
• 24:47
  Speaker 6: Four of us.
• 24:47
  Speaker 9: I turned to the Victor and I said, I don't
• 24:50
  Speaker 9: think humanity has evolved to the point of being able
• 24:52
  Speaker 9: to comprehend what we're looking at right now, because it
• 24:54
  Speaker 9: was otherworldly and was amazing.
• 24:57
  Speaker 10: The only thing I would add is that you think,
• 24:59
  Speaker 10: first of all, thank you sharing that that was a
• 25:00
  Speaker 10: really special moment. I was in the bed right across
• 25:02
  Speaker 10: when the chaplain came in, and the only thing I
• 25:06
  Speaker 10: would add is I am a religious person, but everything
• 25:08
  Speaker 10: else is the same.
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: It was.
• 25:12
  Speaker 10: There is something in there and as we start the process,
• 25:15
  Speaker 10: I'll have to tell you next week, but I haven't
• 25:18
  Speaker 10: had a chance.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: To really unpack it all yet.
• 25:21
  Speaker 11: All right, we'll take one more here in the room
• 25:23
  Speaker 11: and then head over to our phone bridge.
• 25:27
  Speaker 6: Maybe not as deep but connected. I'll keep garbing with
• 25:29
  Speaker 6: KPRC two here at Houton. Thank you so much for
• 25:32
  Speaker 6: taking us on your journey, and so glad that you're home.
• 25:35
  Speaker 10: With the technology that we have today and what we
• 25:38
  Speaker 10: can do with videos and pictures and social media.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: After the tone, please state your name and company, followed
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: by the pound sign.
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: Richard Hannah nine fo one kid oft the people's leads
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: thank you.
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: Fully properly conveyed through pictures and video. And that's for
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: any of you. I can start.
• 26:00
  Speaker 12: I was going to ask answer Christen's question a little
• 26:02
  Speaker 12: bit too, and I think these tie together. I've been
• 26:04
  Speaker 12: trying to find words for it. I don't really have
• 26:06
  Speaker 12: it yet, but we just saw so many amazing things,
• 26:09
  Speaker 12: and people ask what's the most amazing one, and it's
• 26:11
  Speaker 12: you can't pick one. There's just so many amazing experiences
• 26:14
  Speaker 12: we had. But overall, where I keep coming back to
• 26:17
  Speaker 12: is what kept grabbing my attention when the lighting was
• 26:20
  Speaker 12: right and we were looking at the window, is that
• 26:22
  Speaker 12: I kept seeing this like depth to I guess the galaxy,
• 26:26
  Speaker 12: you know, for what we were visually observing out there,
• 26:28
  Speaker 12: this depth to the galaxy that I just had never
• 26:31
  Speaker 12: experienced before. And it's not that I could tell which
• 26:33
  Speaker 12: stars were really closer and further, because it has to
• 26:35
  Speaker 12: do with how bright they are, But because of how
• 26:37
  Speaker 12: bright they are and their differences, they look like you
• 26:39
  Speaker 12: can tell where they are in three DP that was
• 26:42
  Speaker 12: mind blowing for me. And then you see the same
• 26:44
  Speaker 12: thing with the moon and the Earth. You're viewing them
• 26:46
  Speaker 12: from this new perspective, but this perspective with.
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: Like three dimensional depth.
• 26:51
  Speaker 12: And I've heard Christina talk about this a lot, and
• 26:53
  Speaker 12: we're all kind of struck by these things that make
• 26:55
  Speaker 12: us feel small and that The sense I had was
• 26:58
  Speaker 12: the sense of agility and feeling small, infintestantly small, but
• 27:03
  Speaker 12: yet this very powerful feeling as a human being, like
• 27:07
  Speaker 12: as a group. And that is what to me, is
• 27:11
  Speaker 12: what I would try to share. I saw it in
• 27:13
  Speaker 12: all these sights over and over again. I kept seeing
• 27:16
  Speaker 12: that same thing and that same feeling small and powerless
• 27:19
  Speaker 12: but yet powerful together.
• 27:23
  Speaker 11: Okay, we'll head over to our phone bridge. Our next
• 27:25
  Speaker 11: question is from Nell Greenfield with NPR.
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: Hey, welcome back.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: Everybody.
• 27:32
  Speaker 13: Tell me about your sleep.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Have you been having any dreams of the moon, and
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: if so, what have the dreams been like.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: I've got a couple things I can say on that one.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: Been sleeping great since we got back. We are tired,
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: so I think our bodies are ready to accept any
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: time zone of sleep, but we offered it. And what
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: I've noticed, which is completely different from my first flight,
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: and surprisingly so, since my first flight was so long
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: is every time I've been waking up or in the
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: first few days, I thought I was floating. I truly
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: thought I was floating, and I had to convince myself
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: I wasn't. And even after three hundred and twenty eight days,
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: based on my previous mission, I never did the thing
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: where you think something will float in front of you.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: I've done that on this return. For some reason. I
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: put a shirt in the air and it went. It
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: actually surprised me, and so that's been the real thing
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: which I've welcomed because space sleep is the best sleep ever.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: It's so peaceful, so comfortable, and to have a little
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: bit of that after our mission was over so quickly,
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: it's been really special.
• 28:44
  Speaker 12: I'll just know a little funny thing because I think
• 28:45
  Speaker 12: you'll get a kick out of. I sleep a lot
• 28:47
  Speaker 12: better now because I don't have read underneath me kicking me.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: We should talk about our first night of sleep on
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: the ship, where we were about eight feet apart in
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: the beds in the med bay and it felt way too.
• 29:01
  Speaker 12: That was not okay.
• 29:03
  Speaker 9: I heard Christina say, hey, can we open up these
• 29:04
  Speaker 9: curtains of ball the beds together because you guys are waiting.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 29:09
  Speaker 11: Our next question is from Lauren Gresh with Bloomberg.
• 29:14
  Speaker 14: Hi, so good to talk to all of you, and
• 29:15
  Speaker 14: congratulations on a successful mission. Obviously, from our perspective, it's
• 29:21
  Speaker 14: sively smooth light, but there were various moments where since
• 29:24
  Speaker 14: your readings would.
• 29:25
  Speaker 15: Indicate an issue. There's also an issue with extra leaking
• 29:28
  Speaker 15: from the valves on the helium pressure system that was
• 29:31
  Speaker 15: brought up a few times. I'm wondering if there were
• 29:33
  Speaker 15: any moments throughout the mission where you felt concerned from
• 29:36
  Speaker 15: a safety standpoint, or did you feel like it was
• 29:38
  Speaker 15: fairly smooth from your perspective.
• 29:46
  Speaker 9: Well, I I might be a bit more dramatic than
• 29:49
  Speaker 9: some of my crewmates. They usually they do a good
• 29:50
  Speaker 9: job of keeping the boy with a lot of hyperbole grounded.
• 29:53
  Speaker 9: But when you look down at your display and you
• 29:55
  Speaker 9: see two hundred twelve thousand miles and the miles are increasing,
• 29:58
  Speaker 9: I mean that your awareness is heightened whole time. I
• 30:00
  Speaker 9: feel like it was. I was looking at all four
• 30:04
  Speaker 9: of us, I was looking at myself reflecting as well
• 30:06
  Speaker 9: every day, and I was just looking for signs of
• 30:08
  Speaker 9: agitation or signs of stress or signs of anxiety or tension.
• 30:12
  Speaker 9: In fact, I think one day we were in the
• 30:13
  Speaker 9: medkit and we found some medication for that purpose that
• 30:16
  Speaker 9: we were like, wow, I just can't even imagine taking that.
• 30:18
  Speaker 6: Like we were just we were really good. We were
• 30:19
  Speaker 6: really really good and really supportive of each other.
• 30:22
  Speaker 9: But you always know in the back of your head
• 30:24
  Speaker 9: that something could go wrong, and I think that.
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: Just builds a little bit of anxiety.
• 30:27
  Speaker 9: And you're right, we did have we have some pressure
• 30:30
  Speaker 9: and leaking through our PCA assembly, which I'm sure we'll
• 30:33
  Speaker 9: talk more about in postflight. We had some ventline issues
• 30:36
  Speaker 9: on the toilet that were a little bit problematic for
• 30:38
  Speaker 9: us on the primary vent line. And then we had
• 30:41
  Speaker 9: a few cautions and warnings that came up from time
• 30:43
  Speaker 9: to time, and those all ways, they always get your attention.
• 30:47
  Speaker 9: We had a smoke detector go off on the next
• 30:49
  Speaker 9: to the last day.
• 30:50
  Speaker 6: I mean, do you want to get you somebody's attention
• 30:51
  Speaker 6: really quick? Make the fire alarm go off in your
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: spacecraft when you're.
• 30:54
  Speaker 9: Still about eighty thousand miles from home, and that starts
• 30:58
  Speaker 9: off an automated sequence of shutting down the ventilation and
• 31:00
  Speaker 9: the power system.
• 31:01
  Speaker 6: And that was it was tense.
• 31:03
  Speaker 9: It wasn't scary, but it was pence for a few
• 31:04
  Speaker 9: minutes until we got things reconfigured. But the thing that
• 31:08
  Speaker 9: we drilled into our heads before we launched is no
• 31:11
  Speaker 9: fast hands. Let's evaluate this machine. Let's see what the
• 31:14
  Speaker 9: machine is telling us, let's see what Houston is telling us,
• 31:17
  Speaker 9: and then let's come to an integrated decision. But nothing
• 31:20
  Speaker 9: had to happen quick and this machine. I was talking
• 31:23
  Speaker 9: to our program manager last night on the phone for
• 31:25
  Speaker 9: just a minute, Howard Hugh, and I like, there are
• 31:27
  Speaker 9: always things we need to improve, always, there are ways
• 31:29
  Speaker 9: we need to do better living in space.
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: There's way this machine needs to be improved.
• 31:33
  Speaker 9: But my own personal opinion, they could put the Artemis
• 31:36
  Speaker 9: three Oriyan on the Space Launch System tomorrow and launch
• 31:39
  Speaker 9: it and.
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: The crew would be in great shape. So this vehicle
• 31:42
  Speaker 6: really handled very well.
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 31:45
  Speaker 11: Next up, we are going to head over to the
• 31:47
  Speaker 11: Canadian Space Agency for two questions.
• 31:52
  Speaker 13: Yeah, Hi, Sarah Levitt from CBC News, question for Jeremy.
• 31:56
  Speaker 13: I wanted to ask about if you've had a chance
• 31:58
  Speaker 13: to take out the garbage since your wife was s
• 32:00
  Speaker 13: griping about chores while you're away, But I have a
• 32:02
  Speaker 13: more serious question. You spoke in your post splashdown remarks
• 32:07
  Speaker 13: about gratitude, joy and love, and I know Reid had
• 32:11
  Speaker 13: said that there hasn't been a lot that has sunk
• 32:13
  Speaker 13: in yet, but I wondered if there were other emotions
• 32:17
  Speaker 13: that have come to you since since seeing Earth the
• 32:21
  Speaker 13: way you did, since seeing the moon, being the four
• 32:24
  Speaker 13: sets of eyes that have only ever seen the far
• 32:26
  Speaker 13: side of the moon.
• 32:28
  Speaker 12: I think what I've reflected on and recovered it in
• 32:31
  Speaker 12: his opening remarks is I've found it really refreshing to
• 32:36
  Speaker 12: find out how people have followed the mission and been
• 32:40
  Speaker 12: creative with the mission. And there's lots of funny stuff
• 32:42
  Speaker 12: online and that really resonates with me a lot, and
• 32:47
  Speaker 12: it just reinforces something.
• 32:48
  Speaker 6: I already knew.
• 32:49
  Speaker 12: But humans are just great people in general. We don't
• 32:52
  Speaker 12: always do great things, we're not always in our integrity,
• 32:54
  Speaker 12: but our default is to be good and to be
• 32:57
  Speaker 12: good to one another. And what we saw once we've
• 33:00
  Speaker 12: gotten back a little bit, so I haven't seen a
• 33:02
  Speaker 12: lot yet, but I've seen a bit and what I've
• 33:04
  Speaker 12: seen has brought me more joy, but.
• 33:06
  Speaker 6: More hope for our future.
• 33:08
  Speaker 12: And I just can't see what wait to see what we.
• 33:11
  Speaker 6: Do with the next you want to just go right
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: down the line.
• 33:15
  Speaker 9: I would say the big thing for me, and we
• 33:17
  Speaker 9: saw it in this mission is I think we're starting
• 33:21
  Speaker 9: we're starting to lose scope as a society that you
• 33:24
  Speaker 9: do have to go do things like you have to
• 33:26
  Speaker 9: go do really hard, really challenging things, and you have
• 33:29
  Speaker 9: to go move the needle, and that actually means like
• 33:31
  Speaker 9: bending metal and fueling rockets, or that means inventing a new.
• 33:34
  Speaker 6: Way to do surgery.
• 33:35
  Speaker 9: But we've got to get our hands out there and engaged.
• 33:38
  Speaker 9: Our hands in, our minds.
• 33:39
  Speaker 6: Have got to be engaged.
• 33:42
  Speaker 10: I think, you know, there's a professional path that folks
• 33:45
  Speaker 10: are going to take to get into whatever profession, and
• 33:47
  Speaker 10: then you know that's kind of a springboard to get
• 33:49
  Speaker 10: this job. This is no one's first job. It's not
• 33:51
  Speaker 10: an injury level thing. But I would encourage them to
• 33:54
  Speaker 10: start now before they even are on that journey, to
• 33:57
  Speaker 10: really get comfortable asking questions and then listening to their
• 34:02
  Speaker 10: peers but also to their mentors. I think that has
• 34:05
  Speaker 10: been a game changer for all of us. There's so
• 34:07
  Speaker 10: much to know in this business, and none of us
• 34:09
  Speaker 10: knows it all yes, it is my call sign, but
• 34:11
  Speaker 10: I do not know everything, and we have to rely
• 34:14
  Speaker 10: on the wisdom of the village so much that it
• 34:17
  Speaker 10: needs to be a part of It.
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: Needs to be unconscious.
• 34:19
  Speaker 10: You need to be unconsciously competent at asking a question
• 34:23
  Speaker 10: or when people are just having a conversation that impacts
• 34:25
  Speaker 10: something you need to know to just savor it, take
• 34:28
  Speaker 10: it in and make.
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: It a part of what you believe.
• 34:32
  Speaker 10: The three things I've always encouraged young people to do
• 34:34
  Speaker 10: I think still apply to be gritty or resilient, to
• 34:38
  Speaker 10: be a lifelong learner, and to be a good teammate
• 34:41
  Speaker 10: so good.
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: I love everything I've heard. The three things that I
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: usually say, and I don't think they've changed are find
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: your fulfillment. Used to say find your passion, but for
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: me it's changed to find what you can do the slowest,
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: for the longest and still absolutely love it, and go
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: in that direction. What scares you path of least resistance
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: isn't usually the path that will give the most back
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: to the world and give you the most sense of
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: courage and confidence. And finally, support those around you. The
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: benefits that compound when you support those around you and
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: they support you back are just immeasurable.
• 35:20
  Speaker 12: Maybe that one I'll emphasize is just follow the example
• 35:24
  Speaker 12: that people saw here. Don't do it alone and share
• 35:28
  Speaker 12: what you're trying to accomplish with others, because you need
• 35:30
  Speaker 12: the support of others to do big things, and.
• 35:33
  Speaker 6: So share your goals.
• 35:34
  Speaker 12: Be brave enough to share them, and then you'll be
• 35:36
  Speaker 12: surprised how people surround you and lift you up to
• 35:39
  Speaker 12: accomplish them.
• 35:41
  Speaker 11: All right, well, head over to our phone bridge. Our
• 35:43
  Speaker 11: next question is from Andrea with the Houston Chronicle.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Hi, I'd like to ask about mental health.
• 35:49
  Speaker 11: You know, it was a very busy mission. How are
• 35:51
  Speaker 11: you able to take care of yourself, you know, get
• 35:53
  Speaker 11: some rest and some me time when.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: You guys are sharing that small area throughout the mission.
• 35:58
  Speaker 9: Thanks, there wasn't much me time, There wasn't you know.
• 36:06
  Speaker 10: We have sprinkled this in throughout other topics. But everything
• 36:11
  Speaker 10: we did up there was a four person activity a minimum.
• 36:15
  Speaker 10: Everything how we eight slept, flew the vehicle, and some
• 36:19
  Speaker 10: of it was on purpose.
• 36:21
  Speaker 6: A lot of it we realized real time.
• 36:22
  Speaker 10: When Jeremy exercised, we were all exercising. It was a
• 36:27
  Speaker 10: team effort to the last you know, period and so
• 36:31
  Speaker 10: I just just want to emphasize that we actually I
• 36:34
  Speaker 10: think the me space was maybe a that fifteen minute
• 36:36
  Speaker 10: checkout when you're talking to your family. It did feel
• 36:39
  Speaker 10: like being teleported out of the vehicle, but you teleported right,
• 36:42
  Speaker 10: and so we embraced that that was a part of
• 36:46
  Speaker 10: it though. That was a facet, a flavor, an ingredient
• 36:49
  Speaker 10: of how we flew the mission, and instead of trying
• 36:51
  Speaker 10: to avoid that. I don't know, I'm speaking for us,
• 36:53
  Speaker 10: and we also don't do that often, but I would
• 36:55
  Speaker 10: say from the proof in that putting, we leaned into
• 36:58
  Speaker 10: it and used it as a way to get through
• 37:00
  Speaker 10: instead of trying to fight it the whole time.
• 37:03
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I think the one thing I want to add
• 37:04
  Speaker 9: is just we have tried over the last three years
• 37:07
  Speaker 9: to be very good at communicating, which is what you
• 37:09
  Speaker 9: just said. But just if you have a band night
• 37:12
  Speaker 9: of sleeper, if something is angering you or if something
• 37:14
  Speaker 9: is off in your balance, just talking about that to
• 37:17
  Speaker 9: the other three crew members, just say know where you are,
• 37:18
  Speaker 9: where you're coming from today, and that it's not directed
• 37:20
  Speaker 9: at them, and they can help you out. And I
• 37:22
  Speaker 9: don't know, as soon as you have the courage to
• 37:23
  Speaker 9: kind of express that to a couple of friends. All
• 37:25
  Speaker 9: of a sudden, your friends are in it right alongside
• 37:27
  Speaker 9: with you, And so we really got exceptionally good at communicating.
• 37:31
  Speaker 9: I didn't think we would get as exceptionally good at
• 37:32
  Speaker 9: like crawling all over each other for ten days, but
• 37:35
  Speaker 9: we did get good at that too. It's tight up there,
• 37:37
  Speaker 9: but we really communicated extremely well on this mission from
• 37:41
  Speaker 9: day one till day ten, and now even.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Now the crew will continue with physicals and doctor observations
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: and also going over what was learned from the mission. Hi,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of The People's News.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: If you have a story that needs to be told,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: come to us except fully produced audio written material, or
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: just give us the idea and we will run with it.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Shiny new one hour episodes of The People's News drop
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: each Sunday on The People's News podcast, hosted by Speaker
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: dot com and linked to my website Gallington dot com.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: The National Rifle Association is a gun advocacy group that
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: is one of the biggest lobbying groups in the United States.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Their power has been maintained over many years. Recently, they've
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: had some some scandals around their bankruptcy and around the
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: president and different things, and because of that, membership has decreased,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: but the NRA is still a force to be reckoned
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: with Their national convention was held this past weekend in Houston.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: We spoke with Justin Davis, director of public Affairs with
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: the National Rifle Association.
• 38:50
  Speaker 16: Where we love to be in Texas.
• 38:52
  Speaker 17: The NA loves Texas and Texas's the NA. The NA
• 38:55
  Speaker 17: is stronger than ever.
• 38:55
  Speaker 16: We've put in some great reforms and a refocus her
• 38:58
  Speaker 16: mission to do what we need to do.
• 38:59
  Speaker 17: And I mean walking around this building will tell you
• 39:01
  Speaker 17: what is. People are excited about the NRA. They're excited
• 39:03
  Speaker 17: about what's to come. We are focused, we are in
• 39:05
  Speaker 17: the fight more than ever, and we're it's great to
• 39:07
  Speaker 17: be in Texas in a critical midterm election year with
• 39:10
  Speaker 17: James tel Rico, a far less Senecan and who wants
• 39:12
  Speaker 17: to take away Texans and rights now wants to go
• 39:14
  Speaker 17: to DC to take them on national scale. So we're
• 39:16
  Speaker 17: here talking over seventy thousand voters about the reports of
• 39:19
  Speaker 17: getting out and voting against James Telrico that coming midterm election.
• 39:22
  Speaker 18: Yeah, I was gonna say. One is some of the
• 39:23
  Speaker 18: important topics that you guys.
• 39:24
  Speaker 16: Have for this dis convention.
• 39:26
  Speaker 17: Absolutely, the first thing is get involved, whether it's joining
• 39:28
  Speaker 17: the NRA or showing up to a rally or just
• 39:30
  Speaker 17: getting out and voting. You have to make your voice
• 39:33
  Speaker 17: heard as a gun on because if you don't, these
• 39:34
  Speaker 17: folks will take your rights away, chip by chip by
• 39:37
  Speaker 17: chip until it's gone.
• 39:38
  Speaker 16: So you have to get involved.
• 39:39
  Speaker 17: Make sure you're signing up for NRAILA Alert so you
• 39:41
  Speaker 17: know what's going on your state capital, what's going on
• 39:43
  Speaker 17: across the country, what's going on in courtrance, across this
• 39:46
  Speaker 17: great country.
• 39:47
  Speaker 16: And get involved to make your voice heard.
• 39:48
  Speaker 18: Some people talk about gun rights and when they put
• 39:51
  Speaker 18: restrictions on it, like in Texas you can get a
• 39:53
  Speaker 18: gun and carry a gun with no restrictions.
• 39:56
  Speaker 17: Are you guys for that or just that, Well, there are,
• 39:58
  Speaker 17: I mean there are restrictions. I mean to buy a
• 39:59
  Speaker 17: gun through an FFL you have to go through a
• 40:01
  Speaker 17: background check. You can't be a prohibited person. Now, we
• 40:03
  Speaker 17: believe that lawbody systems should have unfettered access to their
• 40:06
  Speaker 17: rights because they're not the problem in this equation.
• 40:08
  Speaker 16: It's violent criminals are going to.
• 40:09
  Speaker 17: Free pass by soft on crime policies in places like Houston,
• 40:12
  Speaker 17: other places where soft on crime DA's or lawmakers are saying, yeah,
• 40:15
  Speaker 17: you've had all these accounts against you, but you can
• 40:17
  Speaker 17: go back out there. And those are the people who
• 40:18
  Speaker 17: are committing the crime, not people like you and me
• 40:20
  Speaker 17: who just want to protect their families. And so as
• 40:22
  Speaker 17: we see what's going on here, I mean, I'm from Fairfax, Virginia.
• 40:25
  Speaker 17: Just a few weeks ago, a violent, lifelong criminal had
• 40:28
  Speaker 17: over thirty violent criminal accounts against him, was able to
• 40:30
  Speaker 17: walk back on the street and murder a woman for
• 40:32
  Speaker 17: no reason, to bust off a mother. That person should
• 40:35
  Speaker 17: have never seen the light of day based on their
• 40:36
  Speaker 17: criminal history. Instead, in Virginia, instead of taking those people on,
• 40:39
  Speaker 17: they're taking a law body systems and stripping of them
• 40:41
  Speaker 17: of common fire arms.
• 40:42
  Speaker 18: And in Texas, like in Texas, just like in California's
• 40:45
  Speaker 18: it's so different. You're talking about taking this whole campaign
• 40:48
  Speaker 18: across the country.
• 40:49
  Speaker 17: Yeah, I mean, this is it's a national fight, right,
• 40:51
  Speaker 17: So we're obviously in DC every day, but we have
• 40:53
  Speaker 17: lobbyists in every single fifty state capitals every single day
• 40:55
  Speaker 17: fighting for your rights. And that's where the fight has
• 40:58
  Speaker 17: really moved. They've been so ineffective. See because of the
• 41:00
  Speaker 17: NRA did they moved to state capitals because there's a
• 41:03
  Speaker 17: lot more leeway to play with and a lot more games,
• 41:05
  Speaker 17: Like we played state capitals. But we're meeting them at
• 41:07
  Speaker 17: that fight and when they pass these outrageous gun laws
• 41:09
  Speaker 17: and really really blue states, we're taking them a court
• 41:11
  Speaker 17: and we're winning.
• 41:12
  Speaker 18: And one thing people were saying that when you guys
• 41:14
  Speaker 18: lost year, lost your year, man, then okay the NA
• 41:16
  Speaker 18: is going is hay?
• 41:19
  Speaker 19: Yeah?
• 41:20
  Speaker 17: I mean so we had a I mean there's no
• 41:21
  Speaker 17: there's no secret right under former leadership, there was some
• 41:24
  Speaker 17: things that happened. We have all an old on the
• 41:27
  Speaker 17: board and all new leadership team here at the nra
• 41:28
  Speaker 17: A who have turned the things around, who have put
• 41:30
  Speaker 17: in good governance, strict strict audits to make sure that
• 41:33
  Speaker 17: every single dollar that comes in here is spent wisely, judiciously.
• 41:36
  Speaker 17: I could tell you I'm a staffer here, every single
• 41:37
  Speaker 17: thing I do goes a great scrutiny of dollars. And
• 41:39
  Speaker 17: I'm proud because before I worked here, I was a member,
• 41:41
  Speaker 17: and I want to make sure that every dollar that
• 41:43
  Speaker 17: you're working hard for giving us to protect those rights
• 41:45
  Speaker 17: are protected in our building.
• 41:47
  Speaker 18: Diversity, talk about diversity within the nra A and I
• 41:50
  Speaker 18: look around here, you how diversity here?
• 41:53
  Speaker 8: Yeah?
• 41:55
  Speaker 17: Yeah, I mean the Second Amendments for everybody, right And uh,
• 41:57
  Speaker 17: you know, Michael Bloomberger spent hundreds of millions of dollars
• 41:59
  Speaker 17: trying to paint the NA and gun owners into a
• 42:02
  Speaker 17: very unpopular opinion. But the truth remains is that people
• 42:04
  Speaker 17: from all walks of life, rich, poor, black, white, no
• 42:07
  Speaker 17: matter who you are, people who care about their safety,
• 42:10
  Speaker 17: who understand the need to be your own first responder,
• 42:12
  Speaker 17: are taking this seriously.
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: You can't.
• 42:13
  Speaker 16: You walk around here.
• 42:14
  Speaker 17: You see people from all over the country, all over
• 42:16
  Speaker 17: the world, all over from all the walks of light
• 42:18
  Speaker 17: who care deeply about this light, who want to make
• 42:20
  Speaker 17: sure that they're doing the things to protect their communities.
• 42:22
  Speaker 16: It's a beautiful thing to see.
• 42:23
  Speaker 18: And this is not just hunters here either. No, like
• 42:26
  Speaker 18: a lot of people think, oh, well, you know, you
• 42:28
  Speaker 18: know gun hunters.
• 42:29
  Speaker 16: The Second Amendment is not about hunting. I'll say that
• 42:31
  Speaker 16: right now.
• 42:32
  Speaker 17: And although we love hunting, we have a fantastic hunry
• 42:34
  Speaker 17: hunting program. The focus of the Second Amendment is to
• 42:36
  Speaker 17: make sure that individuals can protect themselves from any enemy
• 42:39
  Speaker 17: that attacks them. And so we have fantastic hunting outfitters
• 42:41
  Speaker 17: here and fantastic hunting gear. But I mean this, we
• 42:44
  Speaker 17: have all new gears, things that you can't even see
• 42:45
  Speaker 17: anywhere your local gunstop gun store rather. And the good
• 42:47
  Speaker 17: thing here is you can actually used to see a
• 42:49
  Speaker 17: bike shipp a program. So if you see something that
• 42:50
  Speaker 17: you've never seen before, you can actually find it at
• 42:52
  Speaker 17: the local LEFFL.
• 42:53
  Speaker 16: They'll ship it there, so you can get some pretty
• 42:54
  Speaker 16: cool gear.
• 42:55
  Speaker 17: My wife tells me to leave the credit card in
• 42:56
  Speaker 17: the truck so I don't bankrupt us. I'm walking around
• 42:59
  Speaker 17: this place. But it's a great If you haven't come
• 43:00
  Speaker 17: to an annual meeting, I encourage you to do that.
• 43:02
  Speaker 18: Let me ask you one question though, because I was
• 43:04
  Speaker 18: always told that, yes, in teching, you can go out
• 43:08
  Speaker 18: pass you pass the batround check and everything, and you
• 43:09
  Speaker 18: go out and do first to nine. But the thing
• 43:12
  Speaker 18: to do is to take a registered class and learn
• 43:14
  Speaker 18: how to operate operate.
• 43:16
  Speaker 16: Sure, go yeah less.
• 43:19
  Speaker 17: So the NA is known for our political power, but
• 43:21
  Speaker 17: the real force of the NAS we're the worldwide leader
• 43:23
  Speaker 17: in training and goalik standard for training. So we tell
• 43:26
  Speaker 17: people all the time, if you're new to fire our owners,
• 43:28
  Speaker 17: there's been twenty three point five million plus new gun
• 43:30
  Speaker 17: owners and its twenty twenty. To go out and don't
• 43:32
  Speaker 17: just buy that and put in a safe and never
• 43:33
  Speaker 17: touch it again. Go out to a range, take an
• 43:35
  Speaker 17: NA class, Understand how to use it, how to store it,
• 43:37
  Speaker 17: how to maintain it, to make sure you know how to.
• 43:39
  Speaker 16: Proficionally use that tool, so if you need to use it,
• 43:41
  Speaker 16: you're ready.
• 43:42
  Speaker 8: To do that.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: Aaron Atlas with gun Club Radio is an African American
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: and he talked about being at the NRA convention.
• 43:49
  Speaker 20: Yeah, well, I know I'm not part of the typical,
• 43:52
  Speaker 20: at least the traditional crowd of people who might show
• 43:55
  Speaker 20: up at the NRA national meeting.
• 43:58
  Speaker 8: But guess what, we're here. We're not going away.
• 44:01
  Speaker 20: And this year we were actually invited by the NRA
• 44:04
  Speaker 20: and their Border directors.
• 44:05
  Speaker 16: To come and do our podcast.
• 44:06
  Speaker 20: Here podcast is gun Club Radio. We talk about all
• 44:09
  Speaker 20: sorts of stuff from firearms to you know, audio fimily reviews,
• 44:12
  Speaker 20: to people like you and myself who are in this
• 44:14
  Speaker 20: space doing interesting things. I want to tell those stories
• 44:17
  Speaker 20: and so that's that's why I'm here, is to keep
• 44:18
  Speaker 20: telling those stories. Have cool conversations and share what's going
• 44:21
  Speaker 20: on in the industry with people who are interested.
• 44:24
  Speaker 18: African Americans. Are they really in depth with gun rights
• 44:27
  Speaker 18: and all that type.
• 44:28
  Speaker 20: You know, there's two there's two sides. There's people who
• 44:32
  Speaker 20: have literally no idea and we got to get them
• 44:36
  Speaker 20: caught up. And there's the other side where we have
• 44:38
  Speaker 20: people who really they are elite. Their knowledge is at
• 44:44
  Speaker 20: the top of the game, like they really understand gun rights,
• 44:48
  Speaker 20: they understand gun handling, they understand all sorts of different firearms,
• 44:51
  Speaker 20: and they're teaching the next generation of not even just
• 44:54
  Speaker 20: you know, black people, they're teaching everyone who wants to
• 44:57
  Speaker 20: learn about their Second Amendment rights, about say and responsible
• 45:00
  Speaker 20: gun ownership.
• 45:01
  Speaker 16: And it's an exciting thing.
• 45:03
  Speaker 20: It's an exciting thing to see people getting and obtaining
• 45:06
  Speaker 20: and passing on knowledge.
• 45:08
  Speaker 18: I says, is my neighborhood here, and gun violence in
• 45:12
  Speaker 18: Houston is very is very is good here.
• 45:16
  Speaker 20: I don't even call it gun violence. I call it
• 45:18
  Speaker 20: violence because anything can be used to hurt somebody. I
• 45:21
  Speaker 20: work in hospital as part of my day job, and
• 45:23
  Speaker 20: I see all sorts of terrible things that happen and
• 45:26
  Speaker 20: almost none of it to be you know, Frank is
• 45:28
  Speaker 20: related to guns, but there's all sorts of domestic violence,
• 45:31
  Speaker 20: sexual assaults, and terrible things that happen. A gun is
• 45:34
  Speaker 20: a tool, and it can be used for good, and
• 45:36
  Speaker 20: it can be used to do serious damage and cause
• 45:39
  Speaker 20: pain to families and generations. So that's why personally, I'm
• 45:45
  Speaker 20: a huge advocate of teaching my children and hopefully even
• 45:48
  Speaker 20: your children, how to be safe and responsible with firearms.
• 45:51
  Speaker 18: And yeah, that's the important thing because in Texas we
• 45:54
  Speaker 18: have a right to bear, right to carry courage. But
• 45:58
  Speaker 18: a lot of people also people look at the safety
• 46:00
  Speaker 18: ask but the things of you of you know, John
• 46:03
  Speaker 18: down the streets and be having a gun.
• 46:05
  Speaker 20: Well, not everybody who possesses a gun is maybe somebody
• 46:10
  Speaker 20: that we would all be comfortable, although it's it's there's
• 46:13
  Speaker 20: there's people who live in home by themselves who if
• 46:15
  Speaker 20: you found out that they were living by themselves, you'd
• 46:17
  Speaker 20: be concerned as well.
• 46:18
  Speaker 16: And this is America at the end of the day.
• 46:20
  Speaker 20: So the best thing is to if you see something
• 46:23
  Speaker 20: out of the way, say something, and teach and educate
• 46:26
  Speaker 20: your children and their children and how to be safe
• 46:28
  Speaker 20: and responsible with firearms and have those hard conversations if
• 46:32
  Speaker 20: you know a friend of yours is struggling mentally or emotionally,
• 46:36
  Speaker 20: have a hard conversation with them about, you know what
• 46:39
  Speaker 20: maybe steps that they should personally take to ensure that
• 46:41
  Speaker 20: they and people around them are safe.
• 46:43
  Speaker 18: One thing, people have guns in their house, you know,
• 46:46
  Speaker 18: and people and people don't understand it. They're having a
• 46:49
  Speaker 18: safety aspect. They can't have any having a gun case.
• 46:53
  Speaker 20: Yeah, I'm personally I prefer that we educate over legislation,
• 46:59
  Speaker 20: but I know there's a lot of laws out there
• 47:01
  Speaker 20: currently that encourage or mandate, you know, safes and lockboxes
• 47:05
  Speaker 20: and even cases you can put this stuff away to
• 47:08
  Speaker 20: keep it out of their hands of people who are uneducated,
• 47:10
  Speaker 20: Like if you have small children who are uneducated about firearms,
• 47:13
  Speaker 20: and even small children who are personally I think you
• 47:15
  Speaker 20: should lock it up anyways, But that's something I encourage.
• 47:18
  Speaker 20: It's not something I'm willing to say, like you need
• 47:20
  Speaker 20: to make a law about it, because guess what, not
• 47:23
  Speaker 20: everybody is able to I think the more laws that
• 47:26
  Speaker 20: you have, the more innocent people can get swept up
• 47:29
  Speaker 20: in the enforcement of those laws, and law enforcement can
• 47:32
  Speaker 20: do whatever they want to do to enforce laws. Let's
• 47:34
  Speaker 20: be for real about that, and so I think we
• 47:37
  Speaker 20: as as much as we can, we have to educate people.
• 47:39
  Speaker 20: Educate educate those single moms who are by themselves we've
• 47:41
  Speaker 20: got got a gun to help themselves, and educate people
• 47:44
  Speaker 20: who are in position to have firearms.
• 47:48
  Speaker 18: All right, tell people how to find out about you,
• 47:50
  Speaker 18: all right?
• 47:50
  Speaker 20: Yeah, So if you are interested in, you know, watching
• 47:52
  Speaker 20: our podcasts, you can look it up on our social networks,
• 47:54
  Speaker 20: you know, YouTube, social media, also Spotify, Apple podcasts. But
• 47:59
  Speaker 20: YouTube dot com Forward slash at gun Club Radio and
• 48:02
  Speaker 20: YouTube dot com Ford slash at Armed Atlas.
• 48:06
  Speaker 6: Is that?
• 48:06
  Speaker 8: Is that how you find this?
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: Many patrons at the NRA think the convention is about
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: their rights as Americans. Frank Johnson from North Carolina is
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: one of them who feels that the Trump administration is
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: putting obstacles in the path of gun ownership.
• 48:21
  Speaker 19: I'm down here with the NRA voices of the two
• 48:24
  Speaker 19: way program that we have here. We have our podcast
• 48:26
  Speaker 19: Bullets Soup otherwise Owner is a weekly roundtable. This is
• 48:30
  Speaker 19: our second year back. We were invited it's again to
• 48:32
  Speaker 19: come and do our podcast from you and we here
• 48:35
  Speaker 19: to do our part to protect, reserve and promote the
• 48:37
  Speaker 19: Second Amendment. And I'm also here to promote my brand
• 48:40
  Speaker 19: new gun shop in North Carolina, Primary Strike FFL.
• 48:43
  Speaker 16: Okay, okay.
• 48:44
  Speaker 18: And what big what big topics and big discussions that
• 48:48
  Speaker 18: you talk about on your show that's important too.
• 48:51
  Speaker 8: Well, we were.
• 48:52
  Speaker 19: We noticed that our brand new Attorney General happened to
• 48:54
  Speaker 19: walk through earlier and he did an interview with the
• 48:56
  Speaker 19: guys next to us, and one of the things we
• 48:57
  Speaker 19: were discussing was whether or not the Trump administration is
• 49:01
  Speaker 19: really as friendly to the Second Amendment as what has.
• 49:03
  Speaker 8: Been purported to be.
• 49:04
  Speaker 19: We've had a couple of things move forward and in
• 49:07
  Speaker 19: our favor, but those seem to be more court oriented
• 49:11
  Speaker 19: rather than administratively oriented.
• 49:13
  Speaker 8: So where there are.
• 49:14
  Speaker 19: Things that the ACF could be doing that they shouldn't
• 49:17
  Speaker 19: be doing, like the NFA list, where they've already had
• 49:20
  Speaker 19: the judgments place against them by the Supreme Court eliminating
• 49:23
  Speaker 19: the tax stan Well, there are certain things that aren't
• 49:26
  Speaker 19: necessary anymore. If they're not necessary, why are they still there?
• 49:30
  Speaker 19: And the people that have the ability to remove these
• 49:32
  Speaker 19: things these barriers from the American people are administration, and
• 49:36
  Speaker 19: that's Trump and that's his people. So why are they
• 49:40
  Speaker 19: still in place? Why are these obstacles of freedom still
• 49:43
  Speaker 19: in place when we supposedly have a very friendly administration.
• 49:48
  Speaker 8: So we got to call into question.
• 49:49
  Speaker 19: We can't just blindly follow somebody because they talk with
• 49:53
  Speaker 19: good game.
• 49:53
  Speaker 8: They got to produce results.
• 49:55
  Speaker 19: And so far, the only results that I've seen that
• 49:57
  Speaker 19: have gone in off favor have been brought to us
• 49:59
  Speaker 19: by ordinary civilians taking their case to the court and
• 50:03
  Speaker 19: buy industry insiders, industry manufacturers, and industry leaders that have
• 50:07
  Speaker 19: taken the fight to the government on our behalf.
• 50:10
  Speaker 8: None of because it's in.
• 50:11
  Speaker 19: Their personal self interest to be able to sell their product,
• 50:14
  Speaker 19: but because they were also genuinely second amended proponents.
• 50:18
  Speaker 8: So you know, we just want.
• 50:19
  Speaker 19: To make sure that the people that are there to
• 50:21
  Speaker 19: represent us are actually representing us and not an interest
• 50:25
  Speaker 19: other than.
• 50:25
  Speaker 8: What we hold. Dear.
• 50:27
  Speaker 18: One thing that in Texas we have we have gun
• 50:30
  Speaker 18: shows in one weekend, and you have loopholes as far
• 50:33
  Speaker 18: as people buying guns and selling them and taking them
• 50:36
  Speaker 18: across the board and selling them there.
• 50:39
  Speaker 16: These type of things happen in well.
• 50:41
  Speaker 8: What exactly are you going to call a loophole?
• 50:43
  Speaker 18: A loophole is being able to buy buy gun legally
• 50:45
  Speaker 18: here right and taking it and selling it across the board.
• 50:49
  Speaker 19: Can you sell a car illegally to somebody if you
• 50:55
  Speaker 19: bought a car at the dealership, drove it across state lines,
• 50:58
  Speaker 19: drove it to somebody and said, I don't have a title,
• 51:00
  Speaker 19: I don't have a thing, but he has five hundred
• 51:02
  Speaker 19: dollars going.
• 51:02
  Speaker 8: You could do it, right, You probably good. You do it.
• 51:05
  Speaker 8: You could do it anything. Okay, we do it with
• 51:07
  Speaker 8: there's people in this country. You do it with women,
• 51:08
  Speaker 8: do it with children. Okay.
• 51:11
  Speaker 19: Just because there's a law doesn't mean the bad thing.
• 51:13
  Speaker 19: The bad people are not going to do what they're
• 51:15
  Speaker 19: gonna do. If there is a law, bad people are
• 51:17
  Speaker 19: still going to do what they're gonna do.
• 51:19
  Speaker 8: Okay. There is no such thing as a loophole in
• 51:21
  Speaker 8: the law. It's a loophole and behavior.
• 51:24
  Speaker 19: You can write all the laws you want to write,
• 51:25
  Speaker 19: but if somebody is intent on breaking that law, they're
• 51:28
  Speaker 19: going to do it.
• 51:29
  Speaker 8: Whether they're going to do it for a nefarious motive,
• 51:32
  Speaker 8: they're going to do it for profit, or they're going
• 51:33
  Speaker 8: to do it for crime, they're still going to break it.
• 51:36
  Speaker 19: And the fact of the matter is the United States
• 51:38
  Speaker 19: has got something called the Tenth Amendment where every state
• 51:41
  Speaker 19: operates under its own individual constitution, and we operate under
• 51:45
  Speaker 19: a federal constitution for a unified country. But every state
• 51:48
  Speaker 19: has its own set of rights and its own set
• 51:50
  Speaker 19: of laws that are not going to be dictated to
• 51:52
  Speaker 19: determine by a neighboring state. So if one state doesn't
• 51:56
  Speaker 19: like what one state is going to do, that's for them.
• 51:58
  Speaker 8: To work out. But bad people are going to do
• 52:00
  Speaker 8: what bad people.
• 52:01
  Speaker 19: Are going to do, and it's not a matter of
• 52:03
  Speaker 19: a loophole and the law as fire as I'm concerned,
• 52:05
  Speaker 19: the only law that there should be as far as
• 52:07
  Speaker 19: guns is that you have to clean them.
• 52:08
  Speaker 8: And oil them.
• 52:10
  Speaker 19: I believe as a matter of the Second Amendment, when
• 52:12
  Speaker 19: it says shall not be infringed, that means exactly what
• 52:15
  Speaker 19: it says it means, shall not be in I don't
• 52:18
  Speaker 19: believe that we should have restrictions on firearms because I
• 52:21
  Speaker 19: think every single person is an individual. If you're going
• 52:23
  Speaker 19: to have restrictions on the individual, it has to be
• 52:26
  Speaker 19: done on an individual basis, and that as a blanket.
• 52:29
  Speaker 19: When they put blanket laws in place that denied multitudes
• 52:32
  Speaker 19: of people based on skin color, race, sexual orientation, religion,
• 52:36
  Speaker 19: denied all those people because of a blanket a certain
• 52:40
  Speaker 19: right that they were not allowed to exercise. Rights are
• 52:43
  Speaker 19: determined by individuals. That's how we have to apply.
• 52:46
  Speaker 8: To the law.
• 52:47
  Speaker 19: If you're going to have these things, should I be
• 52:49
  Speaker 19: allowed to own a machine gun? I don't have no
• 52:51
  Speaker 19: intention to hurt nobody with a machine gun? Why shouldn't I?
• 52:54
  Speaker 8: People would? Some people would?
• 52:57
  Speaker 19: And you know what people do. That's freedom, that's life,
• 53:01
  Speaker 19: that's the law. Bad things happen to good people all
• 53:04
  Speaker 19: the time. But you want to know what stops people.
• 53:06
  Speaker 19: I look over to my side over there, and I
• 53:08
  Speaker 19: see a gentleman about fifty feet away from me. Okay,
• 53:11
  Speaker 19: that didn't say it is Stephen Williford. That's Stephen Wiliford.
• 53:14
  Speaker 19: Otherwise there was the Barefoot Defender less than one hundred
• 53:18
  Speaker 19: feet from that man's house. A man opened fire up
• 53:20
  Speaker 19: in the church, killed thirteen people. The police couldn't get
• 53:23
  Speaker 19: there in time to stop it. Nobody could stop get
• 53:25
  Speaker 19: there in time to stop it. You know who stopped it.
• 53:27
  Speaker 19: Steven Williford stopped it. Stephen Williford, with three rounds of
• 53:30
  Speaker 19: ammunition Barefoot ran out of his house with his a
• 53:32
  Speaker 19: Off fifteen, a rifle that many politicians would tell them
• 53:36
  Speaker 19: he was not allowed to own that. You're not allowed
• 53:38
  Speaker 19: to own that, I'm not allowed to own. Steven and
• 53:41
  Speaker 19: Wiliford went out and put down a gunman before he
• 53:43
  Speaker 19: could get to another church and kill more people. Now,
• 53:45
  Speaker 19: Steven couldn't stop the guy from killing the thirteen people
• 53:48
  Speaker 19: in that church because it happened before he got there,
• 53:50
  Speaker 19: but he definitely prevented if from killing anybody else. If
• 53:54
  Speaker 19: we would have turned around and banned things from people
• 53:56
  Speaker 19: and say you can't own this, you can't own that,
• 53:58
  Speaker 19: Stephen Wiliford went not to be able to stop that
• 54:00
  Speaker 19: one man from doing it. And I'm gonna give you
• 54:02
  Speaker 19: the best example that I could think of. When you
• 54:04
  Speaker 19: talk about what things are illegal and what things aren't,
• 54:08
  Speaker 19: think about inn I believe it was nineteen eighty eight
• 54:11
  Speaker 19: something called the Los Angeles shootout Los Angeles County, California.
• 54:16
  Speaker 19: Two guys went into a bank to rob the bank
• 54:19
  Speaker 19: with fully automatic rifles that they had illegally obtained from Mexico.
• 54:24
  Speaker 19: They were obtained in Mexico fully automatic rifles. Over forty
• 54:28
  Speaker 19: police officers arrived at that scene and were unable to
• 54:32
  Speaker 19: stop these guys from the shooting and robbery rampage that
• 54:35
  Speaker 19: they were on because they were out guns. All they
• 54:38
  Speaker 19: had at the time was this Smith and Weston semi
• 54:40
  Speaker 19: automatic handguns.
• 54:41
  Speaker 8: That's all they had.
• 54:42
  Speaker 19: I don't even think they had converted over the glocks
• 54:44
  Speaker 19: at that time. All they had was those handguns. One
• 54:47
  Speaker 19: officer said, hey, there's a gun store not that far
• 54:50
  Speaker 19: away from here, and they ran to the gun store
• 54:53
  Speaker 19: and they retrieved AR fifteen rifles. Because now they had
• 54:58
  Speaker 19: equal powered rifle, these cops were able to go back
• 55:02
  Speaker 19: to the scene and put those two men down before
• 55:04
  Speaker 19: they hurt anybody else. Right now, think about what happened.
• 55:07
  Speaker 19: If legislators had their ability to say that the individual
• 55:10
  Speaker 19: doesn't have the right to own the guns, those two
• 55:12
  Speaker 19: guys would have still had illegal machine guns, and those
• 55:15
  Speaker 19: cops would not have had access to civilian owned firearms
• 55:18
  Speaker 19: that were able to be obtained and put those people down.
• 55:22
  Speaker 19: So when you turn around and you say you can't
• 55:24
  Speaker 19: have this, you can't have that, you're not only hand
• 55:27
  Speaker 19: cap handicapping with the American civilian, you handicapping society itself.
• 55:31
  Speaker 19: Because when somebody comes into that society and tries to
• 55:34
  Speaker 19: hurt us and try to do bed. You take the
• 55:36
  Speaker 19: teeth away from the people. We need the tools, regardless
• 55:40
  Speaker 19: of what they are. So you say, hey, why should
• 55:43
  Speaker 19: I own fil Audo Because it's fun and I'm an
• 55:45
  Speaker 19: American And that's all.
• 55:47
  Speaker 8: You need to know.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: That was Frank Johnson. In sports, the Houston Dynamo got
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: their first shutout of the season with a one to
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: zero win over Orlando FC in Orlando on Saturday. Midfielder
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Hector Herrera scored his first goal of the season in
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: the seventy fifth minute. Houston will be back at home
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday night against San Diego FC. The Woman's National
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: Basketball League will come back to Houston as the Houston
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: Comets will be back, moving from Connecticut. As for Tita
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: Entertainment purchased the team. They will be back and playing
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty seventh season. For our last word today,
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: we give a shout out to hip hop pioneer African Bambada,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: who died at the age of sixty eight. Hip hop
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: would not exist if it weren't for him.
• 56:36
  Speaker 8: Fidy Peep Bolo, Fidi Peep Bolo. There Yo get fo.
• 56:40
  Speaker 16: Key Socider postre Yo ge Poke.
• 56:46
  Speaker 8: Bize, make sagin Yo gemp Poke.
• 56:49
  Speaker 18: Yeah, just.
• 56:56
  Speaker 8: Deal down.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: The People's News is a production of Steve Gallington and
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: Richard Hannah, and is protected by copyright laws. All the
• 57:12
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  Speaker 1: at gallington dot com. Thank you.