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Richard Helppie
Welcome to The Common Bridge. I'm your host, Richard Helppie. Again, we're going to be talking about guns, this time from a different angle. Our guest today is none other than President Joseph R. Biden. The president did make some comments on June 2, and we're going to speak with him about that - well, kind of speak with him about that. Of course, The Common Bridge is available on most podcast outlets on YouTube TV, and our special spot on substack.com. Please look up The Common Bridge, and of course on your Radio Garden app, please find us on Mission Control Radio. And now let's hear from the President.
President Biden
On Memorial Day this past Monday, Jill and I visited Arlington National Cemetery. As we entered those hallowed grounds, you saw rows and rows of crosses, among the rows of headstones and other emblems of belief, honoring those who paid the ultimate price in the battlefields around the world. The day before we visited Uvalde - Uvalde, Texas - in front of Robb Elementary school, we stood before 21 crosses for 19 third and fourth graders and two teachers. On each cross a name, and nearby, a photo of each victim that Jill and I reached out to touch. Innocent victims murdered in the classroom; has been turned into a killing field. Standing there in that small town, like so many other communities across America, I couldn't help but think there are too many other schools, too many other everyday places that have become killing fields, battlefields, here in America. We stood in such a place just 12 days before, across from a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, memorializing ten fellow Americans; a spouse, a parent or grandparent, a sibling - gone forever.
Richard Helppie
Thank you, President Biden. Look, the President's emotion is very real. No question about that. The mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York obviously touched the President and his wife deeply, like it did most Americans. And he advanced several ideas with a hope to end these horrible incidents, and I'm glad he did. It troubles me, like it troubles most people, that we have to use the words "most recent" in front of "mass shootings". And let's be clear, in the absence of effective policies to change, this isn't going to end. Now, it's a solvable problem. And like so many other issues of the day, our political gridlock, our distrust of institutions, our polarized politics, and our corrupt reporting industries, allow the matter to not only fester, but just get worse. The problem is real. The problem needs to be solved. It won't get solved by one president. It won't get solved by one party. The reality is this; there are Republicans cowering right now because they don't want to be painted as anti-Second Amendment. And there are Democrats increasingly desperate to change the electoral narrative, to find a single issue to distract from their track record. And all of them are trying to say, well, what's politically possible. The politics are supposed to work for us, so any good solution, it needs to become politically possible.
President Biden
In both places, we spent hours with hundreds of family members who were broken, whose lives will never be the same. They had one message for all of us, do something, just do something. For God's sake, do something.
Richard Helppie
You heard the President; "just do something, for God's sake, do something". Now, "do something" is a great rallying cry, and I fully support it. And I'd also suggest that we amplify it - "do something" - and amplify it to "do something effective" that aims at the real problem and be bold about it. Be courageous about it. It's long past time to do something and let's do something that, when back tested, would actually prevent these tragedies. Now, my Substack column at The Common Bridge was a called "Bang Bang Nothing Changed", published on May 26; a special episode of the podcast with guest Justin Higgins on May 25, that we call another massacre and nothing done by those elected. There isn't a thinking person alive that can see it's past time to do something. But the something has to be effective and acceptable. And it isn't that hard, unless one is considering the political partisanship angles. My side is better than yours because we're protecting constitutional rights, or no, no, no, my side is better than yours, because we're not on the side of killing children. It's an idiotic discussion. I've put forward a program that when back tested, would prevent nearly all of these tragedies. It's not difficult. It's called graduated licensing. In this case, I'm throwing out three levels. The first level, if you want to buy a gun, great, you've got to take a gun safety class and a storage class, pass a written test on gun safety and storage, get on the range with a trained instructor, learn and demonstrate that you can fire safely. And then you get a license for a lethal weapon, but something under seven rounds, maximum 38 caliber or 357 Magnum, maybe a shotgun with five cartridge capacity, a hunting rifle with three rounds. And that's what you get at level one. Now, of course, that's still deadly, but I think far more deadly than some of the other weapons that have been put to such horrible use. At level two, let's say at a year of incident free level one licensing, you've got to come back for more classroom training or video gun safety usage and storage instruction, pass another written test, demonstrate proficiency on the range, take a medical evaluation just like pilots, then you get licensed for a semi-automatic handgun, perhaps up to ten rounds, any pistol, shotgun without limitations, rifles, maybe six rouund capacity. Level three, and this is the really big difference, requires at least a year of incident free level two licensing, additional classroom and video training, another written test, another medical evaluation and then you're now licensed for all legal firearms with the proviso that they're stored appropriately. Let's just say the license is good for ten years. And if you've been a responsible gun owner, there's got to be a way to bring people in via affidavit so that we are stopping the people, the mentally unstable, from getting their hands on dangerous weapons. What do you think, Mr. President?
President Biden
After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Charleston, after Orlando, after Las Vegas, after Parkland, nothing has been done.
Richard Helppie
So applause to the President for calling out the political gridlock and partisanship that stalled progress on effective gun laws. And frankly, a long list of other things but today, we're just going to stick on on guns.
President Biden
This time, that can't be true. This time, we must actually do something. The issue we face is one of conscience and common sense. For so many of you at home I want to be very clear. This is not about taking away anyone's guns. It's not about vilifying gun owners. In fact, we believe we should be treating responsible gun owners as an example of how every gun owner should behave.
Richard Helppie
Now, you heard the President. He said an example of how every gun owner should behave. And let me say this: exactly, Mr. President. We have over 300 million firearms in private hands and over 11 million, so-called assault rifles as well, in private hands. These numbers alone make the clear case that the vast majority of gun owners use their weapons responsibly. They store them safely and they transfer them legally. Similarly, the use of cars to run down people, like we saw in Charlottesville and Waukesha, do not mean that the vast majority of car owners are not responsible. We regulate a lot of dangerous, and potentially dangerous things, like motor vehicles, airplanes, fireworks, medical treatments, medications, playground equipment, flammable materials, and so many more. We need to do a better job of regulating firearms. And it can be done without sacrificing the intent of the Second Amendment or punishing responsible, law abiding citizens.
President Biden
I respect the culture and the tradition and the concerns of lawful gun owners; at the same time the Second Amendment, like all other rights, is not absolute. It was Justice Scalia who wrote and I quote, "like most rights, the rights granted by the Second Amendment are not unlimited." Not unlimited and never has been. There have always been limitations on what weapons you can own in America. For example, machine guns have been Federally regulated for nearly 90 years and this is still a free country. This isn't about taking anyone's rights. It's about protecting children. It's about protecting families. It's about protecting whole communities. It's about protecting our freedoms to go to school, to a grocery store, to a church, without being shot and killed. According to new data just released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, guns are the number one killer of children in the United States of America.
Richard Helppie
So you heard the President, he said, it's not about taking anyone's rights away. It's about protecting the freedom of others to live their lives. Now, I remember my ninth grade civics class...that was way back when a public school education focused on explaining the design of our government and how it operates, along with other things that came in handy, like mathematics and reading comprehension, writing, and speaking and so forth. In any case, my teacher, Lynn Early, had a great explanation. He said the rights of someone to swing their fist ended at the point of another person's nose. So yeah, you've got all the rights in the world to swing your fist, but you can't hit or intimidate someone, because your right does not let you infringe on theirs. So we have a Second Amendment about the right to keep and bear arms. The obvious intent is for citizens to protect against a tyrannical government. Now, unless you believe that the framers and founders thought being able to hunt turkey with a musket had to be enshrined in the Bill of Rights, you know that's what it means. And it also says "well regulated". In any case, there is no right, constitutional or otherwise, for a mentally unstable person to be armed and to carry out carnage against citizens. That's not a right, but some of you sound like that's the right that we need to preserve; we don't. And it isn't mutually exclusive to keep arms should the need ever arise to resist tyranny, while keeping guns out of the hands of those who will commit mayhem and death. We can keep those firearms; it's demonstrated by the vast majority of gun owners, and we can keep them away from people that would do harm. We just have to have the political will to do it.
President Biden
The number one killer, more than car accidents, more than cancer. Over the last two decades, more school-aged children have died from guns than on-duty police officers and active duty military combined. Think about that. More kids and on-duty cops killed by guns, more kids than soldiers killed by guns. For God's sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept?
Richard Helppie
Okay, look, the President just asked the question, how much more carnage will we accept? And there are statistics; he cited the police officers and active military duty deaths over the last couple of decades. Look, gun and motor vehicle deaths increased substantially in 2020; that's the last year that we have final numbers. But when you start parsing through the numbers, you'll see that some of those statistics only approach validity when you take the 18 and 19 year olds and include them with the one to 17 year olds. And we know that being an 18 year old and being a 14 year old is a vast difference. But in any case between 1999 and 2017 - from the best data I can find - 6,464 children between the ages of five and 14 died from gunshot trauma, and 32,478 between the ages of 15 and 18 for a total of 38,942 fatalities. Now when you parse this data a little further, you see that 86% involve boys. And black children were disproportionately represented with 41% of those killed, despite being 14% of the population. If you further unwrap that you'll see that 61% died from assault, 32% by suicide, 5% accidental, 2% undetermined. It's a problem.
President Biden
How many more innocent American lives must be taken before we say enough. Enough. I know that we can't prevent every tragedy, but here's what I believe we have to do, here's what the overwhelming majority of American people believe we must do, here's what the families in Buffalo, and Uvalde, in Texas, told us we must do. We need to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. And if we can't ban assault weapons, then we should raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21.
Richard Helppie
You heard our president. He said if we can't ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, let's raise the age to purchase from 18 to 21. I think it's a great idea. I think he's on the right track and perhaps he's bowing to what's politically feasible. But think about this; the person who bought a high powered rifle and a huge supply of ammunition before immediately going to kill four people in Tulsa was 45 years old. Raising the age would not have stopped him. However, graduated licensing would not only have slowed the process by test of competency at the gun range, the written tests, safe usage and storage and provides that cooling-off period. The man, at best, after a period of days would have had a revolver with six or seven shots or perhaps a five shot shotgun or three browns and a rifle, certainly enough to kill many. But would he have risked it if he knew he was going to be out-gunned? We won't know the answer to that but the bottom line was he should not have had the weapon in his hands that he had. And if you're that gun store clerk, I can't think that you don't get a sense that this is a problem sale.
President Biden
Strengthened background checks, and Act Safe storage laws and Red Flag laws; repeal the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from liability, address the mental health crisis deepening the trauma of gun violence and as a consequence of that violence. These are rational common sense measures.
Richard Helppie
I hope everyone heard the President thinking this through: strengthening background checks, implementing Red Flag laws, repealing immunity that protects gun manufacturers, enacting safe storage laws, and addressing the mental health crisis. Well, hallelujah, I'm glad that we're finally getting commentary on mental health; it's long overdue. For followers of this show, you know we called this out very early in the pandemic; the data was there. We've had recent columnists writing about the correlation between fatherless boys and boys that can't get a date with a girl, as being those factors that might lead them to do something horrible like this. Now, there's plenty of young men out there that are fatherless and plenty that don't attract girls, but very few that sink to this level of despicable behavior. But we've got some patterns there. We have school systems that don't expel or discipline, and I again, I recommend the book "Why Meadow Died" to understand the failure of the school system in Florida. Now Red Flag laws combined with graduated licensing are probably a pretty good idea if implemented correctly. Why? Because the Red Flag laws address someone that already has a weapon while the Graduated Licensing prevents a new gun possessor from getting their hands on one. But there are some issues with Red flag laws. First of all, they take time to implement and it doesn't affect juveniles. If there's information in the juvenile justice system, that is by law, in most places, subject to confidentiality. It places the responsibility on keeping the mentally unstable person from the gun on the public; not on the store, the gun show or the online seller actually supplying the weapons. Someone has to take time off from work, there has to be a hearing. There has to be an order made, law enforcement has to go out and collect the weapons. Again, I think it's a good part of a comprehensive gun policy. But when the next preventable tragedy occurs, the discussion can't be something like, why didn't someone file a Red Flag complaint? Or why didn't the Red Flag order get approved or why wasn't it implemented? On the other hand, graduated licensing would put the onus on the gun purchaser to demonstrate that they have the ability to safely use and store the weapon. They've been reviewed and approved from law enforcement, local law enforcement that is. Emergency issue for firearms could be used, but there'd be some scrutiny. So Red Flag laws in conjunction with graduated licensing, safely applied, probably a pretty good idea. Alright, safe storage. There are actually laws in place, such as California's, that require firearms to be unloaded and locked down. The argument is that one side will say that guns must be unloaded, stored in a locked gun safe, and maybe each have a trigger lock. The other is that this type of storage would render the gun useless for home security, a necessity in places where police response times are lengthy. But we can, again, have it both ways. So for guns that aren't for home protection, like your AR-15, for example, then keep them unloaded and behind at least two locks. For guns that are available for home security, there are excellent products on the market today for quick release combinations that allow access to the handgun or the shotgun in an emergency, but they're kept locked down. And if you keep those safes out of the sight of visitors and children, you've prevented the problem.
President Biden
Here's what it all means. It all means this; we should reinstate the assault weapons ban and high capacity magazines that we passed in 1994 with bipartisan support in Congress and the support of law enforcement. Nine categories of semi-automatic weapons were included in that ban, like AK-47s and AR-15s. And in the ten years it was law, mass shootings went down. But after Republicans let the law expire in 2004, and those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings tripled. Those are the facts.
Richard Helppie
Okay, the president argues for banning assault type weapons, specifically AR-15s and AK-47s. And look, we know that the gun manufacturers always find a way around these rules. It also doesn't address the horse that's already out of the barn. And of course, the President is slipping into that partisanship when he says Republicans let the ban slip in 2004. I don't know if they did or not. I don't know if there's a cause and effect, but he just couldn't help himself there.
President Biden
A few years ago, the family of the inventor of the AR-15 said he would have been horrified to know that his design was being used to slaughter children and other innocent lives instead of being used as a military weapon in the battlefields as it was designed. That's who's dying for.
Richard Helppie
The president's right. The designer of the ArmaLite 15 said he wished he had never made the gun. But again, it's a collision of the Second Amendment - misinterpreted Second Amendment - people that are using these weapons the way they are, are not defending against tyranny. They're not part of a well regulated militia.
President Biden
We should limit how many rounds a weapon can hold. Why in God's name, should an ordinary citizen be able to purchase an assault weapon that holds 30 round magazines that let mass shooters fire hundreds of bullets in a matter of minutes? The damage was so devastating in Uvalde, parents had to do DNA swabs to identify the remains of their children - nine and 10 year old children - enough. You should expand background checks to keep guns out of the hands of felons, fugitives, and those under restraining orders. Stronger background checks are something that the vast majority of Americans, including the majority of gun owners, agree on. I also believe we should have safe storage laws and personal liability for not locking up your gun.
Richard Helppie
The president I think raises a valid legal question. I'd love to have an attorney come on the show about liability for not locking up your gun. We do have a legal theory called "user in due course" and "attractive nuisance". And we, of course, had many tragedies where someone got their hands on a weapon that wasn't properly secured.
President Biden
The shooter at Sandy Hook came from home full of guns that were too easy to access. That's how he got the weapons. The weapon he used to kill his mother and then murdered 26 people, including 20 first graders. If you own a weapon, you have a responsibility to secure it. Every responsible gun owner agrees, to make sure no one else can have access to it, to lock it up, to have trigger locks. And if you don't, and something bad happens, you should be held responsible. We should also have national Red Flag laws so that a parent, a teacher, a counselor, can flag for a court that a child, a student, a patient, that is exhibiting violent tendencies, threatening classmates, or experiencing suicidal thoughts that make them a danger to themselves or to others. 19 states and the District Columbia have Red Flag laws. The Delaware law is named after my son, Attorney General Beau Biden. Fort Hood, Texas 2009: 13 dead and more than 30 injured. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida 2018: 17 dead, 17 injured. In both places countless others suffering with invisible wounds. Red Flag laws could have stopped both these shooters. In Uvalde, the shooter was 17 when he asked his sister to buy him an assault weapon, knowing he'd be denied because he was too young to purchase one himself. She refused. But as soon as he turned 18, he purchased two assault weapons for himself. Because in Texas, you can be 18 years old to buy an assault weapon even though you can't buy a pistol in Texas until you're 21. If we can't ban assault weapons, as we should, we must, at least, raise the age to be able to purchase one to 21.
Richard Helppie
The President again says, look, let's raise the age for certain weapons to 21. And again, after he talks about the Red Flag laws and the Texas shooter trying to buy at 17, I think that the graduated licensing would have blocked this.
President Biden
Look, I know some folks will say 18 year olds can serve in the military and fire those weapons. But that's with training and supervision by the best trained experts in the world. Don't tell me raising the age won't make a difference. Enough. We should repeal the liability shield that often protects gun manufacturers from being sued for the death and destruction caused by their weapons. They're the only industry in this country that has that kind of immunity. Imagine, imagine if the tobacco industry had been immune from being sued where we'd be today. The gun industry special protections are outrageous. It must end.
Richard Helppie
When we talk about liability protections for gun manufacturers, that's something that I'd like to have a better understanding of. I know that the other things we've talked about like tobacco, tobacco was marketed in a way that did not describe the risks to the end user of the product. In fact, it's the only product legally on the market when used as directed, that is deadly.
President Biden
Let there be no mistake about the psychological trauma that gun violence leaves behind. Imagine being that little girl, that brave little girl in Uvalde, who speared blood off her murdered friends body on her own face, to lie still among the corpses in her classroom and pretend she was dead in order to stay alive. Imagine, imagine what it'd be like for her to walk down the hallway of any school again. Imagine what it's like for children who experience this kind of trauma every day in school, in the streets, in communities all across America. Imagine what it's like for so many parents to hug their children goodbye in the morning, not sure whether they'll come back home. Unfortunately, too many people don't have to imagine that at all. Even before the pandemic young people were already hurting. There's a serious youth mental health crisis in this country. We have to do something about it. That's why mental health is at the heart of my Unity Agenda that I laid out in the State of the Union address this year. We must provide more school counselors, more school nurses, more mental health services for students and for teachers, more people volunteering as mentors to help young people succeed. More privacy protections resources to keep kids safe from the harms of social media. This Unity Agenda won't fully heal the wounded souls but it will help; it matters. I just told you what I'd do. The question now is what will the Congress do? House of Representatives already passed key measures we need, expanding background checks to cover nearly all gun sales, including at gun shows and online sales; getting rid of the loophole that allows a gun sale to go through after three business days, even if the background check has not been completed. And the House is planning even more action next week: safe storage requirements, the banning of high capacity magazines, raising the age to buy an assault weapon to 21, Federal Red Flag Law, codifing my ban on ghost guns that don't have serial numbers and can't be traced.
Richard Helppie
The President talks about banning ghost guns; not sure what that has to do with these current shootings but it's part of the problem.
President Biden
And tougher laws to prevent gun trafficking and straw purchases. This time, we have to take the time to do something, and this time, it's time for the Senate to do something. But, as we know, in order to get anything done in the Senate, we need a minimum of ten Republican senators. I support the bipartisan efforts that includes small group of Democrats and Republican senators trying to find a way. My God, the fact that the majority of the Senate Republicans don't want any of these proposals even to be debated or come up for a vote, I find unconscionable. We can't fail the American people again. Since Uvalde just over a week ago there have been 20 other mass shootings in America, each with four or more people killed or injured, including yesterday. At a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a shooter deliberately targeted a surgeon using an assault weapon he bought just a few hours before his rampage that left the surgeon, another doctor, receptionist and a patient dead and many more injured. That doesn't count the carnage we see every single day that doesn't make the headlines. I've been in this fight for a long time. I know how hard it is, but I'll never give up. And if Congress fails I believe this time a majority of American people won't give up either. I believe the majority of you will act to turn your outrage into making this issue central to your vote. Enough. Enough Enough.
Richard Helppie
Look, the President's right. Your vote counts. I hope all eligible citizens go out and cast a vote. This is a thinly veiled call to partisanship, and this is why it's so hard to get something done in the country. The President just betrayed the trust of the 57% of Americans that disapprove of his performance in office. A better message would be a fiercely nonpartisan call to write to your congressional representative and senators about this issue. Fix this problem, because otherwise it just looks like familiar political fog to distract from inflation, the Afghanistan withdrawal, the southern border, the FBI scandals, the war in the Ukraine, the baby formula shortage, COVID lockdowns, lying about voting laws, questionable sexual content talking to kids, and mangling language in favor of the latest social fad. It leaves people exhausted when we have a real problem with keeping firearms away from people that shouldn't have them. So set aside the politics, Mr. President; set aside politics, US House of Representatives; set aside politics, United States Senate. Fix this problem. There it is.
President Biden
Over the next 17 days the families in Uvalde will continue burying their dead. It will take that long, in part because it's a town where everyone knows everyone. Day by day, they will honor each one they lost. Jill and I met with the owner and staff of the funeral home, who's being strong, strong, strong, strong to take care of their own. And the people of Uvalde mourn; as they do over the next 17 days what will we be doing as a nation? Jill and I met with a sister of the teacher who was murdered, and whose husband died of a heart attack two days later, leaving behind four beautiful orphaned children - all now orphaned. The sister asked us, what could she say, what can she tell her nieces and nephews? It was one of the most heartbreaking moments that I can remember. All I could think to say was...I told her to hold them tight, hold them tight. After visiting the school we attended mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church with Father Eddie. In the pews, families and friends held each other tightly. As Archbishop Gustavo spoke, he asked the children in attendance to come up on the altar and sit on the altar with him. As he spoke, there wasn't enough room, so mom and her young son sat next to Jill and me in the first pew. And as we left the church a grandmother who had just lost her granddaughter passed me a handwritten letter. It read, quote, "erase the invisible line that is dividing our nation, come up with a solution and fix what's broken, and make the changes that are necessary to prevent this from happening again," end of quote.
Richard Helppie
Yes, Mr. President, yes, erase the invisible line. Quit promoting it. Nearly every one of these mass shootings attack people across partisan lines. Solve the problem without party lines, sir, be the president for everybody, please.
President Biden
My fellow Americans, enough. Enough. It's time for each of us to do our part. It's time to act for the children we've lost, the children we can save, for the nation we love. Let's hear the call and the cry. Let's meet the moment. Let us finally do something. God bless the families who are hurting. God bless you all, from the hymn based on the 91st Psalm sung in my church, may He raise you up on eagle's wings and bury you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like the sun and hold you in the palm of His hand. That's my prayer for all of you. God bless you.
Richard Helppie
Had we had the opportunity to keep the president on just a little longer there are some things I'd like to talk about that he didn't and I'm going to mention those. Mr. President, had you ended your speech the way you started, by calling for laws that would make every gun owner as responsible as the vast majority of gun owners, we'd be on our way to solving this problem and preventing the carnage. Please, Mr. President. Some things the President didn't talk about. Concealed carry permit holders rarely commit gun related crimes. They rarely commit any crimes. And guess what? In most states, other than Vermont, possibly Texas, concealed carry permit holders have to obtain the government's pre-approval to carry a concealed firearm in public places. How about that? Just like graduated licensing. They have to abide by safe storage regulations such if they leave their gun in a car to go into a place [where] they can't carry it, does that sound familiar? That's what we're promoting for the rest of the firearms. We have daily carnage in our cities from firearms, most of them committed with semi-automatic handguns, not the kinds of things that we're talking about banning. We have very angry people taking lives for no justifiable reason at all. The victim's family is forever scarred; the person pulling the trigger surrendered their future, the families, the loved ones, the friends - all those people - the neighbors, all suffer. And that leads to non-prosecution of gun crimes. At one time, and I'm not sure if it's still law or not, we had a mandatory "one with a gun, get you two." There were billboards up every place. That meant if you committed a crime with a gun, you're getting another two years added to your sentence. It's time for prosecuting gun crimes. I don't care if you're the son of the president United States, you've got to be prosecuted for it. So yeah, I am a little angry and a little emotional about this because it's time to do something; we're killing innocent citizens. And that "something" or "somethings" have to be effective. I know there are politicians on both sides and all sides that want to gain advantage from this. We are not protected from a tyrannical government by making it easy for a mentally ill person to kill a lot of innocent people. That reality should not affect so many Americans and their families. The fear of experiencing this vicious, sadistic unlawfulness should not hang over any American or their family. It's past time to demand that our political leadership address the issue. Make it a new day for Americans: graduated licensing. Have the courage to do it; it will be sustained on review. It does not violate the Second Amendment. Anybody that proves they are fit can have any legal weapon they wish. Bring on Red Flag laws, tighten background checks, insist on storage requirements, look into legal liability. We're a better society for it if we do. And the only way we're going to get there is not through this broken partisan system. It's not through the corrupt reporting. It's not through relaying the soundbite. It's not for listening and trying to make advantage for my side, your side or the other person's side. So Godspeed, Mr. President, please use every bit of influence, experience and skill you can find to bring a solution to this gun mess. Our prayers are with you, Mr. President, and with all those that we elect to serve, and all those whose reporting we consume. We're better than this. Let's fix the problem. And with our President Joe Biden, this is Rich Helppie, your host on The Common Bridge, signing off.
Transcribed by Cynthia Silveri
A Discussion About Gun Control