Can we change the gun reform conversation?

KCRW's Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Monterey Park, Half Moon Bay, and Oakland, California are all reeling from mass shootings in their communities this past week that left at least 19 people dead.

In Monterey Park, a city east of downtown Los Angeles, the shooter opened fire in a dance hall during Lunar New Year celebrations. The next day’s festival, which was set to draw thousands of people, was canceled.

Special guest Elise Hu, journalist and host for NPR, was supposed to take her three young daughters to perform at the next day’s Lunar New Year festival. She shares her experience trying to make sense of the violence and looking for hope amid tragedy.

And with more mass shootings comes the wave of politicians and policymakers demanding gun reform. President Biden is renewing his call for an assault weapons ban, though House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield says he won’t commit to considering any new legislation.

Would stricter gun laws make a difference? And is there a compromise both sides could be content with?

Host David Greene discusses with Mo Elleithee, executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, and Sarah Isgur, senior editor at The Dispatch.

Plus, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is standing by his state’s decision to reject an Advanced Placement course in African American studies last week. He said the course lacks educational value and is too political due to its discussion of queer studies, reparations, and abolishing prisons.

This is the first time a state has rejected an AP course, which is a class that allows high school students to potentially gain college credit. What’s behind this decision and how can policymakers move forward?

And special guest Sergio Peçanha, columnist at the Washington Post, discusses his recent article, “Hug an election denier,” and how we can embrace those we love despite disagreeing with them.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, this is David Green. I'm the co-founder of Fearless Media and I'm your host here on
0:05.6	Left Right and Center. This is the show where we take on all the political issues, even
0:10.2	those complicated ones that might be dividing your own family these days.
0:14.6	So last week brought another mass shooting. This time in Monterey Park, a city east of
0:19.7	downtown Los Angeles. The shooter entered the star ballroom where lunar new year celebrations
0:25.5	were taking place. He shot and killed 11 people and wounded 9 others. Our guest today is
0:31.8	Elise Hugh. She's host of the Ted Talks Daily Podcast, a host at large for NPR. She was
0:37.1	so bureau chief for NPR and we became very close friends while working at NPR together
0:41.8	and remain so today. And Elise is also a mom to three daughters who were supposed to perform
0:48.2	with their choir at the Lunar New Year festival in Monterey Park Sunday. The event was canceled
0:53.4	because of the massacre the night before. And we should say this was actually the first
0:57.1	time in three years that Monterey Park was able to hold its festival because of COVID restrictions
1:02.5	in previous years. At least I just want to start by saying I'm so sorry about this attack
1:09.9	and how it's impacted your family, your family, other parents, friends, and I wonder how
1:16.2	you're holding up. Thank you. And I should say it is horrible no matter what community
1:22.3	is affected. Monterey Park and now Half Moon Bay, which happened less than 48 hours after
1:28.4	also in California, are joining the long list of communities that have been affected by
1:33.4	gun violence. The proximity to Lunar New Year was what was especially heavy. And as you
1:39.8	mentioned, this festival that often drew as many as 100,000 people from various parts
1:46.2	of Southern California to attend and celebrate the Lunar New Year, this festival hadn't happened
1:51.2	for years. And finally, they were able to have hold the first day of the events on Saturday.
1:57.1	And my girls and I were going to go on the second day. Of course, that was canceled because
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KCRW, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KCRW and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.