from WNYC studios. I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Tuesday,

September 17th. Two days after another assassination attempt against Donald Trump,

there are many questions being asked about the effectiveness

or deployment of the Secret Service to protect someone in Trump's unique position of candidate,

former president, and cultural lightning rod, about Trump's unique role in promoting political

violence in our country, though obviously not aimed at himself. And there are the questions we will take on

today about guns. Authorities say the suspect in the shooting, 58-year-old Ryan Ruth, had an AK-47-style

weapon with a scope, and the serial number blotted out. What do each of those things represent

in American life for Trump with a target on

his back or for the rest of us? He's been charged, Ruth has, with two federal gun crimes,

possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm with that

obliterated serial number. The 20-year-old who shot at Trump in July, also with an AK-47-style rifle, if I've got the

reporting right, had 14 guns in his home, according to Fox News and other media reports.

FBI officials were quoted by the Wall Street Journal saying he had been

making dozens of gun-related purchases and stocking up on bomb-making materials for more than a year.

Fox News says the one he used that injured the former president was sold to him legally by his father.

You can't buy a cannabis gummy until you're 21, but you can own an assault

weapon at 20. The 14-year-old who confessed to killing four people at his Georgia high school this

month used an AR-15 style assault weapon, allegedly given to him by his father. the father as well as the son, has been charged

in connection with those deaths. The assault weapons and other gun safety laws debate has been

stuck in this country for decades, as most of you know, mostly stuck. There was a law that got

passed during the recent Congress and in the Biden administration. But the gun owners

...