The Hardliners

A Uniquely American Problem

Long Shadow - Shall Not Be Infringed

<p>The Second Amendment may have begun as a Constitutional afterthought, but a late 20th-century ideological shift caused some to view it as a sacred right in the name of self defense.</p>

Shall Not Be Infringed

At a time when information continues to come at us faster and faster, sometimes you need to hit pause.

NPR's Thuleine takes you back in time to the source of the news stories filling your

feed. Find NPR's Thuleine wherever you get your podcasts.

On and across this season, there are repeated mentions of guns, gun violence,

and their collective toll on our society and our psyche.

The state bird of Florida has been the same since 1927, the northern mockingbird, the bird you're hearing right now.

For seven decades, the mocking bird sat peacefully on its Florida throne, but it's also the

state bird of Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. So in the 1990s, the Florida Audubon Society started drumming up support for a new candidate.

The Scrub Jay was teetering close to extinction and the Audubon Society thought a

publicity boost could help increase its chances of survival. Plus the Scrub J was endemic to Florida, a uniquely Floridian bird to represent a unique state.

A high school teacher who had heard about the Audubon Society campaign brought it to his students as a project and

civic engagement, and the kids took up the cause with a passion.

They wrote letters to their legislators and traveled to other schools in the county.

They convinced thousands of fellow students to ask legislators to put forward a bill

And the legislators did. And kids came down to the legislature to testify in support of the new bird

and to petition the government to make the change.

This is Mike Spies, senior writer for The Trace, a

The April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School hurtled the United States into an era of mass shootings. Now, a quarter century later, the horrors of that day have become an almost regular facet of American life, and gun violence a record-smashing epidemic. Clad in both camouflage and Kevlar, 21st-century America is a bastion of freedom where workplaces require active shooter protocols, schools run lockdown drills, and the Second Amendment has become a religion unto itself.Guns are a uniquely American problem, but the U.S. wasn’t always like this. LONG SHADOW: IN GUNS WE TRUST explores the story of the people — some names you'll know, some you won't — who changed the way America relates to guns, for better or worse. This season, host Garrett Graff, in collaboration with The Trace, chronicles how firearms moved from being an ordinary part of the background of rural life to a menacing element of modern American life.Crackling with rich archival tape and riveting eyewitness and expert interviews, this narrative podcast examines threads of history that are vitally relevant to our current political climate. In LONG SHADOW’s first season, Graff, a Pulitzer-finalist and a best-selling author and historian, examined the lingering questions of 9/11, the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Season two chronicled how bloody tragedies at the hands of federal agents led to the rise of American far-right extremism and ultimately the January 6 insurrection. Season three will help listeners understand how simply carrying firearms has become its own act of defiance, and how a very specific, carefully manufactured fear has driven explosive demand for guns across America. How did we get here? Subscribe and listen to LONG SHADOW to find out.LONG SHADOW: IN GUNS WE TRUST is produced by <a href="https://www.longlead.com">Long Lead</a> and <a href="https://www.campsidemedia.com">Campside Media</a> in collaboration with <a href="https://www.thetrace.org">The Trace</a>, and is distributed by <a href="https://www.prx.org">PRX</a>.

0:00.0	At a time when information continues to come at us faster and faster, sometimes you need to hit pause.
0:07.0	And rewind.
0:10.0	NPR's Thuleine takes you back in time to the source of the news stories filling your
0:17.0	feed. Find NPR's Thuleine wherever you get your podcasts.
0:23.0	A note for listeners.
0:25.0	On and across this season, there are repeated mentions of guns, gun violence,
0:30.0	and their collective toll on our society and our psyche.
0:34.0	Please take care while you listen.
0:37.0	The state bird of Florida has been the same since 1927, the northern mockingbird, the bird you're hearing right now.
0:52.0	For seven decades, the mocking bird sat peacefully on its Florida throne, but it's also the
0:57.4	state bird of Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. So in the 1990s, the Florida Audubon Society started drumming up support for a new candidate.
1:08.0	The Florida Scrub Jay.
1:11.0	The Scrub Jay was teetering close to extinction and the Audubon Society thought a
1:16.7	publicity boost could help increase its chances of survival. Plus the Scrub J was endemic to Florida, a uniquely Floridian bird to represent a unique state.
1:28.0	A high school teacher who had heard about the Audubon Society campaign brought it to his students as a project and
1:34.7	civic engagement, and the kids took up the cause with a passion.
1:39.3	They wrote letters to their legislators and traveled to other schools in the county.
1:43.5	They convinced thousands of fellow students to ask legislators to put forward a bill
1:48.2	on the scrub jays behalf.
1:50.3	And the legislators did. And kids came down to the legislature to testify in support of the new bird
1:59.0	and to petition the government to make the change.
2:02.0	This is Mike Spies, senior writer for The Trace, a
	...

Shall Not Be Infringed

Long Shadow

Long Lead & PRX & The Trace & Campside Media

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