Scene on Radio S4E1: Rich Man’s Revolt

Shall Not Be Infringed

Long Shadow - The Hardliners

<p>In the 1980s, a pair of intimidating NRA leaders recast the organization in their own imposing images as the group went on an all-out offensive against gun regulations.</p>

The Hardliners

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 Throughline wherever you get your podcasts.

A note for listeners, on and across this season, there are repeated mentions of guns, gun

violence, and their collective toll on our society and our psyche.

A couple of days before Christmas in New York City in 1984, 37-year-old Bernard Gets was going to meet friends for a drink.

He got on the subway and entered a sparsely crowded car on the number two train.

After a while, Gets noticed a group of teenagers

There were two on his left and two on his right. The boys were headed to an arcade, but they didn't have any money.

So one of them, smiling, ask gets for five dollars.

I asked him quietly. I said, what did you say? He said, give him

five dollars. When I saw the smile on his face and the shine in his eyes that he was enjoying this.

At the time, crime in New York was rampant, and people were constantly getting mugged, often on the subway.

Gets was no tourist. His instinct told him almost immediately that these boys had no interest in his five bucks, and he was prepared for a moment like this.

I said, I'll give you five dollars. I just started firing. I wanted to kill those guys, I wanted to kill those guys I wanted to name those guys I wanted to make

gets shot each teenager one at a time with a 38 caliber gun. Then he said he stood over one boy

and shot him again in the back for good measure. I went to him the second time and I said you seem to be doing all right here's another

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 Throughline wherever you get your podcasts.
0:23.0	A note for listeners, on and across this season, there are repeated mentions of guns, gun
0:29.7	violence, and their collective toll on our society and our psyche.
0:34.0	Please take care while you listen.
0:39.0	A couple of days before Christmas in New York City in 1984, 37-year-old Bernard Gets was going to meet friends for a drink.
0:48.2	He got on the subway and entered a sparsely crowded car on the number two train.
0:53.9	After a while, Gets noticed a group of teenagers
0:56.8	looking in his direction.
0:58.8	There were two on his left and two on his right. The boys were headed to an arcade, but they didn't have any money.
1:07.0	So one of them, smiling, ask gets for five dollars.
1:12.4	I asked him quietly. I said, what did you say? He said, give him
1:17.9	five dollars. When I saw the smile on his face and the shine in his eyes that he was enjoying this.
1:26.5	I knew what they were going to do.
1:29.9	At the time, crime in New York was rampant, and people were constantly getting mugged, often on the subway.
1:37.0	Gets was no tourist. His instinct told him almost immediately that these boys had no interest in his five bucks, and he was prepared for a moment like this.
1:48.0	I said, I'll give you five dollars. I just started firing. I wanted to kill those guys, I wanted to kill those guys I wanted to name those guys I wanted to make
1:56.1	them sucker in every way I could
1:58.6	gets shot each teenager one at a time with a 38 caliber gun. Then he said he stood over one boy
2:07.2	and shot him again in the back for good measure. I went to him the second time and I said you seem to be doing all right here's another
	...

The Hardliners

Long Shadow

Long Lead & PRX & The Trace & Campside Media

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