The rise of the AR-15; plus, why do comedians play so many cops?

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

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Summary

Last Saturday, former president Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania when a gunman shot at him – killing one spectator and clipping Trump in the ear. The response? Outrage, condemnations, and prayers on all sides... but there's been less chatter about the gun that shot at him. And this gun has a lot of symbolism: The AR-15. Host Brittany Luse is joined by The Wall Street Journal's Zusha Elinson, co-author of the book American Gun, and Jennifer Mascia, senior news writer and founding staffer at The Trace, a nonpartisan nonprofit newsroom that covers guns. Together, they discuss how the AR-15 style rifle went from an outcast in the gun world to the one of the biggest pro-gun symbols and why that actually reflects bigger cultural shifts.

And later - cop comedies are getting big reboots this year. But why do audiences want to see funny Black guys playing cops? And what does it mean that the characters poking fun at power are also the ones enforcing it on screen? To find out - Brittany is joined by Soraya Nadia McDonald, who wrote a deep dive on all of Will Smith's law enforcement roles, and Washington Post opinion columnist Alyssa Rosenberg, who wrote a five part series on Hollywood's long relationship with law enforcement on and off screen.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial.
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0:17.1	Hello hello. I'm Brittany Loose and you're listening to It's been a minute from NPR, a show about
0:26.0	what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. A warning, this segment discusses mass shootings.
0:42.2	This week we're connecting the dots between Barbies for Men, the NRA, and an
0:46.3	assassination attempt. I know, I know, how are all these things connected?
0:50.8	Well we're going to find out with the Wall Street journals
0:53.0	Zusha Ellinson, co-author of the book American Gunn, and Jennifer Masia, senior
0:58.6	news writer and founding staffer at the Trace, a nonpartisan nonprofit newsroom that covers guns.
1:04.1	Zusha, Jennifer, welcome to it's been a minute.
1:06.7	Thanks for having us.
1:07.7	Thank you.
1:08.7	All right, so to start, how did each of you find out that former president Donald Trump had been shot at?
1:14.4	A friend of mine texted me. I was having a day in Astoria where I was a New York
1:19.6	tourist and a friend texted me before an AP alert even came in and I almost threw up.
1:27.0	I cover gun violence and I never thought I would see this regardless of your political persuasion
1:32.0	it punched me in the gut.
1:33.6	I also, you know, learned of it from emails and texts from my colleagues and
1:38.3	even this I think was far beyond the imagination and fears of anyone.
1:42.8	I found out, me and my husband were out,
	...

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