EP 693 Busting Myths About Trigger Happy America

Over 40,000 Americans die each year due to gun violence.  And while a person pulls the trigger, there is no doubt that the weapon, guns of all sort, make the effect and lethality of violent exchanges so much more costly.  That’s one of the many myths that Dr. Thomas Gabor and Fred Guttenberg dispel in their book “American Carnage: Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence.” It is an evidence-based attack on old bromides, legends and half truths put forward by the gun industry to convince you, for example, that ‘an armed society is a polite society.’  If that were the case, America would not have meted out such cruel punishment to so many families as we commit a third of all the gun-related murders in the world, even though we only have 5 percent of the world’s population. One by one the authors address the issues of the impact of gun legislation, the role mental health issues play and how we begin to address the issue when the society is already awash in guns.  If your gut tells you something must be done, but when you enter into a discussion with a person who defends our current practices you’re at a loss to push back, arm yourself with the facts today on this podcast.