All language subtitles for Adam Ruins Everything s02e23 Adam Ruins Guns.eng

Corrected & Synced by Bakugan

My, what a beautiful feast.

Turkey, green bean casserole...

(CHOKING UP)

Gosh darnit, this family
just makes me feel

like I'm the richest man on Earth.

And it would not be a
Donnerman family Thanksgiving

without Eva's yams.

Aww... thanks, Mr. Donnerman.

I'm so thankful that we could do

a family Thanksgiving this year.

I'm thankful the two of
you made it here safe,

what with all the maniacs out
in the world these days.

Okay, Dad.

Well, I'm just saying, there's a reason

every time I leave the
house, I'm carrying.

Right, your gun.

That's your answer to everything.

Sarah, not now.

No, he needs to get it.

This country is in desperate need

of common sense gun control.

Oh, I get it, all right.

You wanna take away my
rights to my guns...

It doesn't matter how
much you like guns.

...which the founding fathers gave me.

We need to talk about this
country's gun problem.

(SHRIEKS)

You're right, we do.

But neither of you know as
much about gun violence

in America as you think you do.

Who's this tur-dork-en?

Okay, just for that,
I'm startin' with you.

Hi, I'm Adam Conover.

Hi, Adam! I'm Doris!

And this is "Adam Ruins Everything."

Closed Captions Provided by truTV

Ew.

You're here to tell him he's wrong about

his precious gun rights, right?

He is obviously here to tell you

that gun control is unconstitutional.

Nope, I'm not here to tell either of you

what you want to hear.

Both of you are gonna have
your beliefs challenged today.

But how you can tell
me that we don't need

basic common-sense gun control?

I mean, we have to put an end
to all these mass shootings.

Look, I am not gonna downplay
the fact that mass shootings

are terrible,
all-too-frequent tragedies.

But the hard truth is,
they're just the beginning

of America's gun violence problem.

And a lot of these common-sense
gun control solutions

aren't the quick and easy
fix you think they are.

Come on, I can think of
like a million things

we could do right now.

Number one, ban assault weapons.

Yeah, we could do that.

But if your goal is to
reduce gun violence,

you should know that the biggest guns

aren't the biggest problem.

In 2015, shootings with rifles,

including assault rifles,

made up less 3% of gun
homicides in America.

The majority of crimes are
committed with handguns.

Enough about assault rifles.

Does anyone want the pepper rifle?

- Thank God!
- Oh!

How can any of you eat right now?

Okay, say we did ban sale of
some specific types of guns.

It's not like every crime is committed

with a brand-new firearm
straight from the store.

There are an estimated 300 million guns

already in circulation.

Then let's just take them away.

All right, uh, how do you
propose we go about that?

Yeah, how exactly?

Okay, so maybe it's not that easy.

But what if we start

by making it voluntary? A buy back?

Unfortunately, studies show
that when cities and counties

hold buy-back programs,
they mostly end up

getting broken guns people
just don't want anymore.

Here, take this one. It's jammed.

(RIM SHOT)

But Australia did a buyback
after they had a mass shooting,

and mass shootings went down.

So, let's just do whatever they did.

Oh, that would never fly here.

That's not a buyback.

This is a buyback.

Australia passed a federal ban

on imports and sales on all automatic

and semi-automatic guns.

And we bought back guns
people already owned

at full market value.

That does make it insanely difficult

and costly for you Yanks.

America has 84 times as
many guns as Australia.

The biggest reason we can't
just copy Australia,

is that right now America doesn't have

the cultural will to.

Australia doesn't have anything
like the Second Amendment

- or the NRA.
- Oh, "F" the NRA.

Politicians need to stop
taking their dirty gun money.

Actually, that's something

many people misunderstand about the NRA.

While it's true that they do spend

a ton of money on lobbying,

that's not the real source
of their influence.

Their real power is
their mass membership

and their ability to organize.

Every year, a million people
receive NRA firearms training.

And for many, even if they're
not officially members,

the NRA is a way for
them to bond with others

who share their view

that guns hold a sacred
place in American culture.

It's kind of like a social network.

Yeah. I took lessons with that man.

But more importantly, it's
also a social movement.

Politicians aren't caving to the NRA

because of their money.

It's because they have millions
of civically-engaged members

who show up to town halls and who vote.

Hey, Dan, after bowling, 100
of us are gonna head over

to see that congressman
tryin' to implement

that new gun control policy,

give him a piece of our mind!

Dad, you cannot be friends
with these gun nuts!

Man, are you guys ready to eat yet?

No.

Sarah, you might think that what the NRA

is fighting for is wrong.

Well, you're not alone.

66% of Americans

support stronger gun control laws.

But focusing only on the
NRA's lobbying money

is a big mistake.

They're passionate, they're organized,

and right now, there is no
comparable anti-gun organization

that has their levels

of mass membership or engagement.

Well, why isn't there?

We shouldn't have to live in a world

where we're afraid to go to concerts

and kids don't even feel
safe going to school.

I am with you on that.

And this is gonna be hard to hear,

but it is the most important
misconception about guns

that we need to correct.

Mass shootings may get
all the media attention,

but they're just a small part

of the story of gun violence in America.

Got that right.

According to one estimate,
in the last 50 years,

about 1,100 people have been
killed in mass shootings.

But 93 people die of gun
violence every day.

That means that we have more
gun deaths every 12 days

than all the mass shootings in
recent U.S. history combined.

Around 60% of America's gun
deaths are from suicides.

The rest are largely urban
violence and accidents.

Doesn't all that just show
we have to do something?

Absolutely.

But the fact is, America already has

300 million guns in circulation,

and they aren't just gonna
disappear overnight.

If we really want to
reduce gun violence,

we have to understand
that the right solutions

aren't always the ones

that seem the most
basic or common-sense.

And focusing on the wrong solutions

is just gonna distract us
from finding the right ones.

(SLOW CLAP)

Well said. Gun control's a pipe dream.

Oh, not at all, Dan! We
have strong evidence

that some gun control measures
do reduce gun deaths.

Child access prevention laws,
certain background checks.

I don't think the founding
fathers would like that.

There's a reason we have a
Second Amendment, you know.

Oh, the founding fathers
didn't nearly intend...

(WHISTLING)

Blue, 42.

Set... shotgun!

- (SCOFFS)
- You can't even go five seconds

without yelling about guns?

I will not stand here and allow you

to besmirch the Second Amendment rights

- given to us by our founding fath...
- Blitz!

Actually... (PANTING)

it's pretty unlikely
the founding fathers

were thinking about your
individual right to own a gun.

That interpretation of
the Second Amendment

is actually quite recent.

- (BALL SQUEAKS)
- Yay, homerun!

Nope, we're going to watch the parade.

There's compelling evidence that
the founding fathers' attitude

towards guns was less like this...

Citizens have a God-given
right to pack all the heat

- they can handle.
- Hut-hut, sign!

...and more like this.

- (BLOWING WHISTLE)
- Okay, let's see.

We have freedom of speech,
freedom of religion.

Oh, and we have to guarantee
the states' rights

to maintain a militia.

Oh, you mean how at this
point in history, 1789,

every state has its own
part-time conscripted army?

Yeah, we're gonna want
to keep those around.

The state's right to bear
arms is what protects us

from federal government overreach!

Are you sure that's all
they meant by bear arms?

Maybe they were talking about
the individual's right

to defend himself and his home.

Well, that's pretty unlikely
because guns at the time

were completely impractical
for self-defense.

They were difficult to load quickly,

and gunpowder was super dangerous.

I brought my gun just in case.

No, you idiot!

(EXPLOSION)

Historians still disagree
about the founders' intent.

But a search of all the writings

of Washington, Adams,
Jefferson, Hamilton,

and Franklin for the phrase "bear arms"

revealed they only used that phrase

in a military context,
and that's how Americans

understood the amendment
for a long time.

For over 200 years, the
U.S. Supreme Court

declined to rule that
the Second Amendment

had anything to do with
individual gun rights.

Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

I have a constitutional right to...

(WHISTLE BLOWING)

Flag on the play!

The Supreme Court will
not rule on this issue!

Oh, come on! Are you blind, ref?!

Where the (BLEEP) was the NRA
when all this was going down?

Well, they were pretty
different back then.

When the National Rifle Association

was founded after the Civil War,

they weren't heartland warriors.

They were genteel cultured aristocrats

focused on improving
Yankee marksmanship.

Oh, yoo-hoo, boys in blue.

You have embarrassed us
in front of the South!

You're all in dire need
of shooting lessons!

But they didn't believe that
everyone should own a gun.

In fact, during the '20s and '30s,

the NRA even supported
some gun control measures.

Gosh darnit, where's the
NRA that I know and love?

Oh, they didn't show up
until the '60s and '70s.

A new faction of NRA members
wanted the organization

to be more hardcore about gun rights.

So, in 1977, they
overthrew the leadership

in a dramatic coup known as
the Revolt at Cincinnati.

You'll have to pry my guns
from my cold, dead hand!

And this new NRA led a
decades-long battle

to change our understanding
of the Second Amendment.

They sponsored law reviews,

they gained allies in
the legal community,

and they helped seat gun-friendly judges

all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Slowly, but surely, public
opinion began to change.

And in the 2008 case, DC versus Heller,

they finally got what they wanted.

(BLOWING WHISTLE)

For the first time in history,

the court will rule on this issue.

The Second Amendment in fact
does defend an individual right

- to bear arms.
- (AIR HORN BLOWING)

What?! They can't just change
what the Constitution means.

(MAN) Actually, they can.

And it was all perfectly legal.

This is Adam Winkler, a
law professor at UCLA

whose scholarship has been cited

in landmark Supreme Court cases.

Hope you guys don't
mind I invited a guest.

Adam, I thought you had a plus-one.

Anyway, the NRA's campaign
changed our society

and our legal culture's understanding

of what the Second Amendment means.

Agree or not, the NRA's campaign

was totally legal, and it worked.

Well, okay! That means that now,

gun control is unconstitutional
and un-American.

No, no, no.

Gun control is as much a part
of our history as gun rights.

And in fact, the founding fathers

had gun control laws.

And in the Heller ruling,
conservative justice

Antonin Scalia made crystal clear

that most forms of gun control

remain constitutionally permissible.

So, Dan, yes, the NRA won.

But that doesn't mean that
all forms of gun control

are unconstitutional.

And it doesn't mean
that we can use myths

about the founding fathers' intentions

to shout down people

who are working to stop gun violence.

Well, if you and your professor friend

are all done with your speeches,

I'd like to go eat.

You know, Dan, if you
believe in gun rights,

then you should know that not everybody

in this country gets to exercise them.

- Where I grew up...
- Eva, please, enough.

I heard the pointy-haired man already.

Dad! Listen to her!

Thanks to your rights,
we can't even feel safe

in our own neighborhood.

No, I'm not just talking
about our neighborhood.

Well, any neighborhood.

Gun control keeps everyone safe.

- You don't even...
- No, actually...

historically, I mean...

You know what, I think I've had enough

Donnerman family tradition for one day.

I'm gonna hit the
pre-Black Friday sales.

I think I might know what

she was trying to tell you guys.

I think it's a little awkward
that I'm still here.

I'm gonna go.

(WHISTLING)

Why did Eva get all
upset and just leave?

Gun control keeps everyone safe.

Or maybe she understands
that we can't protect people

from bad guys with guns if we don't have

- good guys with guns.
- (SCOFFS)

- (BEEP)
- (ADAM ON PA) Uh, my guess is she's upset

because gun control
conversations in America

are always centered around what
makes white people feel safe.

(FEEDBACK)

All too often, black people

are left completely out
of the conversation.

I'm leaving black people out?

My wife is black...

Oh, no, I just became
one of those people.

Afraid so.

And I'm afraid that historically,

gun control has been used
to control and criminalize

- people of color.
- (CASH REGISTER CHA-CHING)

(ADAM) In the early
years of our country,

many colonies and states had laws

barring Native Americans
and free black people

- from buying or owning guns.
- (ALARM SOUNDING)

What? But I have a receipt.

(ADAM) And racist fears of black people

have continued to inform
our gun control laws.

In 1960s California, the Black Panthers

resisted police violence in Oakland

by patrolling the city with guns.

We have a right to
protect our communities

against police officers
abusing their power.

Defending yourself against
a tyrannical government,

I'm all about that.

Well, state lawmakers responded

by passing a bill that
banned open carry.

The bill applied to all Californians

but it was meant to blatantly
target the Black Panthers.

And that bill was signed by
then California governor

and NRA member, Ronald Reagan.

I'm just not comfortable with
certain people carrying guns.

(CHUCKLES) For, uh... reasons.

- Oh...
- Eva.

Oh!

Babe, I'm so sorry.

I had no idea gun control
used to be so racist.

Is that what you told her?

Well, I wasn't done.

So, not my responsibility
to teach white people

they own racist ass history.

All right, white Urkel,
I'll take it from here.

Please do.

And thanks for the compliment.

Sarah, even today a lot
of gun control laws

really end up being about
controlling black people.

In the mid-2000s,

the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms

performed 10 years of
stings to combat gun crime.

A full analysis found that

91% of people arrested

were people of color.

And we're not just talking
about the red states.

For years, New York City
had an official policy

to stop black and brown
people on the street

just to see if they might
have guns or drugs.

- Stop!
- (POLICE SIREN WHOOPS)

Sir, you're in a public place

and you look... you know, dangerous.

What? Oh. Sir?

Records show that these stops
almost never found guns.

Between '04 and 2012,

4.4 million people were stopped,

but only 1.5% of them had weapons.

Men in my family have
gotten jaywalking tickets

from the NYPD after they
didn't find anything

in the stop and frisk.

They weren't stopping criminals,

they were just stopping black people.

Eva, I'm sorry. I had no idea.

You've never talked about it.

It's not her responsibility
to talk about it,

it's our responsibility as a country.

This is James Forman, Jr.,
Pulitzer Prize winner

and author of the book
"Locking Up Our Own."

There's a connection between
the overly punitive

gun sentencing laws that
were passed in the 1970s,

1980s, and 1990s

and the current crisis
of mass incarceration.

Instead of national gun control laws

that could stop the flood
of available guns,

we have local laws that
penalize possession.

And those laws are
mostly passed in cities.

So, the result is that
guns are everywhere,

violence is rampant, and the only people

who go to prison for possessing guns

are poor people of color
in our nation's cities.

Black people face the highest
rates of deaths by guns.

But instead of protecting the
families and neighborhoods

who face the most gun violence,

our current gun laws just
double down on destroying them.

And that's why we shouldn't
talk about new gun penalties

without first talking about

how we transform our
criminal legal system.

All right, Adam, I got to get
to my Thanksgiving dinner.

Well, I think we all learned

a valuable lesson about gun control.

No, Dan.

There's something you
need to realize too.

Gun rights don't protect
black people either.

Take the stand your ground law

the NRA pushed legislators
to pass in Florida.

It says use of deadly force is
justified to defend yourself

in your home or car even
if you can run away.

But in practice, not
everyone gets to use it.

Marissa Alexander was sentenced

to 20 years in prison

just for firing a warning shot

to defend herself against
her abusive husband.

Stand your ground didn't help her.

Or look at what happened
to Philando Castile.

During a routine traffic pullover,

he informed the police officer
that he had his gun on him.

And the cop shot and killed him
in front of his girlfriend

and her four-year-old daughter.

But I drive with my weapon every day.

That's not against the law.

Okay, so imagine I'm a police officer

pulling you over and
you're Philando Castile.

Do you have your license and insurance?

Yes, officer, I do have to tell you

I do have a firearm on me.

Okay, don't reach for it then.

- I'm... I'm...
- Don't pull it out.

- I'm not pulling it out.
- He's not pulling it out.

- Don't pull it out.
- Bang!

That is the exact moment
Philando Castile was shot.

He did everything that
responsible gun owners

are supposed to do.

And the NRA didn't come to his defense.

For all their talk about
protecting gun rights,

they sure are quiet when
black people are gunned down

for exercising them.

So, Dan, I'm frustrated

because black people are in jail or dead

for exercising gun rights
that you enjoy so freely.

And, Sarah, I'm hurt

because, as my partner,

you don't see that the gun control

you have the privilege to fight for

ignores the systemic persecution

that I live in fear of every single day.

I'm gonna head back.

Wait.

Do you want a ride?

Hey.

Hey.

Since you guys didn't let us eat dinner,

Doris said we should just
skip straight to pie.

Eva, I am so sorry.

My dad is too.

We didn't mean to upset you.

I appreciate that, but I
don't want want you guys

to just be sorry I was upset.

I want you to remember
that for people that

haven't had your experience
in this country,

that there is way more at
stake in this gun debate.

We need a voice.

And you need to listen.

And, if I may add,

if America is going
to have the inclusive

and effective conversation about guns

that we so desperately need,

we all need to admit that

none of us knows enough yet
to have all the answers.

So we need to be allowed
to do more research.

That's right, Adam.

This is Doctor Garen Wintemute.

He is the director of
the Violence Prevention

Research Program at UC Davis.

We spend so much energy
and political will

fighting over whether or not

America should have all these guns

When the fact is: we do have them.

It's our reality.

That being the case, we
need to start researching

firearm violence as a
public health problem.

But politics is getting
in the way of funding

that kind of research
on the national level

where it could really make a difference.

The NRA sees any form of
research on guns as a threat,

even when it's information
that gun owners

could really benefit from knowing.

We know, in general, that
the more guns there are,

the more people get
hurt from gun violence.

But we don't know nearly enough

about the risk factors
for that violence,

or the consequences for the victims,

or even the effectiveness
of specific policies,

including policies that
most Americans agree on

like background checks.

Look, ultimately, we all
want the same thing:

to feel safe.

So, instead of shouting each other down,

we need to have productive,
rational conversations

based on facts.

Can't we all at least agree on that?

I can.

Yeah, me too.

And we shouldn't stop
talking and listening

as a country, but...

we can at least stop
fighting about this tonight.

Huh, when you think about it,

I didn't ruin Thanksgiving at all.

You guys kinda did.

- (WINTEMUTE)
- Geez, man. Learn how to read a room.

(WHISTLING)

This might jiggle.

(ADAM) It's all fine.

And we have a nice
breeze so it's all good.

Oh, my gosh.

(MAN MUTTERING)

Well, Adam, thank you so
much for being on the show.

It was great having you.

- Thanks so much for having me.
- How did you start

getting into this topic
in the first place?

Well, I'm a constitutional
law professor at UCLA.

And the Second Amendment was an area

that seemed very ambiguous.
What did that mean?

And when I researched it,
I found that the story

of guns in America was
much more complicated

than the story the NRA has
been selling us for so long.

That's so interesting
that there's this line

in our founding document

that we can't even decide

what, exactly, was meant by it.

That's so strange.

Well, the Second Amendment
has all these commas in it,

and it doesn't really make a
lot of sense as a sentence.

- Right.
- But yet, it does capture

a principle, a principle
that we, the people,

have a right of self-defense.

Can you walk me through
where the commas are?

Sure. The Second Amendment says...

Comma.

And it's almost as if James Madison,

the author of this provision,
had just discovered

this wonderful new thing, the comma.

- (LAUGHING)
- And wanted to put it in there

as many times as possible.
Which one of those nouns

goes with which of those verbs?

It's ambiguous, you can't
really tell which is which.

And the right to bear arms
that the founders imagined

was very different from the
right to bear arms today.

Firearms were very different
in terms of their usefulness

- against crime.
- Right.

And they thought of the Second Amendment

primarily in terms of a militia,

but that doesn't mean it's
not an individual right.

All of the provisions
of the Bill of Rights

guarantee individuals their rights.

All right, they were mostly
thinking about militias,

but it's also an individual right.

So did they believe in
an individual right

to a militia? I don't quite follow.

No, they believed in an individual right

to keep and bear arms,
and the primary reason

why you needed that right

is so you could serve
in a state militia.

- Oh.
- The founding fathers

didn't have a standing army.

They thought that was
a threat to liberty.

So they relied on citizens' militias

made up of minutemen who would go home,

grab their guns, and be ready to fight

in an instant for national defense.

So, you have to be able to own a gun

so you can go join up with the militia

whenever they ring the militia bell.

Yeah, and the founders were concerned

that the federal government

would try to disarm the state militias.

So, I can remember a time...

Like, when I was growing up in the '90s,

there was a debate about
the Second Amendment.

Some people said,

Oh, it guarantees an individual right,

and then it felt like
the majority of people

were saying, No, no, no,
this is about militias.

Feels like things have shifted

even in the time I've been alive,

and I'm a relatively young guy.

Yeah, I think that part of the way

the Constitution works is that we have

advocacy groups and social movements

that push for a new understanding

of even an ancient right.

The NRA's leadership in the early 1970s

was pretty moderate and favored

a variety of gun control laws.

The NRA, after 1977, really committed

to hard-hitting political advocacy.

It wanted to fight
against gun control laws

and push for a broader,

more expansive understanding
of the Second Amendment.

It was a time of rising crime rates,

and people really felt the need

to have a firearm for
personal protection.

So, if you would speak to folks at home

who are gun control advocates,

how would you suggest they go about

pressing their case in America?

I think it should be
empowering to all Americans,

including gun control advocates,

that if you fight hard enough,

and if you make
persuasive enough claims,

you can change the law,

that there's nothing inexorable about

how the Supreme Court is going to read

- the Constitution.
- Right.

And even today, the
Supreme Court has said

there's plenty of room for gun control

under the Constitution.

I very much appreciate you coming here

- to talk to us about it.
- It's been my pleasure.

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