10. The Hidden History of Guns & the Second Amendment with Thom Hartmann

100 people die from gun violence every day in America. We have the highest rate of gun violence in the world. This month (June) is gun violence awareness month and this weekend beginning June 7, 2019 marks a nation wide weekend of action to bring about awareness of gun violence in america.

To help us better understand gun violence and its roots in our history, I hopped on the phone with special guest Thom Hartmann. Thom is a New York Times best selling author of 24 books in print and hosts his own progressive TV and radio show with an audience of over 6.5 million people. His latest book The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment dives deep into our history and sets the record straight for the framer’s intent of the second amendment based on thorough research.

SHOW NOTES

To learn more about Thom Hartmann, check out his website at thomhartmann.com and you can pickup his book The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment on amazon smile (note, when shopping amazon, always shop amazon smile, prices are the same as amazon and a portion of your purchase goes to a non-profit that YOU get to choose!).

To take action this weekend, wear orange to raise awareness of gun violence and please visit the WEAR ORANGE website to find an action near you to participate in. Visit the previous link and then scroll down the page, punch in your zip code and voila! Sign up and show up! Easy as pie.

SAVE (Students Against Violence Everywhere) is an organization that provides young folks with ways to organize and work towards gun violence prevention by promoting leadership skills, community building, and education work. They work with The Sandy Hook Promise which is;

“I promise to do all I can to protect children from gun violence by encouraging and supporting solutions that create safer, healthier homes, schools and communities”
THE SANDY HOOK PROMISE

To make the Sandy Hook Promise yourself, simply visit their website (linked to previously).

Also, I know on this issue in particular it can be easy to begin to feel overwhelmed and frustrated by the lack of progress on the federal level, AND there is good news. Wins are happening all the time at the local and state levels that are reducing gun violence. When we come together through persistence and resilience we CAN win. We may not win them all, but as long as we get back up, dust ourselves off, and keep fighting, we will win in the end. Because our lives depend on it.

Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America are incredible organizations doing great work on behalf of gun violence prevention. Below are some info graphics from their sites for you to just get a quick glimpse of some gun violence stats. Also, if you want to dig deep into gun violence research and learn about bills in your area that are in the works to reduce gun violence, check out the Everytown Research page. There is a lot of great info there on current bills and information on gun violence prevention.

After the info graphics I’ve included a video from March for Our Lives on what to do in an active shooter situation. I should warn you, while it is informative, it is more jarring and contains sensitive material. It really hammers home how gun violence is impacting our youth. Get the tissues ready and then visit the March for Our Lives website to get involved.