Gun Control Misconceptions

Gun Control Misconceptions

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Radio Archive, Episode 272 , Segment 2

Episode: Underserved Veterans, Gun Control, Babies

  • Apr 12, 2016 9:00 pm
  • 15:14 mins

Guest: Benjamin Miller, PhD Student in Political Science at Yale  America has a conflicted relationship with guns. The right to own them is enshrined in our Constitution and vigorously defended by politicians. Efforts to pass stricter gun laws over the last several years have failed repeatedly, even amid public outcry over mass shootings like the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy. There is a mysterious disconnect in public opinion: Numerous national polls conducted last year by Quinnipiac University, Gallup and the Pew Research Center found 90 percent of Americans – that’s virtually all of us – support a law that requires universal background checks on all gun buyers – including private sales between people, online buyers and at gun shows, which are currently exempt from background checks. But only about half of Americans say they favor stricter gun laws. So which is it? Do we want stricter laws or not? That’s the question political science researchers at Yale University have been puzzling over. They conducted their own national survey to try and figure it out.

Other Segments

Underserved Veterans

16 MINS

Guest: Bart Stichman, Joint Executive Director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program  A new report by two veterans’ advocacy groups and Harvard Law School finds roughly 125,000 men and women who have served in the military since 2001 are being wrongfully excluded from basic veteran benefits. That’s a much higher rate than veterans of previous wars, including Vietnam and World War II.  The trouble stems from something called “bad paper” and the consequence is that veterans who served in combat, and may have suffered traumatic injuries, are being denied housing, health care and disability benefits. Which puts them at greater risk for homelessness and suicide.  The Department of Veterans Affairs has praised the report and says it’s working with the advocacy groups to remedy the problem.

Guest: Bart Stichman, Joint Executive Director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program  A new report by two veterans’ advocacy groups and Harvard Law School finds roughly 125,000 men and women who have served in the military since 2001 are being wrongfully excluded from basic veteran benefits. That’s a much higher rate than veterans of previous wars, including Vietnam and World War II.  The trouble stems from something called “bad paper” and the consequence is that veterans who served in combat, and may have suffered traumatic injuries, are being denied housing, health care and disability benefits. Which puts them at greater risk for homelessness and suicide.  The Department of Veterans Affairs has praised the report and says it’s working with the advocacy groups to remedy the problem.