0:01

Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from

0:04

how Stuff Works dot com.

0:11

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh

0:13

Clark. There's Child's w Chuck Bryant, and

0:15

uh, this is stuff you

0:18

should know. Wow. Yeah,

0:21

Uh you want to

0:24

give like just a general ceoa out of the

0:26

gate. Yes, this is

0:28

a hot button issue guns right now

0:30

in this country, in the United States. It's a very

0:32

tough topic, and we are

0:34

here to talk about do

0:38

guns change your behavior and

0:40

studies that they've done on that. We are

0:42

not advocating for guns or advocating

0:45

for gun control. We are just presenting

0:48

evidence that some people have presented. Yeah,

0:51

how's that. Well. We should say also that I

0:54

think some especially people who are

0:56

pro gun, um

0:59

are they? I mean, your

1:02

sensitivity might be a little um

1:05

right now. Yeah, but I'm saying, like you,

1:07

this, this particular podcast may strike

1:09

you as as biased, even

1:12

though it's not, simply because

1:14

the studies have found things

1:17

like you know, there are increased

1:19

homicide rates and suicide rates associated

1:21

with guns and things like that. So

1:23

we're again we're just reporting some compiled

1:27

body of work and

1:29

we're presenting in an unbiased

1:31

manner. Good job, thanks

1:33

man. So um,

1:36

we just kind of let the cat out of the bank. And

1:38

if you are in the guns, if you are pro gun,

1:41

you will probably point out that you own

1:43

guns for sport, your own guns for home

1:45

protection. Um.

1:47

And you may point to a statistic

1:50

that ownership of guns in

1:52

the United States is higher than it

1:55

ever has been at any point and

1:58

not necessarily coincidentally,

2:00

the homicide rate has

2:03

dropped since that's

2:06

right, So there's an inverse correlation,

2:08

you could say, between gun

2:11

ownership in the United States and

2:13

just by a number of guns and the

2:16

homicide rate. Yeah, which, uh, gun

2:18

advocates will say, you know, like, give

2:21

people more guns and it will be actually less violence

2:23

because if everyone is armed,

2:26

then there

2:29

will be fewer people like

2:31

invading your home because hey, I know you've got a gun

2:33

in there, that kind of thing. Um.

2:36

Now, the other side, people

2:39

who are in favor of gun control would

2:41

point out that, yes,

2:43

the homicide rate has dropped, um,

2:46

but there's actually fewer people who own

2:49

guns than ever before, Fewer households,

2:52

yes, with guns, but

2:55

more the people that have guns have more

2:57

guns. And yeah, as Mark

3:00

Twain famously said, there are three types of lies,

3:02

lies, damn lines, and statistics. And

3:04

this is a pretty good example of that. Like, this

3:06

is one statistic that can be

3:09

looked at two different ways. Yeah, Like,

3:12

there's more guns in the United States than ever

3:14

before, and the homicide rate has dropped. There's

3:16

also fewer people in the United

3:18

States who own guns than ever before,

3:21

and the homicide rate has dropped. Right,

3:24

it's just fewer people owning more

3:26

guns, right. Um, And boy,

3:28

you were dead on with the statistic

3:30

thing in this, uh topic, Because

3:34

depending on how you want to research, you're gonna find

3:36

statistics to support your

3:39

way of thinking. Probably, Um,

3:42

so what we encourage people to do,

3:44

you probably have your mind made up anyway on

3:46

this issue. A data, if a statistic, is

3:48

going to change anyone in his mind. But go out

3:50

and just look at all the non biased research,

3:53

is what I say. Yeah, don't go to n r A and

3:55

get your stats, and don't go to whatever

3:58

the n r A equivalent and gun equivalent

4:00

is and get your stats. Try and get them from like unbiased

4:03

sources. Uh. Yeah. And one of

4:05

the former um unbiased

4:07

sources that used to put out a lot of UM

4:11

gun violence studies unbiased

4:14

you would imagine, is the CDC. Yeah,

4:17

And the CDC used to put out a lot, a

4:19

lot, a lot of stuff there there, and then

4:21

there was a dearth

4:24

of it beginning in which

4:28

I didn't know about this until today. In

4:33

the n r A successfully lobbied Congress

4:35

to stop funding the

4:37

CDC's work on gun violence.

4:40

Yes. Um, And

4:42

this is where it gets a little nitpicky with the wording.

4:45

They didn't specifically say you can't

4:48

research gun violence. What they did was

4:50

they reduced the amount of funding

4:53

by the exact dollar amount that they

4:55

spent the previous year on research,

4:59

and at attached this quote

5:01

to it in the appropriations

5:03

bill, none of the funds made available

5:05

for injury prevention and control at the CDC

5:08

may be used to advocate or promote

5:10

gun control. So uh,

5:15

pro gun folks would say, you know, and we never said

5:17

they couldn't do any research. What

5:19

we said was, you can't do research

5:21

that has findings that support

5:24

gun control. So if the findings

5:26

support gun control, you can't do that,

5:28

basically, right, And anything like

5:30

any finding that showed

5:32

that, you know, there's an increased risk of

5:35

violence linked to guns, you

5:37

could interpret under that sentence as

5:40

advocating gun control. Yeah. And

5:42

in two thousand three, the

5:45

language is updated to include a whole

5:47

or in part which expanded things, and then in

5:49

twelve it expanded the restriction

5:52

to all health and human service agencies.

5:55

Although January of this year, President

5:58

Obama has now hauled for

6:00

funding specifically for he

6:03

had I think it's twenty three point memo,

6:06

Yeah, of what he wanted to get through in

6:08

terms of research. Yeah, those were the executive

6:11

orders that he could carry out that had

6:13

to do with gun control. Basically ten

6:15

million bucks for additional research, which is a

6:18

lot more than they used to get it

6:20

peaked at two point six

6:22

millions. So throwing ten million dollars at

6:24

this today, even adjusted for inflation,

6:27

that's going to produce a lot more studies on

6:29

um gun violence for the CDC and

6:32

people. Before you get worked up, this is research.

6:36

They are saying, we should do research on this.

6:38

They're they're basically framing it as a public health

6:40

epidemic because people are dying.

6:43

And hey, we study how violent

6:45

or how how automobiles kill people.

6:48

We study how alcohol and drugs skill people,

6:50

we study how everything is killed. Everything

6:52

kills people except the guns, right,

6:55

so we should start researching this just to get

6:57

some current statistics

6:59

on it. And if you want to get rolled up about anything,

7:01

get rolled up about the idea that Congress

7:04

banned scientific study

7:06

period. Yeah, and you can basically

7:08

from the research I found, you can lay

7:10

this at the feet of Bob bar and new Gingrich's basically

7:12

the two representatives from Georgia new Ingridg's

7:15

head almost as much power as

7:17

Clinton, and um,

7:22

yeah, that was pretty much who was responsible

7:24

for this. Well. J. Dicky, the the representative

7:27

who sponsored the amendment back

7:30

then, has now recanted and

7:32

said, you know what, he's no longer in office, but

7:34

he wrote an editorial stating that quote,

7:36

scientific research should be conducted into

7:38

preventing firearm injuries, and that ways

7:41

to prevent firearm desks can be found without encroaching

7:43

on the rights of legitimate gun owners. So basically

7:45

he's come out and said, you know, we should research this

7:47

stuff, not saying banned guns

7:49

or go to people's houses and grab the guns, but

7:52

at the very least, we should do the research so

7:54

we know what we're talking about and so the American

7:56

public can make their own informed decisions

7:58

one way or the other. Right, that's right, Okay,

8:01

So that's why there was a there's

8:03

been a dearth of reliable

8:06

statistics since Um,

8:09

but CDC is not the only people carrying

8:11

out um this

8:13

kind of research. Other people have who

8:16

are independent of Congress for funding. Yeah,

8:18

not a ton though, because there's not a lot of funding period.

8:21

So it's pretty sad, Like I read this one

8:23

article on that a

8:25

lot of the people that did this. It's not like you

8:27

can just pick any old researcher and say research

8:29

gun violence like you have to have it, like it has

8:32

to be your specialty. And a lot of people

8:34

have just don't do this anymore because of

8:36

that band. So it's sadly

8:38

it's hard to find people qualified enough to

8:40

even do it now. Yeah, I mean, no matter what it is, people

8:42

go to where the money is, right, absolutely,

8:45

Um, So the the stuff

8:47

that we do have though, the studies we

8:49

do have, reliable studies that

8:51

we do have pretty much across

8:54

the board point to an increased

8:57

risk of death if a

8:59

gun's present. But before, I guess, before

9:01

we talk about that, yeah, I think now it's probably

9:03

a good time for a message, Rick, Okay,

9:10

let's talk about them the weapon

9:12

effect. Yeah, this is a very

9:15

touchy subject as well. Um. In nineteen

9:17

sixty seven, Uh, these two dudes,

9:20

Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony lapage

9:23

Um did a little study where they

9:26

brought people into a room,

9:29

had UM the participants UH

9:32

antagonized basically by someone

9:34

else, just to get them rilled up, and

9:37

then they left the room and were told that they

9:39

could give them electric shocks. Some people

9:41

had a gun in the room

9:44

on the table and they said, don't worry about that, that's just here

9:46

from a previous study. Some people had bad

9:48

mitten rackets and they said, don't worry about that

9:50

from a previous study. And they found that

9:53

just the presence of guns in the room

9:55

caused people to shock

9:58

more and harder at a higher

10:00

voltage. So they dubbed

10:02

that the weapons effect, saying, just

10:05

the mere presence of a gun in the room, even

10:07

when told to ignore it, increased UM

10:09

I grow behavior basically.

10:12

And there's that's been backed up by other studies.

10:14

There's one in two thousand six that

10:16

showed that UM interacting with the gun actually

10:19

increases the testosterone levels

10:22

of men. Wow,

10:25

that is a lot. That's a huge increase,

10:27

right, UM. So this study

10:29

basically they said, here, play with

10:31

this gun and then UM,

10:34

now we're gonna firstly, took a swab

10:36

and tested the testosterone levels. Then they

10:38

said, here, play with this gun, and afterward

10:41

we're gonna take another swab. But in the meantime,

10:43

we're also gonna let you put hot sauce in

10:46

the water of somebody who's gonna have to

10:48

drink it. And the the men who

10:51

um handled the gun and messed around with the gun

10:53

for a while put um far more

10:55

hot sauce into the water than the

10:57

men who didn't handle a gun, three times

10:59

as much hot sauce. And

11:02

the same two previous guys, Berkowitz

11:04

and Lapage did another one that I found

11:06

really interesting. Um

11:08

they put a pickup truck in traffic with

11:10

um, well different pickup trucks,

11:12

some with guns in the rack and some without a

11:15

gun rack at all, and made them sit

11:17

at a traffic light that had turned green for twelve

11:19

seconds to see how people behind them

11:21

responded. And surprisingly,

11:23

people were more likely to haunk

11:26

their horns if there was a gun in the truck

11:28

ahead of them, which they

11:30

said that meant see, the presence of a gun

11:32

just makes people more aggressive, Whereas

11:35

I was kind of like, ah, that that's sort of weird

11:37

that they would be more aggressive towards someone with a gun when

11:39

you didn't have one. Yeah, well, it's almost like

11:41

possibly that people

11:44

interpret that as a threat. Just

11:46

the presence of a gun maybe someone

11:48

else is flaunting to the rest of the world is

11:51

just kind of some sort of veiled threat despite its

11:53

very presence. We UM. We detect

11:56

guns actually faster than

11:58

we detect um snakes,

12:01

spiders. These are things called fear relevant

12:03

stimuli and guns, fall, guns,

12:05

syringes they fall into this category as

12:07

well. And humans are hardwired

12:10

evolutionarily to to

12:12

be able to pick out a snake

12:14

out of a landscape faster than

12:17

say, we can pick out like a wood chuck,

12:20

a chipmunk or something like that, because

12:22

we know from eons of

12:24

of of evolution that these

12:27

things are very dangerous to us. Studies

12:29

have found that we can pick guns out faster

12:32

than we can pick snakes out. So

12:35

yeah, yeah, that's very quick evolution. It's

12:38

it's called the threat superiority effect,

12:40

where we can we can identify

12:42

threatening objects faster than non threatening objects.

12:45

And apparently guns and syringes

12:47

too, I think are topping the list

12:49

these days. Uh. They also found

12:52

that UM drivers who have

12:54

a gun in the car were significantly more likely

12:56

to UM do things like makeup

12:58

scene gestures that other people compared

13:01

to sixteen percent, UM follow

13:03

too close aggressively four to

13:06

eight percent, or both six

13:08

point three percent to two point eight percent. So

13:12

uh. And then they even found that even

13:14

when guns weren't around, just the mere suggestion

13:16

of aggressive words as

13:19

opposed to non aggressive words like gun,

13:22

Uh, people were more

13:24

aggressive in these studies. So, you

13:27

know, people, a lot of people

13:29

have supported the weapons effect study

13:32

and said no, it's perfectly valid.

13:34

And a lot of people have said no, you know what the weapons

13:36

effect is bs and that study is invalid.

13:39

So, um, which one

13:42

is? Which one is larger? Yeah?

13:44

Right? Exactly? Which? I don't know? I

13:46

mean I think, as with all

13:48

things, that depends on who you're talking to, you know, I

13:51

don't know if there's it's been broken down like that. Um.

13:54

Okay, So it seems

13:56

to there seems to be some sort

13:58

of evidence at least that there's the

14:00

potential for increased

14:02

aggression um with the

14:05

presence of a gun. Right. There's

14:07

also um studies that show and this

14:09

is the one apparently. I don't

14:11

know why people aren't talking about this more, especially

14:15

with the gun debate that's going on now. But

14:18

if you want to talk about a correlation,

14:21

talk about suicide and the presence

14:23

of guns. I think that's one that's pretty

14:25

much not been refuted. Um,

14:28

there were a

14:30

lot of gun deaths in the US and two thousand

14:32

and eleven, UM, eleven

14:34

thousand of them were homicides

14:38

and nineteen thousand, seven hundred

14:40

and sixties six were suicides, all

14:42

with firearms. So twice

14:45

as many people took their own

14:47

lives with a gun then took someone

14:49

else's life. Yeah, and not only that, you UM.

14:53

And again I hate not having more recent

14:56

research, but it's not our fault

14:59

that we it point to a study from three years ago,

15:02

you know. Um, but a nine study

15:05

by the CDC said that if

15:07

you have a gun in the home, you were five times more likely to

15:09

commit suicide overall. And

15:12

um, in two thousand three, there

15:14

actually was another study that said access

15:16

to a gun made someone more than three times

15:18

more likely to commit suicide than without.

15:21

UM and eight of

15:24

people who shoot themselves succeed in dying,

15:26

Which, well, that's why they think that

15:28

the correlation is so strong. That

15:31

then, so that's for people who really want to end

15:33

it, not to cry for help. Yeah,

15:36

but probably not gonna shoot yourself in the head

15:38

if it's a cry for help. Right, but what

15:40

the what what the

15:43

people who are saying this is legitimate

15:45

research are pointing

15:47

to is that this is that suicide

15:49

is frequently an impulsive act. Uh.

15:52

And when you're in the midst of a crisis and

15:55

you are, um, you've

15:57

decided to end it. Yeah,

16:00

if you do it, if you try hanging or pills

16:02

or carbon monoxide or whatever, you

16:04

are less likely to be successful than you are

16:07

with a firearm. And so the presence

16:09

of a firearm in the house during

16:11

that time of crisis increases your likelihood

16:13

of committing suicide by a firearm. Yeah,

16:17

but also chuck there. There's another

16:19

study that found that people who

16:21

own a handgun and commit suicide are

16:24

far more likely to use the handgun

16:26

than another type of method. Oh

16:30

right, even though that's available to them as

16:32

well. Right right, Well, I guess, like I

16:34

said, those people that probably really want to end it all.

16:37

Um. Interestingly, the Israeli Defense

16:39

Force found that their suicide

16:41

rate dropped among its soldiers

16:44

just by saying you can't take your weapons

16:46

home this weekend, so they banned

16:49

them from taking the weapons home over the weekend. Suicide

16:51

rate drop. Regardless

16:54

where you stand on this issue, it has pretty

16:56

much been proven that guns

16:58

in suicide. There is a direct correlation

17:00

going on there. Okay,

17:03

homicide, should we move on, Yes,

17:06

let's move on. Um. So,

17:09

there's study

17:11

that found that UM family disputes that

17:14

turned violent were three times more likely to result

17:16

in death if the gun was present in the house.

17:19

UM, and this was this

17:22

was There was another study by the CDC that

17:24

found that homicides are about three times more

17:26

likely for family members in

17:29

a house where there's a gun. Two studies

17:31

have found virtually the same thing, the presence

17:33

of a gun, at least in the nineties. The

17:35

swing in nineties, having

17:37

a gun in the house meant that each

17:40

of the family members was three times more likely

17:42

apparently to UM die

17:45

by a homicide. Right,

17:48

and that is the domestic

17:50

dispute that gets out of hand. If

17:52

a gun is around, then your

17:54

chances are hired that it's going to be in and

17:57

murder. Well, one said, a

18:00

family dispute that turns violent, you're three

18:02

times more likely to result in death. The other one, the CDC

18:04

one, I think, was just plainly saying just

18:06

having a gun in the house to three times more likely to

18:09

die by homicide.

18:12

Right, Okay, I guess it's fair to point out though that most

18:14

murdered murders don't happen

18:16

at your home unless, yeah,

18:19

you're a woman, a child, or elderly.

18:21

So basically, if you're a

18:23

average age man, you're

18:25

you're less likely to be murdered in

18:28

your house. Everybody else is more

18:30

likely. Right, So, but if you

18:32

were killed in your home, um,

18:35

the vast majority are people who knew the

18:37

perpetrator. Like, basically,

18:40

the cases of someone

18:42

breaking into your house who

18:44

you do not know and ending

18:46

and death are are much lower

18:49

than than here. It

18:51

is right here, Fewer

18:53

than of burglaries in the US occur

18:55

when someone's at home, period, and

18:58

and the seven percent where violence does occur,

19:01

Uh, it's more likely to be someone

19:03

you know. So five

19:05

percent of all the crimes perpetrated by strangers

19:08

occur, only five percent occur in the house.

19:11

So you're basically what the saying is, the home

19:13

is a pretty safe place by and large,

19:16

and so just having a gun that you keep at

19:18

home. Um,

19:20

these studies then suggest actually

19:23

increases your likelihood of you or

19:25

someone you love who lives in that house killing

19:27

one another, rather than somebody coming into

19:29

your house and you're protecting yourself USA

19:32

that. Yeah, and they even, uh,

19:34

they went to the streets in night in two thousand

19:36

nine in Philadelphia and looked at six and

19:38

seventy seven shootings over a couple

19:40

of years, and they found

19:42

that people that carry guns were four and a half times

19:44

more likely to be shot and four

19:47

point two times more likely to be killed. And

19:50

I guess the thinking there is, if

19:53

you have a gun, you may just feel more

19:55

aggressive or more um

19:58

likely to act ra actually

20:00

or put yourself in a bad part of town because

20:03

hey, I've got this protection, or to be

20:05

aggressive because you know you've got that protection.

20:07

That kind of thing, um,

20:09

if you And there's this really really

20:12

great article, UM from two

20:14

thousand ten that was in Harper's Magazine.

20:16

It was in the August two thousand ten UM

20:19

issue. It's called Happiness is a Warren

20:21

Gun, and it's this guy's

20:24

like this basically

20:26

his life carrying a gun and like

20:29

just what it's like. It's just a

20:31

really great look

20:33

at what it's like to have a gun on you

20:35

at all times and like what that means. Um.

20:37

He says, you're in condition white, which is

20:39

basically you're constantly on high alert

20:42

because if you're carrying a gun, you have a sense of responsibility

20:45

not just for yourself, but you also need

20:47

to protect everybody else if somebody

20:49

starts shooting or if there's a robbery or something like that.

20:51

That's why you have a gun on you. So you feel

20:53

a sense of stewardship

20:56

of just other people, strangers

20:58

in public. Well sort you're the police all of a

21:01

sudden. Yeah. Um. And so you live

21:03

in this thing, this this state of

21:05

called condition white, where you're just your threat response,

21:07

You're you're is constantly

21:09

on at some level, which can control

21:12

Advocates I'm sure are all about condition white,

21:14

right, They're like, yeah, that's exactly what we're looking

21:16

for, is people to be alert and armed. Yeah.

21:18

Um. This guy, believe came to the conclusion

21:20

that he was tired of living in condition white

21:23

as it's too exhausting, and I

21:25

think he stopped carrying. Maybe I don't remember

21:27

how it ends, but um, it's a really

21:30

great article. I would recommend anybody on either

21:32

side of the of the issue

21:34

to read that Happiness is a Warren Gun

21:36

in Harper's. I saw dude in the

21:38

grocery store the other day with a piece on his hip,

21:41

checking out in front of me by a six pack of beer. Yeah,

21:43

and it definitely, like, I

21:45

don't care who you are. When someone walks

21:47

in the room with a gun on their hip these days, it changes

21:50

the mood. I'm not saying it makes things bad

21:52

or good. I'm just saying it changes things.

21:55

I think it probably always has. Yeah,

21:57

it's a weird thing. I mean, I

22:00

definitely see where people get divided on the issue

22:03

because here in Atlanta there's a lot of crime.

22:05

You hear about a story where some

22:07

dude went to carjack some guy and

22:10

the dude had a gun in his car and shot the guy

22:12

and now that guy is behind bars. I

22:14

can see how people would be like, good,

22:16

he stopped a criminal like a cop would

22:18

have. Whereas, you know, cops generally investigate

22:21

already happened crimes. Rarely does a cop

22:23

like thwart a crime in progress. It's

22:26

just right place whereyme time, right

22:28

time, and so like random how that works

22:30

out. Whereas if the citizens had the guns, they

22:32

could do that themselves. So I can

22:34

see how people get all up in arms

22:36

and say, yeah, you know, there's a case of

22:38

a person that defended themselves successfully,

22:41

And then the other person might say, yeah, but what about

22:44

that guy whose son accidentally shoots

22:46

himself in the house when the guns out,

22:49

Like it's two separate four year olds yesterday

22:52

accidentally killed two different people

22:54

in two different states. Yeah,

22:56

the wife of a sheriff's deputy was killed

22:58

by a four year old at her house. Yeah,

23:00

Like there's with every story or with

23:02

no matter how you feel about it, you can pick the cherry

23:05

pick of story to fit your your

23:07

beliefs. It's pretty like the issue is

23:10

very, very far from clear cut, and it's

23:13

yeah, it's just very hard

23:15

to not see both

23:17

sides. I agree with you. There's a guy

23:19

named David hem and Way that wrote

23:21

an article called Risks and Benefits of a Gun

23:23

in the Home for the American

23:25

Journal of Lifestyle Medicine in two thousand eleven.

23:28

And this is a sort of a newer

23:31

thing where they're starting to frame it. Like I said, it's

23:33

a health issue, like when people

23:35

are dying, you should look at it as a health issue.

23:38

So he investigates it as such, and um

23:41

came out on the side of the American

23:43

Academy of Pediatrics, who officially

23:46

have said do not have

23:48

a gun in in the home if you're a parent, Um

23:52

that they've they've the result

23:54

of this study, at least from him, and Way

23:56

says, the evidence

23:58

is overwhelming that a gun in the house is

24:01

more of a risk factor for completed

24:03

suicide UH and general

24:06

violence than the benefit side.

24:08

There are fewer studies, UM

24:11

that come out saying it's actually a benefit

24:13

to have in the home. And kenne Saw George

24:15

is a big uh.

24:18

People point to kenness All out because it very

24:20

famously had a law passed

24:22

that mandated that you have a gun in your

24:24

home, and people have always says, well, look at

24:26

Kennessaw crime has gone down, he says

24:28

him, and Way says that that is not

24:30

true, and if you look at the evidence, it

24:33

is not shown to decrease burglary

24:36

reports at all. And also famously

24:38

in Morton Grove, Illinois, that was a ban on handguns

24:41

and uh, he points out

24:44

him and Way says, a careful analysis points out

24:46

that UM in Morton Grove, the

24:48

banning of handguns actually followed was

24:51

actually followed by a large uh significant

24:53

decrease in burglary reports,

24:56

so no one had

24:59

guns and there were

25:01

a fewer burglaries, which

25:03

lies in the face of what Kinnesas is trying to do, saying

25:06

guns in the household will prevent burglaries. Well,

25:08

yeah, there's UM and I don't know the stats off

25:10

the top of my head, but there's a there's a pretty

25:12

good stat um like England

25:14

has very very strict gun

25:17

control and very low homicide

25:19

rates um from guns.

25:22

Uh. And I think a lot of people also point out

25:24

like, Okay, well, if you don't have guns, you're still

25:26

gonna have knives, and people are still going to

25:28

kill each other. But I think that UM,

25:30

if you are a gun control advocate,

25:33

you would point out that,

25:35

UM, it's

25:38

kind of like the completed suicide thing,

25:40

like, yeah, people are still getting to try to kill themselves,

25:42

but they might not be successful, and afterward

25:45

they might be glad that they weren't successful because

25:47

their situation might improve. If

25:49

you go to kill somebody in a fit of rage

25:51

and you have a gun, you're more likely to

25:53

be successful than say with a knife or

25:56

a baseball bat or something like that. Um,

25:58

And therefore not being able to

26:00

complete this homicide, UH,

26:03

this situation may improve for both people,

26:06

especially the one who's not killed. UM.

26:09

All right, well that's guns. I hope you

26:11

guys made it through this one. Yeah, well, I think

26:13

we should do one on the n r A, just to

26:15

learn a little bit more about that organization and round

26:19

this thing out. Um.

26:22

Okay, we'll look for that one in the future, I guess.

26:24

Huh Uh. If you want

26:26

to learn more about guns, type that word

26:28

into the search part how stuff

26:30

works dot Com and will bring up a bunch of stuff,

26:33

uh, including how guns work. Uh.

26:36

If I already said that whole spiel about

26:38

the search par didn't I, it means, then,

26:41

friends, it's now time for message

26:43

break

26:49

uh and Chuck take us out with some listener

26:52

mail. Huh.

26:55

Yeah, um,

26:57

this is another Peace Corps email,

27:01

and we we get a lot of these because we find

27:03

that a we did one on the Peace Corps,

27:06

but before that even we got a lot from Peace Corps folks

27:08

because I think they're world travelers

27:10

who are curious and like to listen to things

27:12

on the Chicken bus. You know what I'm saying.

27:16

I wanted to send you guys an email since I finally finished

27:18

the long List of Stuff You Shnow podcast that

27:21

I downloaded to pass the time while riding on Chicken

27:23

busses throughout Ecuador, as

27:26

a current Peace Corps volunteer in a gold producing

27:28

region of your the world and a former

27:30

outfitter in Yellowstone National Park. I really enjoyed

27:33

the podcast on Peace Corps coffee, gold,

27:35

Lison Geyser's and Thoroughbread's what

27:38

I know about these topics. You guys are pretty much spot on,

27:40

uh And I'm also a bit of a plant nerd, so I really

27:42

enjoyed the Randy Moss joke on a Loss episode

27:45

that that was a good one, well played. What I was really

27:47

emailing about was see if you guys give a shout out

27:49

to my long time friend Katherine

27:52

Lifelong. Even she and I grew up in South Dakota

27:54

together and have been friends since kindergarten.

27:57

Even though we went to colleges across the country from each

27:59

other, we managed to remain close friends the

28:01

last twenty years. Unfortunately, due to

28:03

being in the Peace Corps, was unable to make

28:05

it back for her wedding and miss the opportunity

28:08

to be her maid of honor. Although she doesn't

28:10

have any hard feelings, I still haven't

28:12

made that one up to her and she would love it

28:14

if you guys gave her a shout She turned

28:17

me onto the podcast in fact

28:19

and saying she enjoys listening to it on our

28:21

own way to work. I have been hooked

28:23

on it ever since. So thank you guys, Chuck

28:25

and Josh and Jerry for providing Katherine

28:28

and I with another link in our friendship. Um,

28:31

not to mention the fact that you provide me with weekly

28:33

trivia effects that have plan on using

28:35

the twenty something bar scene when I moved back to the

28:38

States. So that is from

28:40

Whitney and hello Catherine,

28:43

And that's nice that you gave Whitney a break

28:45

for not being your maid of honor. Yeah, she's

28:47

in the Peace Corps after all. Yeah, it's much better,

28:50

bigger than your little wedding. Geez,

28:53

the Peace Corps just bigger than anybody's

28:55

wedding. I'm sure Catherine

28:57

would disagree with you, but um,

29:00

that was very nice. Who who is the person who

29:02

writeing Whitney? That's right, Thanks Whitney

29:04

for writing in. Um. If you

29:06

have a story that you want to share

29:09

about how Chuck and I have brought you closer to

29:11

somebody, we love those, let us

29:13

know all about it. You can tweet to us at

29:15

s Y s K podcast. You can join

29:17

us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should

29:19

Know. You can send us an email to uh stuff

29:22

podcast at Discovery dot com. He can

29:24

join us at our home on the web that is www.

29:27

Dot stuff you should Know dot

29:29

com

29:35

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29:38

Is it how stuff works dot com?

29:46

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29:48

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29:51

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