We use cookies on this website. By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policy and for us to access our cookies on your device.
Transcript/ScriptCONNECT Gun-Carrying Professor (TV)
HEADLINE: Finding Common Ground on Guns
TEASER: Professor tries to move beyond the strident national debate on guns
PUBLISHED AT: 11/14/2022
BYLINE: Deepak Dobhal
DATELINE: Washington, D.C.
VIDEOGRAPHER: Deepak Dobhal
PRODUCER: Deepak Dobhal, Zdenko Novacki
COURTESIES:
SCRIPT EDITORS: MJ
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT: 3:00
VID APPROVED BY: MJ
TYPE: VPKGF
EDITOR NOTES: ))
((Eds: This is a self-narrated feature.))
((INTRO))
((As a nation, the U.S. has a deeply complex relationship with guns, and many believe that the right to bear arms is one of the central issues of their freedom. VOA’s Deepak Dobhal talks with a university professor in Wisconsin who is trying to find local, common-sense approaches to gun ownership in America.))
((NATS))
((Angela Stroud, Professor, Northland College)) My views on guns are complicated. I recognize how powerful and potentially destructive they are. I've had family members killed, self-inflicted, by suicide.
((NATS))
((Angela Stroud, Professor, Northland College)) But I also am a gun owner. We own five or six guns, mostly rifles, shotgun hunting rifles. But we also have a handgun in our gun safe. On the other hand, I know the research on gun ownership. The likelihood of victimization is first and foremost rooted in the home. You're much more likely to harm yourself or others with a gun than you are to ever use one in self-defense.
((NATS))
((Angela Stroud, Professor, Northland College)) There's this really simplistic way of thinking about guns often, which is people are anti-gun or they're pro-gun. We like to imagine that this is a simple phenomenon in the
culture that you own a gun. And so, you have all of these different attitudes, and you must have these different ideas. And that just isn't true.
((NATS))
((Angela Stroud, Professor, Northland College)) Our issue with gun violence is that guns are so easy for anyone to get a hold of. And the people who I feel totally comfortable owning guns and carrying them or whatever, go for it. Good. I want it. I want to know you're carrying, you know. But not Joe Schmo, who could just pick one up anywhere.
((NATS))
((Angela Stroud, Professor, Northland College)) Guns are unique in their ability to provoke intense emotions and very little productive conversation across different perspectives. Who benefits when we won't even talk to each other about serious issues? When we're afraid. When we're either afraid of gun owners and guns or that we're afraid that the government's going to take our guns. Who benefits when we're afraid of crime? And who is benefiting from this current political climate where we're losing the ability to talk to each other about difficult issues? Are we benefiting? The clear answer is no.
((NATS))
((Angela Stroud, Professor, Northland College)) When you focus just on the political level or the gun lobby level, people are very entrenched in their positions. They're either pro-gun adamantly or they are anti-gun adamantly and nuance gets completely lost.
((NATS))
((Angela Stroud, Professor, Northland College)) We could become much worse than we are today or we could become much better than we are today. I mean, who would have imagined the 15 years ago, that kindergarteners would be learning active shooter drills by learning nursery rhymes about duck and cover from a shooter. It's becoming so normal already.
((NATS))
((Angela Stroud, Northland College, Ashland, Wisconsin)) The worst thing that could happen is that we give up any hope at all that there's change that's possible and we just naturalize gun violence like we naturalize all kinds of violence.
((NATS))
((Angela Stroud, Northland College, Ashland, Wisconsin)) So, the worst fear is that we just assume this is just who we are as people.
((MUSIC/NATS))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)
in Washington D.C.
Embargo DateNovember 14, 2022 16:53 EST
Byline
Deepak Dobhal
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
