Gun Control's Dead End: Why Bans Flop and Mental Health Holds the Key to Real Change
Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley unpack the nuances of gun control in America, revealing why total bans fall short and targeted regulations matter more. They stress mental health's pivotal role in curbing gun violence, weaving in state-specific laws, proactive steps, and social drivers like poverty and hopelessness. Blending personal stories with data, they champion balanced policies that honor the right to bear arms while prioritizing public safety through informed, multifaceted solutions.
Timestamps:
- (00:00) America's Gun Trap: Why Bans Fail and Deeper Woes Demand Urgent Fixes
- (08:58) International Perspectives on Gun Laws
- (14:58) The Root Causes of Gun Violence
- (16:43) Final Thoughts and Future Discussions
📢 Solving America’s Problems Podcast – Real Solutions For Real Issues
Transcript
Jerremy dismisses full bans as unworkable, favoring smarter
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:controls that address mental
anguish over outright seizures.
3
:But as Dave traces laws born from
tragedies, the core tension surfaces—if
4
:guns mask deeper woes like poverty,
where do proactive fixes truly start?
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:Jerremy: I'll take the devil's
advocate stance for a second.
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:It's is that going to stop bad
people from doing bad things?
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:No, not at
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:Dave: Of course not.
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:Like it'll always come back to the bad
guys are still gonna get Yes, for sure.
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:Like that nobody's stopping that.
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:And if you are not too ha like if
somebody is, if somebody is picked up
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:jaywalking with a gun that they are
not, up to speed on it, then that's
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:where you get the hairy eyeball.
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:That's where you do, run into an issue.
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:It's this isn't your gun.
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:This isn't the gun that this
you are not up to speed on this.
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:Like this is, you're not that.
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:Now, I don't, I am also a little
bit of the government doesn't need
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:all this information kind of thing.
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:But I, I do think that there's a
space here for saying these are
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:what the rules are and then it, each
state needs to make sure that these,
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:are met in some form or fashion.
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:This is where you get the nras and
things in order to put together these
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:certifications and to make 'em no joke,
and that, and then to make 'em universal
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:across all the states so you don't, roll
over to Louisiana to pick up this and
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:you roll over to Florida to do this.
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:Jerremy: I don't, maybe I
trust government too much.
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:I probably do and it's probably
not a good thing, but I don't
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:really mind the government
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:Dave: national
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:Jerremy: if I have guns or not because
they know if I have cars and I have
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:to register them every year and I
have to pay every single year, every
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:flipping year, I gotta go register
my car and pay that stupid tax or
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:whatever it is, 300, $500 per car.
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:So they know what cars you have
and they're all registered with it.
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:VIN number and then you have
to have insurance on it.
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:Dave just the other day, like
I re-registered 'cause we moved
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:in a bunch of things and I think
everyone on the podcast knows.
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:And so we moved, a bunch of different
places and the insurance company that I
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:had were like, oh, you live in Nevada.
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:Nevada's still with crazy people.
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:We don't insure you.
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:We don't insure you.
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:Dave: Yeah.
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:I know Florida's the same.
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:And you and I were just talking
that I'm getting a car here and I'm
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:just like, oh God, it's an antique.
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:I hope they're not gonna charge me.
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:A billion
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:Jerremy: they're gonna
charge you an arm and a leg.
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:Yeah.
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:No one's gonna insure that car.
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:FYI.
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:No, you're gonna have to get a
liability policy and then the
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:rest is all gonna be up to you.
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:Dave: I got
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:Jerremy: You're, but you're
gonna have to have it registered.
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:If you get pulled over with no
license and registration, please.
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:You're fucking toast.
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:Like you're gonna pay some,
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:Dave: True.
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:Yeah,
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:Jerremy: be not good.
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:So that's the government knowing
you have a more deadly thing
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:Dave: true.
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:Jerremy: statistically than a gun.
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:If the government knows that you
got nine guns, the people that are
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:afraid oh, the government's gonna
come and take your gun dog if the
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:government's coming to take your guns.
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:They're probably gonna
take other things too.
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:Like you you
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:Dave: coming to show up and get
your gun, something else has gone
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:Jerremy: dog, you terribly wrong.
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:You landed on some bad list,
you went to some website.
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:You should not have gone and typed
in something you shouldn't have
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:typed into because they're gonna
take your cars, they're gonna
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:take your house and is that legal?
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:No, they shouldn't be doing that.
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:But you're already there.
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:You've done something incorrect
already, in my opinion.
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:It's the registration process.
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:I don't believe personally is something
that I would be afraid of or scared of.
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:And I'd be a gun controlling,
gun owning citizen.
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:I really do not see the
negatives in that application.
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:And if it's registered and you have
to update it and you have to do
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:some mental health check ever so
often, that could just be a person
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:that is in all gun ranges, right?
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:So there's a gun range.
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:I don't know how many gun ranges, but
like in Nashville there's one in almost
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:every corner in Vegas, there's like 50.
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:So you go to a gun range.
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:In order to be a gun range, the you
have to have an employee or a or a
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:government agency or someone there
that does mental health checks,
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:and you go in and you simply have
a conversation with that person.
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:Again, the question that the big advocates
are gonna go is what's that gonna solve?
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:Dave: That's legit because it's again,
we're just saying that the criminals
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:are not following any of these.
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:Jerremy: no.
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:Yeah.
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:Yeah.
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:Criminals aren't gonna follow any of these
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:Dave: Is there and let's say that, I'm
just gonna guess, I, I didn't get dig
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:this deep, but, with most of those deaths
in the, the young black communities
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:in cities, a lot of them in Chicago.
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:That's another thing.
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:It's if you wanna solve
this, you start in Chicago.
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:Jerremy: St.
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:Louis
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:Dave: where are those guns coming from?
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:You know what, how do we stop that?
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:Who, like who's responsible for that?
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:Somebody at some point had to
buy that gun and it was either
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:stolen from them or, like it got
out of legal possession somehow.
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:So who's responsible for that?
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:Is it the gun manufacturer?
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:Is it the person who originally bought it?
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:If somebody, who
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:Jerremy: who sold it to
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:Dave: sold it to them?
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:Who's, like certainly the person
who has the gun that is not theirs,
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:the legal owner of that gun.
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:Like that should be a
pretty stiff penalty, right?
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:Jerremy: It should be tracked
more than it is now, or at least
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:discussed openly in media outlets,
probably more than it is now.
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:And again I hear the advocates very
clearly is it gonna stop anyone?
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:And the answer is.
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:It's not gonna stop the negative.
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:It's not gonna stop the people
that are doing things wrong.
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:But what it is going to do is provide
the opportunity for the people that
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:are very terrified of guns, that maybe
they increase ownership because they
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:go, listen, there's a lot of protocols,
there's a lot of safeties around this.
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:We actually do care as a nation, you
still have all of your rights and we
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:are listening to you as a government
saying, Hey, this is the problem.
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:Sure, we can subside some of this
because we realize that here's
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:what the bigger problem is.
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:The bigger problem is mental health.
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:That's gonna be the bigger challenge.
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:Numerically
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:Dave: change a lot right there.
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:Jerremy: Yes.
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:Where it's listen man, hey
we did some of the protocols.
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:We did some of the applications.
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:We hear you gun control people.
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:We, we're with you.
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:So yeah, let's control it more.
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:And here's some of the
protocols that do that.
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:Because again, that's what we're
trying to do in this conversation.
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:That's what we're doing in this
podcast, is we really wanna
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:solve some of these problems.
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:And what I hear you saying
is when you have a what?
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:What was it?
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:CVI.
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:Dave: Yeah,
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:Jerremy: have a, when you
have the CVI, the communities
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:Dave: deal.
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:Jerremy: That are receiving more money
from the the slightly increased prices
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:of ammunition, that now you get to pour
into the individuals that are going
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:to be faced with the not only mental
health challenge, but also potentially
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:the financial problems the financial
stresses, the lack of opportunity.
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:The lack of awareness of opportunity.
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:And you have citizens and you have
community members that are really, that
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:have the funding to go and spend the
time and the energy to actually pour
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:into the youth and the males that are
going to be affected by this negatively.
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:Now that negative becomes more of a
positive and gun death can decrease,
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:Dave: Yeah, so
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:Jerremy: it's more or less that simple.
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:And then we crack down on cars.
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:I'm back to that.
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:I'm back to it, Dave.
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:It's oh man,
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:Dave: Breathalyzers and cars.
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:I, you have lost my vote.
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:I have supported you from day one.
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:Forget it, I'm out breathalyzers on cars.
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:What?
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:Yeah.
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:I'm cutting that out of this episode.
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:Jerremy: something.
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:Dave: Not letting anybody hear that.
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:No.
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:Gotta get ahold of you and reprogram you.
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:Alright, so get at this.
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:California, you can own a weapon,
but it is a pain in the ass.
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:Like they got all sorts of regulations.
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:It's universal background checks and
all sorts of, regulations in California
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:are the strictest in the nation.
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:And then there's Texas that is
basically they're, if you register
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:your car, they can hand you a gun.
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:Like it's, no very small.
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:And the outcomes are out there like
California, very populous country.
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:They have 8.5
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:per a hundred thousand deaths in
Texas that has nothing is 14.2.
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:So there's a big difference
between California and Texas.
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:I live in Florida and they
actually try to strike a balance.
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:Like there are waiting periods.
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:I think it's like a two or three
day waiting period, and that stops
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:the, somebody who's pissed off.
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:It gets, it's a cooling off period.
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:They do have oh, what do they call them?
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:Er, eer.
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:Oh, E RPOs.
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:Those are the red flags.
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:Like if like particularly women who
are in a domestic violence situation,
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:they go to the, they, there's a very
simple process with the police to be
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:like I'm in danger and I'm, I feel
like I'm in danger for my partner.
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:That.
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:The person's got to go and and
check in their weapons and,
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:it's an administrative process.
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:It is not difficult to get the red flag,
and it is easy for it to be adjudicated.
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:Meaning, the state doesn't seal
your, we, take your weapons forever.
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:So Florida's in between and
the results are in between.
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:Internationally, like
Germany has very strict laws.
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:Australia, you were just there, like
they, they had a mass shooting and they
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:basically took everybody's guns away.
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:And Canada has, I think as
many, guns per person as we do.
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:And they don't have nearly
the number of gun deaths.
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:So I'm like, where should we
be spending energy on this?
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:It seems like California, even though
it's a pain, actually has some results.
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:And Texas, where they don't,
there's some problems.
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:I don't know where I'm going with
this other than, like I'm, creeping
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:towards the world of maybe we do
need some more regulations in certain
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:areas, even though we've just spent 40
minutes saying it's very specialized.
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:It's, young black men and and suicides.
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:And it's it's, ensuring that kids don't
get guns and domestic violence situations.
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:That's it.
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:Like it's, it doesn't
go beyond those walls.
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:Jerremy: Yeah.
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:That's, that, that's
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:Dave: yeah.
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:What,
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:Jerremy: taking away people's guns
will never work in the US that we
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:Dave: this is a
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:Jerremy: That will.
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:Cause
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:Dave: Zero starter.
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:Jerremy: never gonna happen.
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:And you know what?
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:I don't want to happen.
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:Dave: No.
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:Jerremy: don't.
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:I don't think it should, I don't
think there's any reason to.
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:Just because you have a mass shooting,
it's oh, take everyone's guns away.
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:No, like looking at the statistics
you gotta dive into the data.
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:It doesn't show that's what the issue is.
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:And again, if you make guns massively
illegal, okay, no one can have them.
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:Will mass shootings decrease?
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:Yeah, they would decrease.
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:And they, they'd almost have
to, 'cause no one can get access
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:to a gun, so it's very hard.
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:So mass shootings would go down, but
mass something else would increase some
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:there would be another lever somewhere
that starts to happen because evil
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:people or people that are in massive,
incredible mental anguish are going to
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:find another way to do something to.
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:Horrific, and I think it's the
trend that we're seeing around the
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:world that's not mass gun shootings.
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:There's a mass uptick in anxiety,
depression, cancer, heart disease,
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:financial ruin, like those things
are causing even worse negative
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:pressures than just guns by themselves.
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:Dave: Hey, look if there is gun violence,
it's not because you had a good day.
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:Again, it keeps coming back to
that, it's like good days don't end
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:with violence, so more good days.
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:Jerremy: Yeah.
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:I, yeah.
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:Yeah.
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:Dave: gets down to, it's like more
prosperity, more abundance education,
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:making sure that people have, outcomes.
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:It's
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:Jerremy: Preaching to my heart.
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:Preaching to my heart.
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:Dave: These, urban youth and poor.
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:If they have a way out of seeing any
view out of that, gives people hope and
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:that gets people out, building lives
and not tearing 'em down, it's just ah
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:Jerremy: I think if we have, again, maybe
this is just my belief, but I feel it
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:and I sense it around the communities
that I spend a hundred hours a month in,
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:and those communities are the positive.
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:You're about to enter one
in a couple weeks, right?
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:The joda spend a 10 day meditation
retreats, meditation events.
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:I know that's a very small subset of
humans and individuals, but when you're
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:going into these self-development worlds
where people are just pouring into
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:themselves and loving on themselves,
suicide's still there, depression is
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:still there, anxiousness is still there,
but they know how to deal with it.
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:They know how to cope through it.
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:They start seeing ways out,
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:Dave: Yeah.
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:Jerremy: and they are not limited
to the, hey, there's only one way.
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:And that way is by damaging
myself or damaging other people.
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:They are aware that they're
making a conscious choice of
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:either being a victim or a victor.
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:And if they are going to choose
the victim route, they go,
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:Hey, I wanna live in this pain.
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:I wanna live in this anguish.
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:They start to understand
why they feel that way.
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:And if you have leaders that
are not extremely divisive
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:Dave: Yep.
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:Jerremy: and you have someone
from the top down daily and often
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:that is simply reminding people
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:Dave: Yeah.
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:Jerremy: that you have a choice that
is conscious to make, and you can
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:choose to live in positivity or you
can choose to live in negativity.
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:It is a choice.
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:If you're choosing negativity, you can
choose how long you wanna feel that way.
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:It doesn't mean that if you're depressed,
you can never be depressed again.
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:But there are biological,
biochemical features.
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:Physiology, I can't say that
word, features that a depressed
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:person is going to carry.
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:They're gonna, there's certain
ways they're gonna breathe.
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:There's certain ways they're
gonna hold themselves.
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:There's certain ways that
their body's gonna move.
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:When you are in a depressed
state, you become depressed.
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:And the more you can start shifting
that, and the more that we have leaders
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:from the top down approach that pour
into these these, the citizens of this
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:country, and start showing them and
teaching them and guiding them through
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:light love, happiness, positivity,
and awareness of how they feel, and
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:this emotional competency, I believe
that actually does make a huge dent.
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:And I don't think we have that.
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:A long time.
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:My
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:Dave: here.
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:Jerremy: man.
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:Dave: I,
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:Jerremy: Where do we go from here?
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:What?
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:What do you think is coming
next for our listeners?
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:Because we have so many listeners
that just really care about this.
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:Dave: where do we go from here?
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:I think we're gonna have some
stellar human beings on this one.
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:We're gonna, we are going to be talking
to advocates, gun owners for sure.
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:That's I believe we're gonna be
bringing that up for the next
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:I want victims of gun violence.
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:People who've been shot and
what their view of the world is.
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:I want to get the, somebody who's sees
all the guns and I want to get folks that
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:are like, no, we're doing communities.
333
:I love this the urban programs.
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:I wanna be talking to those folks.
335
:But I think, ultimately when I did
the research, started the research
336
:on this, I realized that this
topic is not that much about guns.
337
:Like we talk and we used guns as
a placeholder for other things.
338
:It is not the guns, it's the suicides.
339
:It's not the guns, it's the homicides.
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:And underneath that homicides,
it's the hopelessness, it's
341
:the poverty, it's the problems.
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:It's, the inability to cope.
343
:It's, like the problems that are
underneath that, the guns are just
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:a they're a method to the madness.
345
:Underneath all of that, there's so
much more that we need to be focused
346
:on, so much more that we need to
be talking about that we don't, and
347
:that we use guns as a placeholder for
the real problems underneath this.
348
:And that's, I, when looking at the
history of this, we didn't really touch
349
:on that, but I, looking at the history
of guns and guns, ownership and gun
350
:laws in the United States, there were
basically no laws in the United States
351
:until the 1930s were, when they banned
alcohol and we got gangsters, right?
352
:And, Tommy guns.
353
:And that's when, that was the first
time that the government was like,
354
:oh, we gotta do something about this.
355
:And they did.
356
:It was basically you had to register,
automatic weapons, but then there
357
:was nothing until the sixties.
358
:And it and that was when John F.
359
:Kennedy got killed.
360
:And that's when actually the basis of
all the background checks actually came.
361
:You couldn't buy guns
by mail order anymore.
362
:And then every time we've had an
a discussion about guns, every
363
:time it's been because of tragedy
and we've gotta stop that piece.
364
:We can't be reactive,
we've gotta be proactive.
365
:And it's all the stuff
that's underneath this.
366
:It is not the guns and it is
about what's underneath it.
367
:That's what I believe.
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:Jerremy: I love that.
369
:I love that.
370
:And for all of my listeners, and
for everyone who's, tuning in and
371
:checking this information out, Dave,
I really liked this conversation, man.
372
:I really did because it, it
brings a lot of awareness to me.
373
:I believe everyone who is up to date
on this podcast, they're aware that
374
:I am doing this podcast to learn.
375
:I, I am learning because I do not
obviously have all the answers,
376
:but from a political standpoint,
I have very little answers.
377
:And as we keep going through this
podcast, what's happening is I am
378
:continuing to learn not only where
I stand, how I really feel, but more
379
:importantly the data and then the
policies that I'll be able to implement
380
:to actually create legitimate change
based on statistics and not opinions.
381
:Not based on how I feel, because you've
already changed so much of how I feel
382
:about certain things, and I've done the
same for you, and we're creating this
383
:really beautiful melding pot of yeah.
384
:It's cool you feel that way.
385
:But here's actually the data and I'm in
a place where I realize I have an ego.
386
:Of course everyone does, but
my ego's not strong enough to.
387
:Have the inability to go,
I'm wrong on this topic.
388
:Let me actually go through what
the data says and start making the
389
:appropriate shifts so that I can lead
this nation into the most prosperous
390
:time that we've ever been a part
of prosperous and peaceful, because
391
:it's coming and it's coming through.
392
:Just the realization that we are in a
time where we have so much information
393
:and it's not being implemented, and
it's not being implemented with wisdom.
394
:It's not being implemented with truth,
with integrity, and most importantly,
395
:with the vibration, the frequency of
love and abundance and prosperity.
396
:And as much as Maryam Williamson, when
she was running for president, was
397
:continued to push love and love and love,
she also wanted to change everything.
398
:And everything was broken,
everything was a problem.
399
:And I was like, Marianne, I love
you, but you can't take down
400
:the entire system overnight.
401
:'cause the President really
doesn't have that much control.
402
:The only thing I really want to
control, and the only thing I
403
:really wanna update, ultimately,
is gonna be the education system.
404
:Dave: Yeah.
405
:Jerremy: You've said that word 45 times
in this podcast because that's really the
406
:root cause and the root fix of most of
the challenges that face this country.
407
:And with that, boys and girls, ladies
and gentlemen, friends and family, we're
408
:gonna continue to have conversations.
409
:We're gonna continue to have
discussions and we really will keep
410
:piece mailing together more of the
beliefs and the information and
411
:the real statistics that are there.
412
:And we're gonna hear people, and I'm
gonna continue to collect incredible
413
:data so that when I'm in a place, in
a position of understanding and of
414
:power, I can and Dave and myself, and
we can create real, meaningful change
415
:and policies that people can agree
on that actually do put this country
416
:into a place of incredible prosperity.
