Gun Violence Exposed: Poverty's Grip, Isolation's Toll, and Targeted Fixes Beyond Bans
Dave Conley and Jerremy tackle America's gun violence epidemic, showing how urban youth, rural residents, and veterans face distinct threats. They favor targeted interventions over sweeping bans, stressing fixes for poverty and mental health. Highlighting just three universal U.S. gun laws, they advocate for enhanced education and training akin to driving or piloting licenses, plus community violence intervention programs and tougher rules to curb crime's roots.
Timestamps:
- (00:00) Gun Violence Crisis: How Poverty and Isolation Fuel America's Deadliest Divide
- (07:56) The Single Shot Rifle Debate
- (08:44) Chris Rock's Take on Gun Control
- (09:11) The Role of Ammunition Costs
- (10:26) Mental Health and Gun Violence
- (11:21) Community Violence Intervention (CVI)
- (12:45) The Link Between Poverty and Crime
- (15:07) The Need for Gun Education
📢 Solving America’s Problems Podcast – Real Solutions For Real Issues
Transcript
Dave spotlights how gun violence hits specific groups hardest, from
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:urban youth to rural suicides, urging
targeted fixes over broad bans.
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:But as Jerremy ties crime to
poverty's despair, the stakes
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:rise—if hopelessness fuels the cycle,
where does real intervention begin?
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:Dave: There are only three laws, believe
it or not, as much as we talk about guns
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:being completely over overregulated.
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:That's what I hear on one side,
it's like there's so many laws
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:and it's not doing anything.
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:Or we have the wrong laws.
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:I like I can already hear my gun.
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:I call 'em affectionately,
my gun nut friends, screaming
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:Jerremy: I got some
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:Dave: all the, there's only
three that are universal.
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:One of them, if you're a felon,
you cannot own a gun, period.
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:Par none, no felon can own a
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:Jerremy: When you say universal,
you mean universal in the
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:Dave: all over the United States.
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:In the United States
there are only three laws.
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:One of them is, it's.
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:Jerremy: yeah.
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:Dave: 18 USC 9 2, 2 G one.
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:Every state, every sale every day.
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:10 years in prison for a felon
if they have a gun, that's it.
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:Period.
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:End of story number two, if you've ever
been convicted of slapping or pushing or
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:even threatening your spouse or partner
or kid, even if it's a misdemeanor,
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:you cannot own a gun for life.
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:That one I didn't know.
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:Jerremy: I didn't know this one.
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:Dave: yeah.
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:Any domestic violence at
all, you cannot own a gun.
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:Period.
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:And then three, if you've ever, it's,
if a judge has ever said, Hey you're
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:not well, like any mental hospital, any
kind of, anything that, where a judge
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:has said, you've had some sort of mental
health hold, you can never own a gun.
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:So that means everything else.
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:Everything else is this patchwork
of laws across all states, which
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:to me doesn't make any sense.
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:It's okay, if you got one big
law in one state, if you don't
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:like it there, you just go to
another state and you get a gun.
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:Like in, in one sense it's if you want,
this universally changed in the United
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:States, given that we have a Second
Amendment we already got three and
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:they do what they need to be doing,
and there's patchworks all over it.
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:It doesn't make any sense when
the effects are very specialized.
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:And I have a feeling I'm gonna get some
hate when I say this but here's the truth.
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:Here is the absolute truth.
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:The issues in gun and gun
violence are very specific.
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:So if you are a young black man who
lives in a city, it's your leading
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:cause of death, and that is a tragedy.
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:That is insanity.
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:That is a, an urban poor people who do
not have, like we've talked about this,
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:we've talked about this issue many times
before where it's like we, like our
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:issues and the money and the love and
the care, we need to be pouring it into
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:our cities now, like there is a huge
failure in our cities and it's really
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:affecting particular young black men.
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:And then there's the veterans.
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:They're committing suicide.
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:And if you are a, if you are a
white man in, in a rural area,
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:that's how you commit suicides too.
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:90% of rural white men who
killed themselves are killing
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:themselves with a gun.
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:Veterans, 73% suicide.
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:Now, here's another area where
we can actually do some work.
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:Women who are in some sort of
domestic violence situation,
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:things are bad in their household.
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:They are more likely than anything
else to be, hit, killed with a gun.
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:That's a problem.
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:And then and then there's children
who get ahold of guns will die.
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:So like these are very specific targeted
areas where we are not, I think having
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:good conversations rather than ban
all the guns, do all the things, do it
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:across the United States, like we talk
about like bump stocks and and types and
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:assault weapons and all those things.
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:And that is all noise.
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:We know exactly where this
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:Jerremy: Wow.
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:That's powerful statement.
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:I agree with you, by the way.
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:Yeah, I agree with you.
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:To the point, again, if you're
a malicious human being,
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:Dave: Yeah.
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:Jerremy: having a scope on your
gun, it's probably relevant.
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:And again, if you are unfortunately in a
place where you, man I hope this isn't too
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:overarching of a statement, but if when
you're in a place of the mental strain
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:that mental strain probably is gonna
have a lot of financial implications.
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:And you generally feel like there's
no way out and there's no purpose.
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:So your purposeless and generally
purposeless comes from cash, right?
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:No ability to create,
no ability to provide.
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:And you feel like there's no way out tho
those are metrics that can be scanned for
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:that can be thought about ahead of time.
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:From Ready, ready, the va.
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:What?
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:Oh my goodness.
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:So we have a government agency that can
do preemptive health checks on veterans.
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:Whoa,
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:Dave: How about this?
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:We have a government that doesn't
need to be sending our young men
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:and women all over the planet
kick kicking over governments.
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:How about that?
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:That's the first thing I would do.
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:We're about to, we Venezuela
is our next I'm telling you,
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:Cuba's next, it's God, stop.
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:Just
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:Jerremy: Yeah, exactly.
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:If we have a, if we had a government
that's Hey, you know what, let's just
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:let's not send a bunch of people to war.
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:Dave: How about Yes.
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:How about that?
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:We spend, we've spent the last
25 years in perpetual wear.
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:How about we spend the next 25
years being in perpetual peace.
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:I'm, I think that will
solve the veteran stuff,
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:Jerremy: Agreed.
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:Agreed.
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:Because they don't have to use guns.
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:They don't have to go and murder
people that they've never met
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:before in the name of something.
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:And that's gonna, because that's
what the PTSD is from, right?
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:Taking the life of other
people innocently or whatever.
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:You just don't know.
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:You don't really know why you're there.
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:Like why am I here fighting this war?
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:Who's benefiting from me being on Somalia?
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:Dave: And we, we have friends that
have been, first tier operators who've
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:done this and they've come back and
it's it is like coming back and being
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:reintroduced into society is the VA
spends zero on that and it's who really?
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:A trillion dollars to send them over.
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:Zero to bring them back.
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:Jerremy: Good old goose egg.
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:You're not spending money, man.
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:I'm with you.
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:And, but again, to your point, and what
I hear you saying pretty clearly is
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:the issue that's actually statistically
and mathematically the problem.
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:We don't address, we're not talking about.
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:So many people have this narrative that
it's just simply the gun when a gun
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:Dave: Yeah,
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:Jerremy: is a knife, is a brick, is an
anything, is a car, is anything else
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:that if you want to cause damage to
people, you'll find a way to do it.
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:Dave: but it's not at scale.
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:That's where we're going to hear from, gun
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:Jerremy: Advocates.
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:Dave: no gun gun control advocates.
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:Like there was a period,
this is also in our research.
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:There was a period where there were
bands on the size of magazines, right?
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:Oh let's also clarify this.
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:If you use the word clip, and if you ever
hear the word clip in a movie show, they
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:don't know what they're talking about.
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:It's a magazine.
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:That's what you put bullets into.
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:So high capacity magazines were banned
for a while, and actually the, the
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:number of deaths went down like that
seems, it seems pretty clear to me.
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:If high capacity magazines actually do
help, and yes, they are annoying for
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:people who are going hunting and shooting
and the Yes, they do have to change
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:their, they have to change the, they
have to change their clips more often.
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:No, they have to change
their magazines a little bit
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:Jerremy: You.
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:Who are you?
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:Who are you shooting?
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:Chill out.
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:Chill, chill out, bro.
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:If you can't get a deer in two
shots, you don't need a, you don't
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:need eight other ones, homie.
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:Be better at
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:Dave: it'd be better
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:Jerremy: 10.
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:A magazine of 10 ammo.
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:You have 10 shots that I think
that's the again, most states,
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:I think that's it, right?
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:Like 10 a 10 unit magazine
is, a six shooter.
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:A single shot rifle.
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:I am, I will sign off on that.
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:I have, I really cannot if
you're using this for defense.
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:Again.
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:Again, who are you?
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:Who are you trying to
defend yourself from?
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:If you need an a crazy
assault rifle, you don't.
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:You don't need that for hunting.
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:Dave: Here's the math.
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:That changed it for me,
not changed it for me.
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:Like in perspective, if a 10 round
magazine saves one life per mass
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:shooting that is 50 kids that
would be alive since Parkland
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:I would take those 50 kids'
life over, over a $20.
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:Magazine any day of the week.
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:Jerremy: Yep, I'm with you.
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:And Chris Rock once said, he is you
know how we should stop gun deaths?
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:Dave: What's that?
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:Jerremy: He goes, and here's
what I love about comedians, man.
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:They just think so brilliantly sometimes.
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:And he glossed this over and
people just forgot, really, in my
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:opinion, kinda the genius of this.
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:He goes, oh, you want guns?
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:Give 'em all the guns you
want a 40 magazine, 40?
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:Go for it.
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:How?
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:Make ammunition a
thousand dollars a bullet.
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:That's that's like Chris Rock's.
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:Give 'em all the guns they want.
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:Knock it, dude.
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:Go for it.
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:Ammo though, ammos expensive and he kept
going on with the bit, obviously, and it
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:was, but it was really brilliant because
I am, I'm on board with that, right?
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:Like in the sense of if
you truly need ammunition
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:Dave: like there is a tax on
every look, I'm not even a
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:gun owner and I know this one.
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:Like on, on every bullet you do buy, there
is a tax, there's a federal tax on it.
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:And that, that, that tax actually
goes to animal conservation.
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:And it's been one of the most
successful things ev it's been
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:in there since Teddy Roosevelt.
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:It's been there a long time,
between that and how you, you
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:get, your tags and the rest of it.
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:That's like really well thought through.
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:And it's been the most, one of the
most successful ways of, it's been
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:one of the most conservative ways
that we've looked at how to manage
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:our wildlife in the United States.
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:And I'm like, huh, that's something
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:Jerremy: Yep.
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:And again, if I make ammunition,
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:Dave: a thousand dollars.
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:Jerremy: Let's no dude.
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:Let's just say 30% more expensive,
30% more expensive, right.
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:Nothing.
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:Nothing crazy.
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:Dave: Alright.
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:Jerremy: And then, oh, that 30%,
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:Dave: Yeah.
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:Where does that money go?
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:Jerremy: Yeah, exactly.
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:15 per 15 cents of every that additional
30% or whatever the cost is, goes to
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:organizations that help mental health.
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:Whoa.
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:Dave: one of
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:Jerremy: that's the problem, right?
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:The brokenness of any country is in direct
proportion to the brokenness of men.
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:It is men that are doing these killings.
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:It is, it's always men.
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:It is men and boys who are angry,
who have unimaginable anger and
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:they have no emotional fortitude
or training on how to cope.
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:And it can be a veteran.
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:Yes, it can be a gang member, yes.
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:But they are choosing to do this
because they have some emotional
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:incapacity to heal and to breathe and
to cope with what they're feeling.
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:That's the data though, Dave.
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:Dave: the DA here.
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:Here's the one I didn't know,
and this is what I want.
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:I gotta, I wanna find these people.
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:I want to get 'em on this podcast.
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:I got to get them because.
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:I want that tax money going to CVI, it's
called Community Violence Intervention.
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:This is frigging brilliant.
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:We talked about young black men being
the biggest victims and perpetrators of
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:violence against each other and causing
thousands of deaths every single year.
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:That's exactly what CVI does.
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:It is ex gang members.
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:It is community leaders.
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:It's people in their,
in, in the community.
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:It's the coaches, it's the barbers,
it's the, it's men going in and actually
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:mediating disputes and teaching.
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:And it drops shootings 30 to 50%.
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:It costs a million
dollars a year per city,
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:Jerremy: On so low it's nothing.
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:Dave: Ah, okay.
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:Fif $50 million right now.
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:Just make
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:Jerremy: Yeah.
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:Rounding error.
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:Dave: Like they mediate
disputes and it's okay.
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:You get ex gang members who are now
members of the community and are
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:also, mediating disputes against
people who have disputes rather
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:than them killing each other.
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:It's it's peers, going in and diffusing
this and getting kids out of these cycles.
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:Jerremy: And I can even say, listen, if
you know that you're a gang member and
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:you know you're in the violence again,
maybe I'm going too far off right now, but
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:let's say if you had to arrest them just
'cause you know their affiliation and you
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:put 'em all in a room together and you
go, Hey buddy, figure let's figure it out.
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:Let's figure it out.
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:Let's put you in a situation where
you can work out your differences.
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:Is it territories?
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:Is it whatever?
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:Because in my opinion crime is
almost directly linked to poverty.
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:And it is simply because they are unaware
that there are other applications of
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:their knowledge, their time, and their
energy to create wealth for their family.
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:Because that's really inherently probably
what they're trying to do, right?
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:A gang is trying to fight another
gang because they want more.
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:Land, which essentially is more
resources, more houses, more
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:opportunities, more jobs to do what?
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:To provide for their kids, provide
for their wife, provide for someone.
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:That's what it is.
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:Dave: violent crime is
mostly related to poverty.
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:I agree with that.
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:And I know if you are poor in
the United States, you are also
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:treated differently on, like you are
interacting with the state a lot more.
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:You are treated differently.
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:You're not believed, like it's
a, poverty, we're gonna have
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:a whole series on poverty.
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:It's a, it is, it was an eyeopener
to meet people who are poor.
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:It's like they live entirely
different lives than people like
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:that that, that aren't poor.
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:It's bonkers.
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:But I'm actually wondering
if most crime is that way.
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:It's I think white collar crime is
probably more prevalent and causes
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:more damage in a lot of ways,
and it's the least prosecuted.
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:But that's for another
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:Jerremy: That's another episode.
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:Dave: I, yeah, I will say white
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:Jerremy: Why?
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:Collar crime?
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:Dave: way more prevalent and
completely unenforced and yada.
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:But violent crime, yes.
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:I think it is tied to poverty.
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:It's tied to desperation.
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:It is tied to hopelessness.
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:There's, nobody shoots up a school.
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:Nobody shoots up their neighbor.
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:Nobody pulls out a gun for
because they had a good day.
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:Jerremy: yeah.
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:And they're not doing
it from self-defense.
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:Dave: No, that is a, it is a number.
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:The, it does come up, they call 'em
DGU basically good guys with a gun.
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:I don't remember what DGU stands for.
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:What does it
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:Jerremy: yeah, but it's
a, that's a small number.
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:Dave: gun use.
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:Lawful Citizen uses a
firearm to stop a crime.
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:So best guess it's somewhere between
a hundred thousand, 500,000 a year,
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:but it's self-reported, yada yada.
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:It's not nothing.
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:On the other hand.
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:Unarmed civilians stop more mass shootings
than armed, quote unquote good guys.
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:It's the moment that somebody
takes to reload is the moment
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:where somebody tackles the guy.
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:That's what bystanders do.
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:You don't, I was talking to my sister
here about this podcast and I'm like, I.
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:I know one of the things that
you and I would be talking about
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:is like education around this.
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:And I know that the education around
gun ownership is a joke, and I'm like,
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:like I, I live, I've lived in many
areas where, you know, you, you ha you
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:took like the most basic of exams and
did the most basic thing in order to
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:get a concealed carry permit, which
means, like you can be in any building
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:whatsoever and just pull out your gun
and, be the good guy with the gun.
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:I'm like, I'm sure that they
don't talk about the laws.
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:I am sure that they don't understand
like, the responsibilities and I'm sure
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:they definitely don't talk about the
type of ammunition that you have to
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:have in your gun in order to actually
have it in an urban environment where
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:you don't start shooting through
walls and into other buildings.
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:Like they, they don't
talk about those things.
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:I am just certain of
it, but I want to see.
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:That education is at the
top of gun ownership.
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:I don't think we do nearly enough of it.
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:I don't think we require it of people,
like I, it is the, I believe the most
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:deadly thing that we can do that has
the least amount of education around it.
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:That's required.
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:I don't know why, you know that my
friend who flies a jet has to, make sure
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:that every month he has enough hours,
he does enough checks, he does enough
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:things in order to keep his license.
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:But somebody who just buys a
gun has a, has, maybe a 24 hour
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:waiting and then that's it.
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:Here you go.
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:You have this gun and nobody's, unless
you seek it, like how to use it, how
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:to care for it, what the laws are, none
of that is required, I don't think.
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:Maybe some states require it, but
do they, there's no universal,
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:here's how you use this crazy thing,
we'll teach you how to drive a car.
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:And granted, I think there should be a
whole lot more of continuing education
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:when it comes to driving a car, but a gun.
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:Man, I think it's, I think it's weak.
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:Education.
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:What is my education czar
I'm looking at right now?
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:What do you, how do you feel about
gun ownership and information?
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:Jerremy: Everything you said I agree with,
I, I do and we've agreed on this for a
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:while and again it, as ironic as it is, I
definitely fall in a little bit more into
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:the camp of the conservative nature of
gun ownership is listen, you can have your
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:guns, but it needs to come with a lot more
well, education around education on how
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:to use it, why to use it, when to use it.
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:I have no problem with
continuing education.
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:You need to do a continuing education to
have a life insurance license or a real
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:estate license to sell people a house.
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:You gotta go in and you
gotta do this thing.
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:Yeah, doctor,
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:Dave: accountants,
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:Jerremy: all of it, dude.
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:Dave: education.
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:Jerremy: You got a gun.
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:Alright, cool.
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:Every two years.
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:Go in and check.
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:You gotta get, a therapist to sign off.
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:Yeah.
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:This person's, totally.
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:Dave: are the laws that have changed.
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:Here's, and to train up enough, it's okay,
if you have a concealed carry permit,
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:it's okay, then you can do one of those
courses where you are inside and you are
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:Jerremy: me fired up,
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:Dave: And it would be expensive.
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:And so I'd also wanna make it approachable
for people who can't afford it
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:because I don't think, affordability
should be it's gonna be expensive.
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:It's going to take time.
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:It's like getting a master's degree in,
in gun and gun ownership and keeping your,
395
:it's not just like your proficiency in
shooting the thing, it's the proficiency
396
:in owning it and being a responsible
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:Jerremy: Has nothing.
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:Dave: You need to be a super
citizen because you're being
399
:entrusted with a tremendous weapon.
400
:And it's I want you to own
it, but I want you to own it.
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:And.
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:Jerremy: Yeah.
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:Dave: I'm gonna say right now
if you don't, and if you don't
404
:keep up on it, then yeah.
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:Not your, nobody would come in and seize
your gun, but then, then you can't sell
406
:guns, you can't buy ammunition, you can't
do, people are gonna be grumpy with you.
407
:It's yeah you gotta take that, you
gotta take your Smith and Wesson down
408
:to your local gun dealer and they'll
lock it in a locker for you until
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:you get certified on it, no big deal.
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:It will take time.
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:And I know that, that might
bristle, but I do know that the
412
:responsible gun owners that I know
already do some version of this.
413
:Jerremy: They already
do some version of it.
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:Yeah.
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:They're going to the
gun range often, right?
416
:They're cleaning it,
they're doing the firing.
417
:They're checking it, into that aspect,
like they are still putting in the time.
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:Dave: Yeah.
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:Jerremy: I wouldn't
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:Dave: Just formalize it.
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:Yeah.
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:But just formalize it.
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:Jerremy: process.
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:It's a formal process.
425
:We're like, Hey, this is
what you need to do now.
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:Alex: Jerremy backs stricter gun education
like pilot checks, mirroring licenses for
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:cars or jets, while Dave demands ongoing
training for responsible ownership.
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:But if rules still miss bad
actors, how far should balance
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:go—next, global views weigh in.
