Mass Shooting Survivors vs NRA Members | Middle Ground

hey guys just really quick want to let you know this video contains graphic descriptions of violence involving firearms and also when we filmed this episode it was a while back and we were taking all the necessary safety precautions regarding covid at that time this is an important topic so let us know what you think in the comments below and thanks for watching i know for the rest of my life when i have kids i'm gonna be worried that they might experience the same things that i have it was about 11 o'clock i was getting ready to leave the bar it was just a normal day i walked in with my friends and i was in my first period class i was on the dance floor he walked in with a gun in hand and started open fire on the bar just kind of happened in the middle of nowhere of course you're just having fun at a concert and next thing you know it's massacre going on all around bang bang bang bang and i just remember like yelling at my teacher like we need to lock the doors right now we're in a school shooting i ended up running over the opposite side of the bar i didn't know where any of my friends were it was chaos somebody has a gun and they have a motive and there's not a whole lot you can do besides try to you know get away i don't really think much about it i mean it's just another big corporation doing their thing i believe in the right to protect yourself to pursue life liberty and happiness i believe guns are the great equalizer and unfortunately sometimes they have to be used anytime there is a mass shooting it's always oh this is the nra's fault in fact the only time nra members have been involved in mass shootings is when we're stopping them the united states does not have a mass shooting problem the united states has a mental health a ignorance around the second amendment and irresponsibility problem you can't look at it in a vacuum you have to look at the entire history and in this country every stage where liberty was achieved for a group typically it was a war that was involved i don't personally know anybody who's a member of the nra i'm not sure what they have to say welcome to the party everybody i'm antoinette i'm 39 years old i'm a mom and i help run my family small business hi i'm hayden i'm 17 and i'm currently a senior in high school my name's heather i'm a nra certified handgun instructor and i'm just here to have a civil conversation about guns my name is john i work in the software industry and i'm a mass shooting survivor i'm dylan 23 years old a two-time mass shooting survivor i'm taylor i'm 20 years old i was at the borderline bar and girl shooting and i work with old people homage i'm the founder of black guns matter reform scumbag just trying to do the right thing to defend the natural rights to protect life i'm jai i'm 37 years old i'm an abolitionist i make my money as a criminal defense attorney can i get my nra members on the left uh yeah so four months ago was my school shooting november 14th today is actually the four month anniversary i didn't know the two people um who the shooter shot but i did know the um shooter so i did in a sense have a connection to someone who died because he did commit suicide after killing two and i believe he's injuring three so it's just crazy to have to go through that i had a cousin who died ultimately of a shotgun it was an accident his girlfriend accidentally shot him in the face with a shotgun yeah and he lived for three or four months after that in complete agony and pain i was yeah a little kid so i mean that was really kind of the first i had heard about something like that right and then you know of course with the mass shooting you know i didn't know the people personally but i've heard a number of stories they all sound like great people my most recent was last week eighth a classmate of mine he got killed by the la sheriffs and then at his memorial service i ran into my other buddy martin who just got killed he was in the barbershop somebody ran in shot him last week and i've had those experiences just constantly pretty much since the high school age during the shooting i was at one of my best friends he was like my brother his name was cody kaufman i pulled him out on the dance floor and we were dancing we're having so much fun because he just got new jeans that were like two sizes too tight and i just got new boots and next thing you know you do one more line dance and it's all over i was at the vegas shooting at the concert and then borderline as well i had lost one person in vegas that i had tried to help and then at borderline i had lost eight people that i knew oh sorry i'm not trying to cry but yeah most of the people not even just the people here i think most of the people that's going to be watching you may know someone that has experienced that and i think that the key to to solving that is finding out where that comes from if that person took life and then wound up taking their own life it's pain there i think in my neighborhood we just get so numb to it i just want to say i'm so sorry for everyone here i can't imagine going through it and i have a question for you so you're in high school yeah do you feel safer or less safe being that your whole school is a gun-free zone i guess i feel safer but i think at the end of the day it doesn't matter if it's a gun or if it's a knife or it's a bomb or if it's a car running into people i think he was going to do it no matter what do you wish that there were there was more that you'd be able to have done it must feel helpless it was like i went fight or flight so my thing was like i want to fight i tried to do everything that i possibly could with the situation that i was in to be able to help it may not have been the people in the quad but it was the people in my class so my first thing was how do i make them feel safe so it was like unplugging a computer cart putting it up against the door stacking desks in front of the door making sure that people couldn't get in and i was watching like the news on my phone and you know i'm not gonna tell them that like these people are dead or um or these people are injured because that's just to make it worse i think that mass shootings are a problem but i think that a lot of the time we're focusing on the wrong thing when it comes to mass shootings it is a double-edged sword we should focus on some sort of gun regulation but at the same time the other side of the sword is it's a lot of mental health i think mental health is our problem in the united states because we don't focus on it enough it seems like the other side tries to push like as if you don't care and i think we care very very much people think that you know people who own guns just want to shoot things i mean personally i'd be terrified if i ever had to use it in self-defense and that's why the responsibility that comes with training is incredibly important absolutely i'm a gun owner i think one of the proudest things i feel is when i teach especially women and they send me a picture and they're like guess what i just bought today and i just feel like i've helped someone become safer in their life for me it goes back like you know in karate class as a kid they teach you before everything is like this is for defense i'm not getting this to go out and use it to harm people i'm i'm getting it for that safety and that's what it boils down to for me is knowing that it's going to be a battle you may win but it's at least going to be a battle it's not if you even if you just take the safety part out just shooting is fun in general like going to their range is a fun time so they're used for recreation and like also hunting so many people that's the reason they buy guns is for hunting to provide food i it's almost like my equalizer so like it it helps you and it gives you more peace of mind like i am not as vulnerable and unsafe as people think people who don't know why i've shot plenty and i've been trained with you know how to use a firearm the reason i don't have one is simply i think because of that accident factor you know is this thing going to be locked up and safe at all times you know what i mean just to avoid some sort of disaster i think all the reasons that you guys are stating that you do have one is completely legitimate and i've certainly considered you know potentially purchasing one and you know doing it the right way obviously and all those good things but yeah i think that that's potentially just why i haven't gone there yet i'm not against owning a gun eventually i will i believe in the second amendment my dad trained me from time to time he show i know where the guns are in the house i know how to use them i've gone shooting with my friends a handful of times like i'm around it i'm a part of it like i mean for me it's really no big deal it's just my own upbringing like i just haven't gotten to that point of taking the action into going to get the gun myself my dad was raised in upstate new york so he was around guns all the time and we've talked about it but it wasn't for like protection more it was more for like that was your lifestyle right it's like you needed to go out and shoot a couple bunnies you needed to go out and shoot like a deer that was like how you fed yourself that's how you lived and so i think if i was in that situation definitely i would own a gun but in a situation where it's like where i live i feel safe now here's the thing i can disagree with you and i do however i am never and anyone that tries to tries to make you feel different than that viewpoint i'm never gonna do that that's your your right to not have one i'm like cool when i go to my friend's houses that are afraid of guns that i've known for 15 years i make a personal choice i don't take my gun in a house i make a joke about it and i'm like hey man if somebody kills me in your house i'ma kill you you know what i'm saying but just just commending and making sure that if that's your personal choice and your personal freedom and your personal liberty don't let nobody talk you out of that i don't think about whether we need more or less guns in this country i think about freedom if you my brother and you my or you my sister and you don't want a gun i respect your right to not have one if you my brother or my sister and you want more guns i respect your right to have one what you lose me is if you use any of those firearms negligently or to rob or rape or kill unjustifiably then i don't really give a [ __ ] what happens to you america has a mass shooting problem yeah a mass shooting is different than let's say a murder when you think about a mass shooting the perpetrator they're usually suicidal right and they have no agenda other than to take lives and that's quite different than a typical crime that would involve a firearm and it's a phenomenon i think that's where i'm i'm somewhat pushing that back i think in order for us to solve it we have to start looking at it this is massive amounts of people that are still shooting humans even if it's themselves right if we're talking about stats mass shootings they would say are not a problem based on the data of what that definition of mass shooting is because that's less than one percent of all death in the country in regards to firearms so if if i went just with that i would not agree that there's a mass shooting problem but how can i sit next to this young man here who lost eight out of 12 people that he knew in one juncture and say that's not a problem when we have a mass shooting problem we also have a mental health problem right my age range from i believe it's 15 to 25 we have the highest depression rate in the entire history of the human race what that data can improve it was the kid's birthday the day that he shot up the school if one person said happy birthday got him a card talk to him and say like hey i know it's your birthday next week want to do something this weekend it's all about how are we making these authentic human connections with people if we just talk to people i think that's where that's where our problem is i think you oh well i gotta wait today i believe we have a mental health problem believe we have a drug problem i believe we have a racial problem and the reason why i don't think mass shooting is a problem is because if we took all the guns it wouldn't stop the violence like you pointed out they could have used a car they could have used a knife they could use a bomb that would not absolve these deaths uh us from experiencing these things because they find another way and by calling it mass shooting and saying we need this gun control now that's from my perspective just more of an opportunity to make another law that the police can lock up people in my specific demographic for i think it's also important to know that i think it's something like 8.9 out of 10 mass shootings happen in gun-free zones so in my mind if someone's going to commit mass shootings and there's a sign that says there's no guns here there will be no bullets flying back at you versus there are trained people ready to do whatever they have to do to protect life here which place are they going to go like i couldn't believe the um in nice france on bastille day there was like 86 people mowed down by a guy with a truck but you don't hear anything about we need truck reform or like truck violence it's always gun violence and you don't ever hear that term specifically with other weapons i guess you could say i guess one thing that i think viewers should take away from my experience is people go through crisis but you should never give up on what you believe in and you should always push through it do you think that the united states yes yes i do believe that there is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed and resolved any mass casualty is terrible i think if you look in inner cities like chicago and baltimore the media is nowhere around and there's a mass shooting almost every weekend so i think it's interesting to look at exactly why they pick the mass shootings that they pick to just delve into in the media it should be harder to purchase a gun so if you agree it's like speaking of truth brother there's something called the uh gun show loophole think about it like the black market right unless you have a storefront and you're telling you know the government hey i want to sell guns and make a profit you need to be certified in that sense if you're going to be doing that otherwise it's completely legal to you know give a gun to a friend or what have you so i think that it creates an entire underbelly of the market that really shouldn't exist i mean you know if we're not keeping track of who has a gun and where they're buying it who's selling it i think guns get in the wrong people's hands i believe when the reports of the investigation came out of my school shooting it was a kick gun so he had actually like put it together himself he also grew up in a family that um that supported guns his dad i think was a bullet maker i think people are gonna get guns no matter what like if they want a gun they're gonna get a gun so it definitely is different from state to state in california it's very difficult in illinois it's difficult and the crazy thing is you see a lot of gun violence in those states but new hampshire it's a constitutional carry state meaning that you don't even have to have a permit you can conceal carry and they have virtually no homicides with guns so i'm just curious you what you're asking for basically is like a national registry for firearms right if we could do that why not okay so i feel like if you look back in history it's never worked out for citizens if you look back at germany if you look at venezuela right now fair points and i read somewhere that uh you know if you have a controlled substance possession charge in the last year you can't get a gun if you have had a misdemeanor sentenced to over two years in prison you can't have a gun and these are these are great safeguards they need to just be imposed more i think it should be easier it's the only constitutional right that you lose with a conviction like you come out of prison you still have freedom of speech but now you can no longer protect yourself now i understand people can do stuff to relieve themselves even of the right to life i believe that you can give up your right to life based on your actions but i think we make it too easy to give up those rights and then when you add in the racial component to these laws that makes me even more of an advocate against these kind of gun restrictions my opinion of firearms is that's the only thing that really led to abolition was when black people picked up guns it's really hard to enslave people who have firearms and so based on the history of this land my people in this land i think every one of us should have a firearm be trained and become proficient and learn how to use it teachers should be armed i mean i believe teachers that want to be armed should be armed i don't think anybody should have to you know worry about the responsibilities that are associated with gun ownership if they don't want to i don't think it's right for everybody but obviously the more good people with guns especially in a school i think that would be great look at what we do protect with firearms you know our politicians our celebrities and for our kids we protect them with gun-free zones and they're just left sitting ducks right so i think like if you have concealed carry permit holders if you have maybe veterans or ex-law enforcement that are teachers would you not want them to be able to protect your kid if otherwise your option is you're not protected you have to wait 10 20 minutes for the police to come with their firearms to come rescue your kids so i think that if you want to and you are willing to go through similar training almost like a concealed carry so you know what you're doing and it's not just handing a gun to some random teacher saying here protect your kids it's more more so like you have the training for it you have the background check like they said like you almost are prepared in a way to do what is right i don't think that a teacher can take a take the life of one of their students that's a good point like like if you think you know mrs stewart my 10th grade english teacher is going to be able to shoot one of her 16 year old kids as a gun i don't see that and to that point the inner city and urban areas and things like that the teacher-student relationship is not great i've seen uh you know videos on youtube teachers getting beat up and stuff yeah right so do we want them to have firearms we all have jobs right and we all have our roles within our jobs that we have to do that we know like this is what we're doing for today every day something may change where we have to adjust to it and all that stuff the teachers have their job where it's to teach these kids through their process of growing up but now i have these sixth grade kids where there's 25 of them i have to put myself at the point of this moment if the shooter comes to us it's between them me and the kids now if something were to happen to me these kids have nothing i think with the precautions that we take already with the schools into learning how to close your blinds lock your doors do all that stuff get to the back corners be quiet that is a good precaution because these kids when they're going to school they're going to learn have fun be with their friends this teacher now has a weapon on them who's also to say that the teacher can't take action i know for the rest of my life when i have kids i'm gonna be worried that they might experience the same things that i have but i have to accept that if i do i don't have control of everything myself and the other individuals that are the survivors of these mass shootings were not the voice for everyone's own beliefs of what they have gone through everyone deals with it in their own way but we are sharing our experiences with you guys and hopefully that brings some light into obviously what goes on with it you know i try to not politicize it if you think about it from a practical level certain people shouldn't have guns right how do we how do we identify those people and how do we stick to the system make sure that it's all backed up and safe you know i don't think that we should do away with the second amendment but do i think that there's a you know a lot of bad people out there i do and should they you know have such easy access to a firearm i think not i think that no mentally or physically sane person would commit a hate crime so big if there wasn't some underlying issue if we find a way to talk about that and help that that there's really going to be no problem at all a lot of the stigma around us surrounding mass shootings is guns but i it's it's really the person and i think if we're all more kind we just we end up feeling better right well for more loving we create more understanding around everybody regardless of race religion gender identity any of that stuff um if we're more empathetic we again we cultivate more understanding around who you are and then there's less hatred because i understand what where you're coming from and if we're more vulnerable then we're able to talk about things like mental health we're able to talk about like hey i feel depressed hey i'm anxious hey you know i've been thinking about it i want to shoot up a school i'm like and you're the only person i feel safe talking to you know if we prioritize those we as humans become better and then we can contribute to our global community that's i mean i love all that i'm being a mom especially i want my daughter to grow up in that kind of world you know and i think that those things are totally possible i just think that also in the meantime we have to address the issue that there is evil in this world like we don't want it to exist i don't think you can legislate it out a good guy with a gun is going to stop a bad guy hopefully with a gun that's like i mean the best chance you know trust me i really want to believe that and i do that there is greatness in this world there's kind people that we can do a lot of great things i've just seen too much now where it only really comes down to one individual has the mindset that this is what i choose to do today and they take those actions that's how the cards are played i want there to be something that can be done to stop and prevent all these things to happen so that these three and you guys don't have to experience it one more time or you guys ever in your life to understand the shoes that we're in you know there's almost no rhyme or reason sometimes why these things happen and i think that's why it's a problem i'd love to wave a magic wand and make make it so that never happens again it's not possible there's no motive that makes sense to go to a bar and and do what the guy did that night right america has a sickness america's main sickness is white supremacy it's an issue that we have not addressed it's an issue that's written into the foundation of this nation when the founding fathers wrote all men are created equal while holding slaves and i think most of these issues are rooted in that and if we just keep you know putting a band-aid on it and don't get out and get that cancer we can't reach those levels but i think that's what it would take because that's what can start the healing process [Laughter] like this to just be able to sit down and just be like we got all these

Channel: Jubilee

Views: 2,459,289

Keywords: jubilee, jubilee media, jubilee project, middle ground, spectrum, odd man out, versus 1, embrace empathy, live deeper, love language, blind devotion, mass, shooting, survivors, nra, members, gun, owners, mass shooting, shooting survivors, second amendment, right to bear arms, school shooting, gun safety, violence, gun violence, gun debate, national rifle association

Id: iMf-rLmanHA

Length: 25min 1sec (1501 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/razor_beast]

The comments are hilarious because people are pissed the guests on the anti-gun side in the video aren't full blown stereotypical anti's. It's about time they get a taste of their own medicine. Every single time the past 20-30 years or more whenever guns are discussed in a public forum in media gun owners are portrayed as deranged psychos and nothing positive is ever said about guns. It's nice to see the script get flipped for a change.

Also the Australian population in those comments is far too high. Fuck Australia. Any country that censors video games and bans guns is on my shit list and I don't care to be lectured by anyone from these authoritarian nations filled with gullible naive people who go along with it on the issue of rights.

Also, they should have let Maj speak more. He can wipe the floor with any anti in existence.

[u/THEHELICOPTERSOHGOD]

People from opposing viewpoints having a civil discussion with each other? NO WAY!