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Speaker 1: Could the congressional shooting yesterday in Alexandria, Virginia reignite the

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Speaker 1: gun debate? So there hasn't been any big news about

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Speaker 1: pro gun legislation since President Trump took office, you may

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Speaker 1: be surprised to know that there has been activity under

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Speaker 1: the radar. Bloomberg business Week editor Paul Barrett has written

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Speaker 1: about it, and he joins us. Now, Paul, let's start

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Speaker 1: with this internal white paper from the number two official

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Speaker 1: at the a t F. Right So, this was an

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Speaker 1: internal memo day to January twenty day, the day that

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Speaker 1: President Trump took office, and it's basically provided the new

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Speaker 1: administration with a variety of potential de regulatory steps that

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Speaker 1: the a t F could take in the opinion of

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Speaker 1: the number two official, a guy named Ron turk Um.

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Speaker 1: And among those steps that he discussed was the relaxation

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Speaker 1: of regulation of silencers um A, an easing of the

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Speaker 1: oversight of gun dealers who were found to have the

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Speaker 1: guns they sold turning up at crime scenes, and other

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Speaker 1: similar things. In other words, moving in a direction that

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Speaker 1: you generally think the A t F would not want

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Speaker 1: to go in. So does that indicate that he's the

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Speaker 1: number two right now? There's no there's no number one

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Speaker 1: at the A T right now. So does that indicate

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Speaker 1: that that's the direction that they're going to take. It's

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Speaker 1: ambiguous because when I called the A t F to

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Speaker 1: ask them, they said, well, that was just his opinion.

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Speaker 1: On the other hand, it was put together in a

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Speaker 1: very formal looking memo that said not for public distribution,

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Speaker 1: and in a in a house hearing. Uh. Turk himself

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Speaker 1: described the memo as just a collection of ideas that

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Speaker 1: have been floating around for a while that they thought

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Speaker 1: the new administration might be interested in. Now, the new administration,

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Speaker 1: of course, is very well known for its de regulatory inclinations,

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Speaker 1: so that would seem to indicate that this was more

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Speaker 1: than just a neutral exercise. And you talked to David Chipman,

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Speaker 1: a retired a t F AG and who's now a

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Speaker 1: senior policy adviser to the gun control group Americans for

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Speaker 1: Responsible Solutions, and he said that a number of the

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Speaker 1: turks of the proposals in that white paper are major

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Speaker 1: line items for the gun industry. Why are those line items, Well,

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Speaker 1: let's take the silencer one just as an example. Uh,

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Speaker 1: The gun industry, like like all industries, wants to sell

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Speaker 1: not only its main product, the firearms, but also accessories

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Speaker 1: like like a silencer. There are, of course millions and

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Speaker 1: millions of guns of handguns in the hands of civilians today.

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Speaker 1: If every one of them was able to buy a

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Speaker 1: silencer at at a hundred dollars or two hundred dollars

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Speaker 1: a pop, that would be a lot of revenue for

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Speaker 1: the gun industry. Now you have and along those lines,

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Speaker 1: you have Republicans in both houses, and then, as you mentioned,

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Speaker 1: a president who got thirty million dollars in campaign support

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Speaker 1: from the n r A. So it's the perfect time

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Speaker 1: for pro gun legislation, it seems. Let's talk about a

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Speaker 1: bill related to that, remarkably called the Hearing Protection Act,

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Speaker 1: right this would be the legislative approach, uh sort of

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Speaker 1: analog to to what was has been proposed within the

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Speaker 1: A t F and Hearing Protection Act would make it

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Speaker 1: just as easy to buy a silencer as it is

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Speaker 1: to buy a gun. Right now, it's actually much more

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Speaker 1: difficult to buy a silencer than it is to buy

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Speaker 1: a firearm. You have to wait eight or nine months,

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Speaker 1: get special a t F approval, and you have to

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Speaker 1: pay a special two tax in order to to to

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Speaker 1: get a silencer. This would would sweep those requirements away

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Speaker 1: and would make if the silencer purchaser purchaser, UH all

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Speaker 1: you'd have to do to to buy the silencer would

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Speaker 1: be to pass the instant FBI background check and you'd

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Speaker 1: be walking out out the door. Because is there any

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Speaker 1: reason to use a silencer unless you are intending to

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Speaker 1: commit a crime? Well, UM gun officionados would tell you

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Speaker 1: that if you're out hunting or you're at the shooting

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Speaker 1: range target shooting, that you'd use You want to use

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Speaker 1: a silencer for the same reason that up till now,

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Speaker 1: UM smart gun owners use earplugs. But this would further

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Speaker 1: protect your hearing. And I think there's some truth to that.

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Speaker 1: I think some law abiding UH gun owners already used silencers.

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Speaker 1: But of course, the reason that silencers UM were so

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Speaker 1: have are so heavily regulated dates all the way back

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Speaker 1: to the Depression era when they were associated with gangsters

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Speaker 1: and assassins and so forth, and so they have a

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Speaker 1: kind of a dual purpose, just like just like firearms themselves,

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Speaker 1: can be used recreationally or they can be used for

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Speaker 1: for for bad ends. I always see them in the

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Speaker 1: movies being used by the bad guys. Now, then there's

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Speaker 1: the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, Right, so all fifty

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Speaker 1: states now allow gun owners under certain circumstances and sometimes

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Speaker 1: with a permit, to carry a gun concealed in public. Um.

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Speaker 1: But the rules vary from state to state. And this

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Speaker 1: act would would say that if you have a permit

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Speaker 1: in your home state, you can then take your gun

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Speaker 1: into any other state across state lines, and you would

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Speaker 1: be able to do that legally, even if the requirements

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Speaker 1: in the state you're traveling to are are more strict

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Speaker 1: than they are in your home state. UM. So it

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Speaker 1: would just facilitate the movement of firearms around the country, uh,

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Speaker 1: and make it easier for for gun owners to carry

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Speaker 1: their guns. And does states have a say in it?

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Speaker 1: And if you're carrying in the wrong you know, the

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Speaker 1: wrong way, and let's say New York, and can they

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Speaker 1: arrest you? Can they charge you? Well? Right now, a

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Speaker 1: gun owner in theory would be in some peril of

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Speaker 1: carrying a gun concealed outside of their home state if

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Speaker 1: their home state doesn't have an individual reciprocity agreement um

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Speaker 1: with the state that they're going to. But under this legislation,

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Speaker 1: that fear would be erased because if you had a

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Speaker 1: legitimate permit from your home state, you'd be all set.

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Speaker 1: And Trump has also besides we've heard about all his

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Speaker 1: deregulatory steps with other in other areas, he's also been

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Speaker 1: taking deregulatory steps or by the n r A, which

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Speaker 1: we haven't heard that much about. Right there's been a

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Speaker 1: couple of these things that he's been able to do

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Speaker 1: by signing legislation that rolled back regulations that were put

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Speaker 1: in place by the Obama administration. The Obama administration restricted

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Speaker 1: the circumstances under which certain people with mental illness could

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Speaker 1: acquire guns. That's now been been erased, uh somewhat more

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Speaker 1: narrow gauge regulation and had to do with hunting in

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Speaker 1: federal on federal land in Alaska where restrictions were put

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Speaker 1: in place hunting of bear, for example. That's that's been

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Speaker 1: a race. So you can go up to Alaska and

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Speaker 1: and and shoot some bear on federal land if that's

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Speaker 1: what you want to do from an airplane and including

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Speaker 1: from an airplane. Yes, just briefly, about thirty seconds, are

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Speaker 1: the gun control lobbies other gun control groups doing anything well?

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Speaker 1: Right now, the debate has been relatively muted. I would

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Speaker 1: say since since Trump took office. We'll see what happens

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Speaker 1: in the wake of this congressional baseball practice shooting. But

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Speaker 1: even in but even in the in the wake of that,

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Speaker 1: there hasn't been the kind of outcry that you might have, uh,

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Speaker 1: you might have expected. I think people may be fatigued

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Speaker 1: over over this debate, or they may have such a

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Speaker 1: strong sense of where Trump stands on it that that

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Speaker 1: they're discouraged from partaking in the debate. Such an interesting article,

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Speaker 1: because really it has been under the radar. We appreciate

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Speaker 1: you being here, as oways. That's Paul Barrett, Bloomberg business

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Speaker 1: Week editor, and to read more of Paul's articles, you

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