WEBVTT - Guns Part 6: “Sin is the failure to bother to care” 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Pushkin. 0:00:22.636 --> 0:00:25.596 I grew up in what we call Calumet Heights neighborhood 0:00:25.676 --> 0:00:29.716 is just southeast side of Chicago, you know, painted by 0:00:29.996 --> 0:00:32.596 violence and health inequities, at a time where it was 0:00:32.676 --> 0:00:34.556 not nice to live in that neighborhood, at a time 0:00:34.636 --> 0:00:37.276 where it was very dangerous, where it was very gang 0:00:37.596 --> 0:00:40.356 written in the Yes, there's still a lot of violence 0:00:40.356 --> 0:00:45.036 today in Woodlawn, nothing like just twenty years ago when 0:00:45.076 --> 0:00:47.476 I was a child growing up in these neighborhoods and 0:00:47.516 --> 0:00:48.836 having to watch out for myself. 0:00:50.156 --> 0:00:52.636 On a cold and rainy winter's day, I went to 0:00:52.716 --> 0:00:57.756 Chicago to see a young man named Abdula Pratt, big beard, 0:00:58.356 --> 0:01:01.596 thick plastic glasses, built like a linebacker. 0:01:04.076 --> 0:01:05.596 What was your past? 0:01:05.836 --> 0:01:07.796 Where did you decide you wanted to go into medicine 0:01:07.796 --> 0:01:09.916 and where did you decide you wanted to emergency pens? 0:01:10.316 --> 0:01:11.996 So I think I wanted to be a doctor since 0:01:11.996 --> 0:01:13.716 the time that I was a child. I remember having 0:01:13.916 --> 0:01:16.636 the Fisher Price bag and Christmas and you know, being 0:01:16.636 --> 0:01:18.676 three four years old and stuff. I grew up in 0:01:18.676 --> 0:01:20.916 the museums, so the Museum of Science and Industry was 0:01:20.956 --> 0:01:24.076 a sanctuary for me as a child. The shadow query 0:01:24.396 --> 0:01:26.996 I did my first dissection of a squid at the 0:01:27.036 --> 0:01:29.596 age of like seven or eight. Those things fueled a 0:01:29.676 --> 0:01:33.996 passion for science, a passion for anatomy. And after growing 0:01:34.036 --> 0:01:36.876 up in a completely one hundred percent African American community, 0:01:37.236 --> 0:01:39.716 I was in program so I'd be the only African American. 0:01:39.756 --> 0:01:42.196 But I was winning awards for being the best. So 0:01:42.236 --> 0:01:43.836 it taught me that I could compete and that I 0:01:43.876 --> 0:01:46.316 could make change. And when I was a senior in 0:01:46.396 --> 0:01:49.596 high school, I was working as a temp deliver of 0:01:49.636 --> 0:01:51.516 grants at on the Chicago's campus. 0:01:51.516 --> 0:01:52.036 Really good job. 0:01:52.036 --> 0:01:53.796 I was making like seventeen an hour for that summer. 0:01:53.996 --> 0:01:56.716 Yeah it was for high school. Oh man, I didn't 0:01:56.716 --> 0:01:58.436 make that much money again until I was a doctor. 0:01:58.476 --> 0:02:01.156 So I just let you know how that got at works. 0:02:01.516 --> 0:02:03.996 But I remember asking people like, Hey, I live in 0:02:04.076 --> 0:02:06.396 Woodline a lot. I'm in Woodland a lot, and there's 0:02:06.436 --> 0:02:08.316 a lot of violence, a lot of social equities. 0:02:08.476 --> 0:02:11.516 You ride your walk two blocks and it's this beautiful campus. 0:02:11.796 --> 0:02:13.196 But you go ask these. 0:02:13.076 --> 0:02:15.876 Heads of departments, Hey, who's here fighting for the little 0:02:15.876 --> 0:02:19.076 people two blocks away where my family is. Who is 0:02:19.116 --> 0:02:21.476 here who cares about them? And who's doing something? I 0:02:21.476 --> 0:02:22.796 want to meet them I'm want to ask them these 0:02:22.876 --> 0:02:26.276 questions about why more isn't happening, And a couple of 0:02:26.276 --> 0:02:28.196 these heads of departments literally looked me in the face 0:02:28.236 --> 0:02:31.636 and said, young man, maybe you're the answer to the 0:02:31.756 --> 0:02:34.676 questions that you have. Maybe you have to take on 0:02:34.756 --> 0:02:38.316 the burden of sacrificing and making yourself into the type 0:02:38.356 --> 0:02:40.876 of candidate that can qualify to get here. Go get 0:02:40.876 --> 0:02:44.076 that three point nine GPA, no excuses, Go fight for 0:02:44.156 --> 0:02:46.556 your community, learn about the issues, and do it. 0:02:52.196 --> 0:02:55.476 My name is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History, 0:02:55.636 --> 0:02:59.996 my podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood. This is the 0:03:00.076 --> 0:03:03.556 final installment in our mini series on gun Vines. It's 0:03:03.556 --> 0:03:06.076 about a young man who grew up in one of 0:03:06.116 --> 0:03:11.116 the most dangerous communities in America, an emergency room doctor, 0:03:11.556 --> 0:03:14.476 and decided to stay in the same neighborhood where he 0:03:14.516 --> 0:03:24.516 grew up. How many people from growing up do you 0:03:24.556 --> 0:03:25.556 know who died? 0:03:25.996 --> 0:03:29.316 I've got I'd ranked them by closeness to me, because 0:03:29.316 --> 0:03:31.316 if I said everybody, it'd probably be like in the 0:03:31.356 --> 0:03:32.276 thirties forties. 0:03:32.716 --> 0:03:34.636 But yeah, seriously, seriously. 0:03:34.316 --> 0:03:38.436 If everyone that I knew like knew talked with shared 0:03:38.516 --> 0:03:40.876 time with at some point, so I really keep it 0:03:40.916 --> 0:03:41.796 to close friends. 0:03:41.876 --> 0:03:42.036 Right. 0:03:42.076 --> 0:03:44.836 So if I say close friends, people who I still 0:03:44.836 --> 0:03:47.476 have the text messages in my phone, people who I 0:03:47.556 --> 0:03:50.076 know their family members, their mothers, their fathers. 0:03:50.236 --> 0:03:53.196 Prior to all of this, fifteen friends. 0:03:53.516 --> 0:03:55.676 You know, my older brother, you know is the one 0:03:55.716 --> 0:03:58.356 family member, my closest friend and wealth of day that 0:03:58.476 --> 0:04:01.036 my brother died and I said, hey, you know I 0:04:01.076 --> 0:04:02.836 lost my brother and you the closest thing I got 0:04:02.836 --> 0:04:05.796 to brother. That person was murdered, right, and all of 0:04:05.836 --> 0:04:08.156 them are leaving behind children. All of them were great 0:04:08.196 --> 0:04:10.316 fathers who I literally I think many of them. Our 0:04:10.396 --> 0:04:15.596 last conversations were about parenting in fatherhood. Close teammates, right, So, 0:04:15.636 --> 0:04:19.236 I've had three close teammates just from my one high 0:04:19.276 --> 0:04:22.396 school team all be murdered. I've had youth that I 0:04:22.556 --> 0:04:25.676 mentored with some of the teams that I coached that 0:04:25.716 --> 0:04:28.236 were murdered, and many of them pronounced dead. Writing this 0:04:28.356 --> 0:04:30.396 Trauma bab once we were finally able to get a 0:04:30.396 --> 0:04:33.316 trauma center, some of these close friends I had to 0:04:33.316 --> 0:04:35.356 pronounce dead myself. I had to tell their own family 0:04:35.356 --> 0:04:39.036 members that their loved one was no longer here. And 0:04:39.076 --> 0:04:41.436 as you can Imagine that, just to paint the picture 0:04:41.476 --> 0:04:43.956 for you. Imagine, you know, walking into a room, you 0:04:43.996 --> 0:04:46.996 prepare yourself to tell this family member of your close 0:04:47.036 --> 0:04:49.036 friend that they're no longer here. And the first thing 0:04:49.036 --> 0:04:51.676 that family member says they see you, and they light up. 0:04:51.676 --> 0:04:54.196 They forget why they're there for a second. They say, oh, 0:04:54.236 --> 0:04:56.796 my goodness, a Dullah, Oh hey Dullah, Hey, we were 0:04:56.876 --> 0:04:57.676 just talking about you. 0:04:57.716 --> 0:04:58.236 How are you. 0:04:58.476 --> 0:05:02.636 They forget that their son or daughter was shot. And 0:05:02.676 --> 0:05:04.596 then now the first words out of my mouth, which 0:05:04.636 --> 0:05:06.756 is the evidence based way to do it, is to 0:05:06.796 --> 0:05:09.676 say they did not make it. So now they go 0:05:09.676 --> 0:05:11.636 from the highest and highest of the lowest of lows. 0:05:11.996 --> 0:05:14.036 I've had to do that about five times in the 0:05:14.116 --> 0:05:18.196 last three years. Only one time have I been forced 0:05:18.196 --> 0:05:21.196 to stop working the shift. But usually I finished these 0:05:21.596 --> 0:05:24.396 early in my shifts, and I keep working because if 0:05:24.396 --> 0:05:26.436 I stop, then you think about it all, you know, 0:05:26.676 --> 0:05:29.116 and you prepare yourself for the worst walking into any shift, 0:05:29.436 --> 0:05:31.076 especially when you grow up in a neighborhood. 0:05:43.756 --> 0:05:46.316 A few years ago, I did an episode of Revisionist 0:05:46.316 --> 0:05:49.916 History called The Standard Case, where I interviewed a Catholic 0:05:49.916 --> 0:05:53.316 priest named James Martin. He said something I've thought a 0:05:53.316 --> 0:05:56.516 lot about since if you're a longtime listener you may 0:05:56.556 --> 0:05:57.436 remember this moment. 0:05:58.796 --> 0:06:02.676 No, you know one of my professors of more orthology 0:06:02.676 --> 0:06:05.076 at Boston College who I think you'd really like in 0:06:05.156 --> 0:06:07.636 terms of his writing, Jim Keenan. 0:06:08.116 --> 0:06:09.596 I met with Jim Keenan well. 0:06:09.796 --> 0:06:12.676 The perfect person to talk to. He points out that 0:06:12.716 --> 0:06:15.556 for Jesus in the Gospels, sin is usually not where 0:06:15.596 --> 0:06:18.236 people are weak but trying, you know, people are really struggling, 0:06:18.716 --> 0:06:22.556 but where people are strong and not bothering. So, for example, 0:06:22.596 --> 0:06:25.796 the Good Samaritan, the priest, and the Levite simply they 0:06:25.796 --> 0:06:27.876 don't bother. They just don't bother. They could help the guy, 0:06:27.916 --> 0:06:31.076 but they don't bother. So Jim Keenan said, for Jesus, 0:06:31.156 --> 0:06:33.116 sin is a failure to bother to love. 0:06:34.116 --> 0:06:36.476 In the story of the Good Samaritan, a man is 0:06:36.516 --> 0:06:38.676 beaten and robbed and left for dead at the side 0:06:38.716 --> 0:06:41.316 of the road, and one by one men of faith, 0:06:41.716 --> 0:06:45.036 holy men pass by without stopping moved to the other 0:06:45.076 --> 0:06:48.076 side of the road. They aren't complicit in the attack, 0:06:48.436 --> 0:06:51.156 they would never do anything like that themselves. They just 0:06:51.276 --> 0:06:55.076 choose to look the other way, and that, Keenan says, 0:06:55.316 --> 0:06:59.876 is the sin sin is indifference. Sin is the failure 0:07:00.156 --> 0:07:04.676 to bother to care. That is what this series has 0:07:04.676 --> 0:07:08.236 been about. There is a deep river of blood flowing 0:07:08.236 --> 0:07:12.036 down America's and yet it seems hard to get anyone's attention. 0:07:14.836 --> 0:07:17.316 The first two episodes of this series were about the 0:07:17.356 --> 0:07:20.516 Supreme Court's ruling in the Bruin case, where the Court 0:07:20.596 --> 0:07:24.396 said that New York State's handgun licensing law was unconstitutional 0:07:24.556 --> 0:07:27.476 and in their decision spent more time talking about the 0:07:27.516 --> 0:07:31.596 seventeenth century than the twenty first century. You do that 0:07:32.156 --> 0:07:35.636 when you're indifferent. The President stands up and says we 0:07:35.796 --> 0:07:38.796 have to ban assault rifles, even though the guns he 0:07:38.836 --> 0:07:41.556 wants to ban aren't much different from the guns he 0:07:41.636 --> 0:07:45.316 didn't want to ban. You're that sloppy on a crucially 0:07:45.356 --> 0:07:48.196 important question when you've given up on any kind of 0:07:48.236 --> 0:07:53.276 meaningful change. Our success at treating gunshot wounds has lulled 0:07:53.356 --> 0:07:57.636 us into complacency. That was episode four. We have hospitals 0:07:57.636 --> 0:08:00.716 in the wrong places for the dumbest of reasons. That 0:08:00.876 --> 0:08:04.436 was the fifth installment. The deeper I got into the 0:08:04.436 --> 0:08:08.036 subject of gun violence, the more bleak things seemed to be. 0:08:09.916 --> 0:08:13.436 So for this our final installment, I went to Chicago 0:08:13.956 --> 0:08:17.276 and sat down with Abdullah Pratt in a little windowless 0:08:17.356 --> 0:08:19.836 room in the basement of the University of Chicago Hospital, 0:08:20.756 --> 0:08:24.316 and he showed me what bothering to care looks like. 0:08:32.876 --> 0:08:35.116 And unfortunately that was the last words my brother told 0:08:35.156 --> 0:08:37.476 me before he was murdered. Is looking at me being 0:08:37.516 --> 0:08:40.836 a first year medical student in Chicago. He reiterated that, like, hey, 0:08:40.836 --> 0:08:42.636 little brother, this is all good that you got a 0:08:42.716 --> 0:08:46.076 nice apartment, got awards, you're doing good things, you're chapter 0:08:46.156 --> 0:08:49.836 president of your student National Medical Association. But there are 0:08:49.836 --> 0:08:51.716 two types of people in this world. There are people 0:08:51.716 --> 0:08:54.116 that do for themselves and there are people who do 0:08:54.196 --> 0:08:56.556 for others. The people who do for them salves, they 0:08:56.716 --> 0:08:59.436 get rich, they make money, they live somewhere else, but 0:08:59.476 --> 0:09:02.356 we call those sellouts. And then the people who do 0:09:02.676 --> 0:09:05.996 for others they get broken by this. They end up poor, 0:09:06.716 --> 0:09:08.636 they're not able to actually have the impact that they 0:09:08.636 --> 0:09:08.996 want to. 0:09:09.516 --> 0:09:13.076 Abdullah's brother's name was Rashad. He was Abdullah's best friend 0:09:13.156 --> 0:09:16.236 and protector. He was killed when he tried to stop 0:09:16.276 --> 0:09:17.716 some kids from stealing a car. 0:09:18.236 --> 0:09:20.156 Well, he said this and la in lesser terms, but 0:09:20.596 --> 0:09:23.316 he said, maybe if you're smartest that I think you are, 0:09:23.316 --> 0:09:25.196 and as these awards are trying to say you are, 0:09:25.476 --> 0:09:27.116 maybe you'll be one of the first people to figure 0:09:27.116 --> 0:09:29.236 out how to do both, how to be able to 0:09:29.716 --> 0:09:32.076 you know, protect your family, do well for yourself, grow 0:09:32.116 --> 0:09:37.076 your initiatives, and do for those at the very very bottom, 0:09:37.116 --> 0:09:39.556 like your aunties, your best friends on the block, those 0:09:39.556 --> 0:09:41.316 type of people. He said, If you can do that, 0:09:41.956 --> 0:09:45.036 I'd be so so proud of you. And you know, 0:09:45.276 --> 0:09:46.956 to this day, I'm still trying to figure that out. 0:09:47.236 --> 0:09:48.756 You know, I feel like I'm still that second type 0:09:48.796 --> 0:09:51.236 of person who's given and still hasn't figured it out. 0:09:51.236 --> 0:09:52.436 But that's what keeps me fighting. 0:10:05.596 --> 0:10:07.996 When I met with Abdulah Pratt, I asked him what 0:10:08.036 --> 0:10:10.916 the busiest night of the week was at a trauma center. 0:10:11.276 --> 0:10:14.956 He said, weekends, of course, and holidays when people have 0:10:14.996 --> 0:10:16.316 been drinking a lot. 0:10:16.516 --> 0:10:20.236 This most recent month, the night before Martin Luther King's holiday, 0:10:20.316 --> 0:10:22.356 was one of the worst trauma knights I've ever had. 0:10:23.236 --> 0:10:25.556 You're talking about, like, I think I had like six 0:10:25.676 --> 0:10:29.516 people pronounced dead from violence all in the night. A 0:10:29.556 --> 0:10:32.156 few more that made it to the operating room very 0:10:32.196 --> 0:10:37.396 critical injuries. That's a Sunday night in January, that that's 0:10:37.436 --> 0:10:40.796 happening the day before Martin Luther King's birthdayly hours and 0:10:41.236 --> 0:10:44.236 into the day of Martin Luther King's birthday is a. 0:10:44.156 --> 0:10:49.036 Big surprise instead, Yeah, yeah, my memories certainly right, it was. 0:10:49.076 --> 0:10:49.756 That may have been more. 0:10:50.196 --> 0:10:52.436 Did you hear about what happened the night before Martin 0:10:52.556 --> 0:10:55.436 Luther king Day on the South side of Chicago? I 0:10:55.476 --> 0:10:59.156 didn't now if that had been a mass shooting, we 0:10:59.196 --> 0:11:01.596 all might have heard about that. Mass shooting seemed to 0:11:01.636 --> 0:11:04.036 be the one part of the gun violence epidemic that 0:11:04.196 --> 0:11:07.516 still grab all of our attention. For good reason. But 0:11:07.596 --> 0:11:11.276 there are roughly twenty thousand Americans murdered by guns in 0:11:11.276 --> 0:11:13.996 a typical year. I love that twenty thousand. Only a 0:11:13.996 --> 0:11:17.396 few hundred die in mass shooting incidents. It's a very 0:11:17.436 --> 0:11:20.156 small part of the problem. If you could wave a 0:11:20.196 --> 0:11:23.716 magic wand and end all mass shootings tomorrow, the people 0:11:23.716 --> 0:11:26.636 who work in trauma centers say they wouldn't notice the difference. 0:11:27.236 --> 0:11:30.236 And if we want to be cynical or maybe just realistic, 0:11:30.676 --> 0:11:33.636 we should admit to ourselves that paying so much attention 0:11:33.956 --> 0:11:36.516 to the smallest part of the problem is a form 0:11:36.556 --> 0:11:41.276 of indifference. It's changing the subject. The thing that struck 0:11:41.276 --> 0:11:44.596 me about Abdullah Pratt is that he refused to change 0:11:44.636 --> 0:11:47.636 the subject. What guns are they using? 0:11:48.036 --> 0:11:51.996 All of them, so everything from the nine millimeters the 0:11:51.996 --> 0:11:53.156 glock forties, which are. 0:11:53.156 --> 0:11:55.316 Very convenient, a lot of them like the glocks on. 0:11:55.516 --> 0:11:57.636 Unfortunately, gogs don't have safeties on them, so when those 0:11:57.676 --> 0:11:59.596 guys who are shooting themselves, that's how that's happening. 0:11:59.956 --> 0:12:01.356 Many times it's with the glocks. 0:12:02.036 --> 0:12:03.436 There used to be a day where everybody liked the 0:12:03.476 --> 0:12:06.236 revolvers because the shells didn't fall and so you had 0:12:06.316 --> 0:12:08.556 less evidence. But now they don't care about evidence, the 0:12:08.676 --> 0:12:11.236 lack of conviction rate of murders. They don't can many 0:12:11.236 --> 0:12:13.636 people or killing people broad daylight with no mask on 0:12:14.196 --> 0:12:17.316 and literally daring people to hop on the stand and 0:12:17.556 --> 0:12:20.196 testify against them, and of course no one does because 0:12:20.196 --> 0:12:22.356 we can't assure protection for those people. They still have 0:12:22.396 --> 0:12:24.436 to live in life, they still have to exist in 0:12:24.436 --> 0:12:26.916 the neighborhood. You're not gonna put twenty four hour protection 0:12:26.996 --> 0:12:27.316 on them. 0:12:27.996 --> 0:12:30.756 The kids were fitting something called a switch on the 0:12:30.756 --> 0:12:33.996 back of their handguns, a little plastic device you can 0:12:33.996 --> 0:12:36.756 buy on the internet that makes the gun fire much faster. 0:12:37.156 --> 0:12:39.876 A handgun is hard to aim at the best of times. 0:12:40.316 --> 0:12:43.356 With a switch, it's almost impossible to control. 0:12:43.876 --> 0:12:46.796 I think there's a lot more brazenness of how these 0:12:46.876 --> 0:12:50.076 murders that happening, a lot less care for collateral damage. 0:12:50.316 --> 0:12:52.316 So you're looking at people and normally and you can 0:12:52.356 --> 0:12:54.556 watch the videos. You can find these videos easily on 0:12:54.596 --> 0:12:58.196 YouTube or on you know, social media of different aspects. 0:12:58.236 --> 0:13:00.876 But you see these like surveillance, can you know, and 0:13:00.916 --> 0:13:04.196 the people literally just standing over someone shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, 0:13:04.196 --> 0:13:06.716 shooting into the gun just doesn't even you know, and 0:13:06.756 --> 0:13:10.436 to that person just stops moving or the gun jams 0:13:10.596 --> 0:13:11.436 or something like that. 0:13:12.236 --> 0:13:14.076 He said that when he was growing up, a lot 0:13:14.156 --> 0:13:16.476 of the violence he saw around him was gang related, 0:13:16.796 --> 0:13:20.596 turf battles, business disputes over drugs that turned violent. But 0:13:20.676 --> 0:13:23.196 what a he's seeing now is much worse. 0:13:25.316 --> 0:13:28.876 It's much more interpersonal, meaning that you can trace many 0:13:28.916 --> 0:13:32.636 of these beasts between local factions down to one or 0:13:32.676 --> 0:13:36.116 two murders that happened years ago, ten years ago, when 0:13:36.156 --> 0:13:38.636 they were children, when they were thirteen fourteen, and that 0:13:38.756 --> 0:13:43.276 unaddressed trauma of you losing your friend at fourteen or 0:13:43.276 --> 0:13:46.596 fifteen causes you to snap in a way that if 0:13:46.636 --> 0:13:49.196 you don't have the right support system and you have 0:13:49.316 --> 0:13:53.316 access to firearms, you become what that minuce, You become 0:13:53.396 --> 0:13:56.676 that person. Admittingly, these are words they use, the super savages, 0:13:56.996 --> 0:13:59.596 the vultures. These are words that are coined by the 0:13:59.636 --> 0:14:03.436 youth themselves to describe themselves in this manner. And now 0:14:03.476 --> 0:14:05.476 you have a tip for tap. I go kill your cousin, 0:14:05.716 --> 0:14:07.796 You come kill my brother. I go kill two of 0:14:07.836 --> 0:14:10.156 your friends. You come kill this person. And it literally 0:14:10.156 --> 0:14:12.836 goes on and on. We're talking about two three four 0:14:12.876 --> 0:14:15.316 block territories. We're not talking about whole sides of the 0:14:15.316 --> 0:14:18.396 cities that are dominated by a cartail or gang. We're 0:14:18.436 --> 0:14:22.156 literally talking about you know, yelling distance. If I can't 0:14:22.196 --> 0:14:24.156 hear you call, that means you're not my set. If 0:14:24.196 --> 0:14:26.916 I scream out my front window and you ask them 0:14:27.116 --> 0:14:29.116 how did you get here, and they'll tell you, oh, 0:14:29.196 --> 0:14:31.516 you man, no, you don't know. How can we help 0:14:31.516 --> 0:14:34.396 stop this? Ain't no stopping this. They killed my friend, 0:14:34.436 --> 0:14:36.956 my cousin, my brother. I'm not stopping till I'm dead. 0:14:37.476 --> 0:14:40.356 And so you have high, high at risk, deeply entrenched 0:14:40.436 --> 0:14:42.396 youth who are going through these things who have been 0:14:42.436 --> 0:14:47.196 traumatized and their value for life is diminished, And they 0:14:47.236 --> 0:14:49.996 say things like, when nobody cared when my brother was killed? 0:14:50.036 --> 0:14:51.396 Who was there to help me? So why should I 0:14:51.436 --> 0:14:55.116 care about me killing your brother? Now everybody's life doesn't matter. 0:14:55.156 --> 0:14:57.756 Now you go rob someone and some innocent person gets shot, 0:14:57.956 --> 0:15:00.436 don'tbody care when my auntie got shot. She got shot 0:15:00.516 --> 0:15:02.796 just walking from the Save a Lot store into her 0:15:02.836 --> 0:15:06.316 apartment one day. You know, nobody cared about that. My cousins, 0:15:06.396 --> 0:15:08.876 only you have a mother anymore. So why should I 0:15:08.916 --> 0:15:10.796 care what happens to this lady? And it's hard to 0:15:10.836 --> 0:15:12.516 combat that. It's hard to combat that. 0:15:19.756 --> 0:15:22.836 I began this series believing in stricter gun control, as 0:15:22.836 --> 0:15:25.236 you expect I would as a good Canadian who lives 0:15:25.276 --> 0:15:30.356 in a blue state. Background checks, licenses, age limits, sensitive 0:15:30.396 --> 0:15:32.956 place laws, on and on. I still believe in all 0:15:32.996 --> 0:15:36.076 those things in the abstract, But after I sat and 0:15:36.116 --> 0:15:39.196 listened to Abdulla Prat, I realized that very little of 0:15:39.236 --> 0:15:41.636 what I thought of as a solution would actually solve 0:15:41.636 --> 0:15:45.036 the problems. He was talking about, can you really pass 0:15:45.076 --> 0:15:47.716 a law and make a big dent in this kind 0:15:47.756 --> 0:15:51.356 of a problem? Expecting laws to handle. This kind of 0:15:51.396 --> 0:15:54.756 violence is what we do when we're not really paying attention. 0:15:55.836 --> 0:15:59.276 This is all the scoreboard. Another word that's coined by 0:15:59.436 --> 0:16:01.956 and by our youth is check the scoreboard. So let's 0:16:01.956 --> 0:16:03.916 see how many people of yours will you kill? How 0:16:03.916 --> 0:16:06.076 many people you killed the VARs who's up. So it 0:16:06.156 --> 0:16:10.076 definitely is a competitive thing. It's a clout thing, an 0:16:10.076 --> 0:16:12.796 attention thing too. So you can make your name off 0:16:12.836 --> 0:16:15.756 who you kill, even if you have nothing against that person, 0:16:16.236 --> 0:16:19.596 just by saying I shot that person. Everybody's mad. Everybody's 0:16:19.636 --> 0:16:22.916 heard about that. Look at me when you place yourself 0:16:22.956 --> 0:16:25.356 in the shoes of a young man or woman who's 0:16:25.476 --> 0:16:29.356 never had a room full of trophies, never had the 0:16:29.476 --> 0:16:32.836 awards on their mother's refrigerator, they've never had anything to 0:16:32.876 --> 0:16:35.516 take pride in. It says I'm good at something, I'm 0:16:35.556 --> 0:16:38.076 a winner at least at one thing. They don't even 0:16:38.116 --> 0:16:40.476 have that, and they feel like their whole life they've 0:16:40.516 --> 0:16:43.436 taken nothing but losses to their pride. Every day someone's 0:16:43.436 --> 0:16:45.276 stepping on it. Every day, somebody's telling them what to 0:16:45.316 --> 0:16:47.516 do every day. This so when you run into somebody, 0:16:47.556 --> 0:16:48.996 you're like, listen, I'm not doing that again. 0:16:49.036 --> 0:16:49.356 Today. 0:16:49.516 --> 0:16:52.396 Today, I will not take another l And in those 0:16:52.436 --> 0:16:56.156 different types of situations, something like hey, I'm a big 0:16:56.236 --> 0:16:58.596 name now because I shot and killed somebody. That may 0:16:58.596 --> 0:17:01.036 be the first time that anybody gave them any type 0:17:01.036 --> 0:17:06.396 of respect, any type of admiration and adoration. Unfortunately happens. 0:17:06.676 --> 0:17:08.756 This may be the first time that girls know your name. 0:17:09.516 --> 0:17:10.876 So you might have went to high school, you would 0:17:10.876 --> 0:17:13.476 have wanted, maybe struggled to read, maybe you had learning 0:17:13.516 --> 0:17:17.516 disabilities that were unaddressed, you didn't have the finances to 0:17:17.596 --> 0:17:21.236 dress in the nicest clothes, and now you're somebody. All 0:17:21.236 --> 0:17:23.276 of a sudden, you wake up and people are talking 0:17:23.316 --> 0:17:27.196 about you on Twitter, in these spaces, these very entrans spaces, 0:17:27.276 --> 0:17:30.076 or on Snapchat or whatever the case is. And to 0:17:30.196 --> 0:17:33.156 many that's a powerful position because for once they can 0:17:33.396 --> 0:17:37.156 control something, they can cause fear in someone. 0:17:37.196 --> 0:17:39.796 For a thirty year stretch, starting in the early nineties, 0:17:40.036 --> 0:17:42.436 Chicago didn't have a trauma center on the south side 0:17:42.476 --> 0:17:44.796 of the city, so if you were shot there, you 0:17:44.836 --> 0:17:47.196 had to be taken to big hospitals at the other 0:17:47.396 --> 0:17:50.396 ends of the city north to Northwestern or Cook County 0:17:50.636 --> 0:17:54.396 or West to Advocate Christ Medical Center, which meant that 0:17:54.436 --> 0:17:56.676 if you were shot on the south Side, you were 0:17:56.716 --> 0:17:59.156 far more likely to die in the ambulance before you 0:17:59.196 --> 0:18:02.036 got to the hospital. We talked about that in the 0:18:02.076 --> 0:18:05.436 previous episode. Abdullah Pratt was a big part of the 0:18:05.476 --> 0:18:08.996 fight to finally open a trauma center on the South Side, 0:18:09.556 --> 0:18:13.036 and during that battle, one case hit him hard, the 0:18:13.076 --> 0:18:15.716 shooting of a young man named otf Newski. 0:18:16.596 --> 0:18:18.596 And I didn't know this at the time, but there 0:18:18.596 --> 0:18:21.156 was a big scene gathered also not too far from 0:18:21.156 --> 0:18:23.556 where I grew up, and there were people standing around 0:18:23.716 --> 0:18:25.476 yelling at the police, saying why aren't you helping them? 0:18:25.516 --> 0:18:27.516 Why aren't you helping them? And this young man I 0:18:27.556 --> 0:18:28.516 remember driving. 0:18:28.276 --> 0:18:30.116 Past slowly as I get past the crowd and just 0:18:30.156 --> 0:18:32.756 seeing him gasping for air, blood all over the place, 0:18:32.836 --> 0:18:35.916 nobody helping, Yellow tapes starting to be put up, and 0:18:35.956 --> 0:18:37.876 I remember that just hit me heavily. And it was 0:18:37.876 --> 0:18:39.516 that day that I found out that there was a 0:18:39.636 --> 0:18:42.076 law that says that if there's an active shooter event 0:18:42.116 --> 0:18:44.116 going on, or the shooter the scene hasn't been secured, 0:18:44.156 --> 0:18:47.356 the police do not allow ambulances in to help. And 0:18:47.396 --> 0:18:49.996 that's what also galvanized with myself. My med keep team 0:18:50.076 --> 0:18:53.276 does to try to train lay bystanders not only in 0:18:53.356 --> 0:18:55.636 how to deal with these gunshot ones, but also in 0:18:55.676 --> 0:18:57.956 the laws that allow them, the good Samarit to act, 0:18:57.996 --> 0:19:02.756 the innocent bystander laws that keep protect them from prosecution 0:19:03.236 --> 0:19:05.436 for trying to help if they're earnestly trying to help them. 0:19:05.436 --> 0:19:08.396 We trained over seven thousand youth in Chicago South Side 0:19:08.436 --> 0:19:10.876 and areas that had no other trainings like this going on. 0:19:12.756 --> 0:19:15.956 Years, people in the South Side of Chicago basically about 0:19:15.956 --> 0:19:18.316 how to handle a gunshot wound, for help, gums. 0:19:18.396 --> 0:19:21.876 Yeah, those things. Those those memories are etched into my 0:19:21.956 --> 0:19:24.596 mind almost as clear as my brother is, the memory 0:19:24.636 --> 0:19:26.076 of seeing him being pulled out of his. 0:19:25.996 --> 0:19:26.996 Truck to day he died. 0:19:27.756 --> 0:19:29.116 So when you look at it that way and you 0:19:29.196 --> 0:19:31.156 look at the potential, those young men would have been 0:19:31.156 --> 0:19:33.676 twenty six seven now, they would have been coming into 0:19:33.676 --> 0:19:35.516 their own maybe helping stop violence. 0:19:36.356 --> 0:19:38.436 As he talked, he was on his way over to 0:19:38.476 --> 0:19:41.636 a school not far away, Dallas Elementary, to do one 0:19:41.676 --> 0:19:44.636 of those training sessions, this time with a group of 0:19:44.676 --> 0:19:45.556 fourth graders. 0:19:45.756 --> 0:19:45.956 Yeah. 0:19:46.036 --> 0:19:49.356 Yes, it's in the heart of Parkway Gardens aka aka 0:19:49.476 --> 0:19:52.996 O Block, right, the most notorious project housing still standing 0:19:53.036 --> 0:19:54.156 in Chicago. 0:19:54.716 --> 0:19:55.956 And we'll be there. 0:19:55.756 --> 0:19:57.596 We're going to teach them actually how to deal with 0:19:57.596 --> 0:20:00.436 gunshot wounds and do CPR. When I first get there 0:20:00.436 --> 0:20:01.916 for them, what it's going to be like is them 0:20:02.076 --> 0:20:04.116 number one saying, hey, who we are. This is a 0:20:04.156 --> 0:20:07.036 sensitive moment. But we asked them, how many of y'all 0:20:07.116 --> 0:20:08.956 have lost the loved one, a father, mother, brother, a 0:20:08.996 --> 0:20:11.556