What A Day - DOJ Closes 'The Gun Show Loophole'

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

The Justice Department announced Thursday, it finalized rules to close a major loophole in gun purchases. Known as 'the gun show loophole' it allowed people to sell firearms online, at gun shows, or in other more informal settings without conducting background checks. The finalized rules are expected to take effect in 30 days. Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, explains how the new rules are a big win for gun control.And in headlines: The director of the U.S. Agency for International Development said parts of Northern Gaza are officially experiencing famine; Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson says he’s heading to Mar-A-Lago; and federal prosecutors charged Shohei Ohtani’s ex-interpreter with stealing more than $16 million from the LA Dodgers star player.Show Notes:What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday 

It's Friday, April 12th. I'm Trevelle Anderson. And I'm Priyanka Arabindi and this is What A Day, the pod that is ordering ponchos as a protective layer. Yes, because the cicadas are coming back and this time they are rolling super deep. I'm talking about billions. I think I gotta upgrade the poncho. We're going full hazmat suit. I might not even leave the house for I don't even know how long they're here. It's not a good situation. You don't like books. No, absolutely not. On today's show, a U.S. official says that parts of northern Gaza are experiencing famine. Plus, Mike Johnson is the latest speaker of the House to head to Mar-a-Lago to meet with former President Donald Trump. But first, the Justice Department announced yesterday that it finalized rules to close a major loophole in gun purchases. That loophole allowed people to sell firearms online, at gun shows, or in other more informal settings without

conducting background checks on the people who were buying them. And it was commonly known as the gun show loophole. The finalized rules are expected to take effect in 30 days. Okay, so this is good news. We'd love to see it. But I also need you to answer this question. Why didn't these folks have to run background checks before? What's going on? Right? I mean, it just wasn't written into federal law. That's really all it was. Brick and mortar shops have to obtain firearm licenses from the federal government and by extension, run background checks on buyers and register their sales when they make them. But for a long time, there was a big exception for people who claimed that selling guns wasn't their main source of income. So, you know, people who sold

guns at shows, at flea markets, online, less formal settings than an actual gun store didn't have to get these federal licenses that required them to do all of these things. But that started to change two years ago, when President Joe Biden signed a piece of bipartisan gun control legislation called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. It was the most significant piece of gun legislation signed into law in roughly 30 years, and part of that new law expanded the kinds of sellers who have to register for these licenses and do all of the things required of license holders, like run background checks on their prospective customers. These new rules

announced yesterday just clarify how all of this will be enforced. The Biden administration says that the new rules should apply to around 23,000 dealers. Okay, great. So what will closing this loophole do to help reduce gun violence? Yeah, it's a good question. And to help answer it, I spoke with Nick Suplina. He is the senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. And I started by asking him about the significance of closing this loophole. We've got a real big problem in this country with private sales of guns that avoid background checks. It happens tens of thousands of times a year, and honestly, it's gotten a lot worse in the age of the internet.

The fact is that folks with serious criminal records, domestic abusers, folks that know that they can't pass a background check know exactly where to go to get a firearm without a background check, and that's from these private sellers. Well, this rule addresses the flow of illegal firearms that are often trafficked. And in fact, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, ATF, recently found in a report that in its trafficking cases, four in 10 firearms actually went through an unlicensed dealer. It's unlicensed dealers that this rule is designed to address, to bring into the system, to require they run background checks. And so this rule will be, I think, exceptionally productive at stemming the flow of illegal guns that often end up in

our cities. And it's those illegal guns that are causing the vast majority of gun violence in the United States. Naturally, the NRA has already issued a statement on X. They are saying that they will use all means available to stop these new rules from going into effect. It is not particularly surprising coming from them. But from a legal perspective, what is your reaction to that? And what, if anything, do you think will come of it? Well, my reaction is this is not news. You know. The NRA and its ilk have made it quite clear they've never met a common sense gun law that they didn't like. And the fact is that they've gotten even better in recent years at running to court when they're unhappy. But I actually think we're on

really strong ground here. I think there really is no Second Amendment issue here at all. We're talking about regulating gun dealers, not the right to own a firearm for personal protection. Anything can happen, as you know, in the courts in the United States in 2024. But this is a really well thought out rule, and it should be on really strong footing legally. Yes, that is reassuring to hear. I also want to talk to you a little bit about a bill that passed in the Tennessee Senate earlier this week. It would allow teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on school property. That is an idea that Republicans have increasingly been pushing. They want more guns in the schools. So how is Everytown countering these efforts? Well, so Everytown and through our grassroots arms, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand

Action, we're fighting these efforts tooth and nail in multiple states across the country, including in Tennessee, where there was quite a bit of a showdown in the statehouse there. Ideas like this are giving them the most benefit of the doubt that I can. People are afraid. People are afraid of gun violence in their schools. And they think, wouldn't it be nice if the science teacher all of a sudden became a Navy SEAL who could, in the middle of a firefight, find the right person to shoot at

and hit that target. But the fact is, it's a fantasy. And what we know is that guns in schools makes everybody less safe. They go off unintentionally. Children find them. And it really is a cheap way out because Tennessee knows what it can do to strengthen its gun laws to stop the next mass shooting before it happens. And we've seen the effect of guns in schools.

And it does not end well. And it does not increase safety in the schools. No, absolutely not. Two years ago, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court dealt a devastating decision to gun control advocates in a case known as Bruin. In that case, which was about New York State's concealed carry law, the court basically created a new rule for gun laws that they have to be, quote, consistent with the nation's historical tradition. One study found that within a year, more than a dozen state and federal gun laws had been invalidated in whole or in part

by that decision. Since then, how has Everytown, you know, had to change and adapt its legal strategy in order to keep effectively fighting for gun control measures? Yeah, it's a great question and it's a real bad case. Bruin was wrongly decided, and it's a dangerous decision, not just for what it invalidated, a century-old New York concealed carry law that was doing a lot to make New York one of the safest states in the country in terms of gun violence.

But the history test you mentioned, what the court basically did was say, we got to look back, maybe it's to the founding, maybe it's to reconstruction, and find analogous laws on the books. But what we've seen in the lower courts is it's just a Rorschach test for the judges' feelings on guns.

If you squint enough and you want to find a reason to invalidate the law, you can. I will say the good news is this. I mean, one, we're going to fight no matter what. Two, we are winning in a number of these cases. District courts are all over the place. The appellate courts, by and large, are coming out the right way.

But we've already been up to the Supreme Court once since Bruin, and there are other cases in the pipeline as well. So the Supreme Court needs to clean up this mess it made in Bruin, but we'll keep fighting until it does. Got it. This month also marks the 25th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. We have seen so many awful school shootings since then. So what I want to ask you is, where is the movement to prevent these kinds of mass shootings in schools now? And where do you see hope that things are changing? Yeah, it's incredible that it's been 25 years. And over that time, there's not a whole lot to

point to that gives you that sense of hope, that sense that we're going to do something differently. But when I look at the last 10 years, let's say, so the mark of another mass school shooting at Sandy Hook, the NRA showed up in Washington. It ran circles around politicians, Democrats and Republicans. We couldn't get every Democrat in the Senate to vote for a simple background checks bill, and we didn't get a single Republican in favor of it. Ten years later, we have a mass movement for social change in the gun violence prevention movement. We have passed hundreds of laws across

the country in state houses. In 2022, we passed the Bipartisans and Safer Communities Act with 65 votes in the Senate. I mean, what's the last issue you've seen get 65 votes, including 15 Republicans? So, you know, change is happening. It's not always as visible to everybody. And I will also say it's not happening fast enough or big enough. And there's just no, there's no arguing that point, but it is happening. And the gun violence prevention movement has never been stronger. That was my conversation with Nick Suplina. He is the senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for gun safety. We'll have more on all of this very soon,

but that is the latest for now. We'll be back after some ads. Let's get to some headlines. Headlines. Samantha Power, the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, says that part of northern Gaza is officially experiencing famine. A U.N.-backed agency said famine was imminent in Gaza and could begin as early as March. During a House committee hearing on Wednesday, Power said famine has now set in because sufficient humanitarian aid has not been delivered to the millions who need it. Take a listen.

In northern Gaza, the rate of malnutrition prior to October 7th was almost zero, and it is now one in three kids. Many have used the state of the crisis to call for a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. And though there are negotiations in progress, there's still no deal. According to the New York Times, international negotiators proposed a six-week ceasefire during which Hamas would release another 40 hostages. But Hamas officials say they don't have enough hostages

to meet the terms of the swap. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is heading to Mar-a-Lago today. He and former President Donald Trump will announce what they are calling a, quote, major announcement on election integrity. USA Today's reporting says that it likely has to do with banning non-citizens from voting, but non-citizens are already not allowed to vote. The meeting comes after a particularly tumultuous week for the speaker, whose popularity among his own party is tanking. Johnson is a staunch supporter of Trump, so this visit seems to be an attempt to show unity of the party behind the presumptive GOP nominee.

You can't see our eyes rolling about Johnson's kiss the ring moment over here, but just know that they are. Very much so. Ralph Yarl, the Missouri teenager who was shot in the head last year for ringing the wrong doorbell, gave his first in-depth interview since the shooting a year ago. You'll remember that Yarl, a black teen, was on his way to pick up his two younger brothers from a friend's house in Kansas City when he mistakenly rang the doorbell of 85-year-old Andrew Lester's home. Lester, a white man, shot Yarl in the skull and the arm. Lester told police he shot the then 16-year-old because he was scared. The incident sparked national outrage.

Yarl, who's now 17, told NBC that he feels lucky to be alive, but he's had a hard time processing what's happened to him. It is a constant uphill battle of people dismissing you and disregarding your story as something that is guaranteed to happen to just children around the world. But it hasn't been all bad news. Months after he was shot, Jarl joined Missouri's Allstate band playing the bass clarinet, something he never thought he could do because of his brain injury. Meanwhile, Lester appeared in court earlier this week and pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action. In other news, OJ Simpson has died. The NFL great was infamously acquitted in 1995 for the killings of his ex-wife and her friend. His family shared the news on X Thursday that he died of cancer. OJ was known not only for football, he was an actor and a sportscaster, but it was that 1994 televised car chase with the LAPD in

a white Bronco that made him one of the most famous people in America. This was five days after the killings. OJ was riding in the back seat, threatening to harm himself and 95 million Americans tuned in to watch. Then there was the wall-to-wall coverage of the murder trial, which popularized court on TV and was later dissected in several TV series and documentaries. The legal teams involved in the cases became household names like prosecutor Marsha Clark and defense attorneys Johnny Cochran and Robert Kardashian. OJ was 76 years old.

And finally, more light has been shed on the sports betting scandal involving the interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani. Ipe Mizuhara, Ohtani's interpreter and close friend, was charged on Thursday with federal bank fraud after an investigation uncovered that he allegedly stole more than $16 million from the baseball star. Investigators say that Mizuhara had direct access to Ohtani's bank account and used that money for gambling. He allegedly pretended to be Ohtani on the phone to approve large wire transfers. Here's U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada announcing the charges against Mizuhara yesterday. Mr. Ohtani is considered a victim in this case. There is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Ohtani authorized the over $16 million of transfers

from his account to the bookmakers. Mizuhara is expected to appear in federal court in the coming days. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison. This is a wild, wild story. And it has taken quite a turn since it first came out that, you know, he was facing some gambling debts. Did Shohei Otani actually offer to pay and cover it for his friend? How much money you making that you don't know that $16 million? $16 million.

Going by that. Oh, Lord. Wild, wild. And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. In a historic and detrimental decision on Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled the state must adhere to a law from the 1860s that bans abortions, including in cases of rape and incest.

It may feel like we're traveling back in time, but if you'd rather wear a t-shirt than a chastity belt, pick up one from Crooked's No Trespassing collection. Support nationwide abortion freedom and show those judges where they can stick their gavels while you're at it. A portion of the proceeds will go to Vote Save America's Fuck Bans the Fight Back Fund, which currently supports abortion rights organizations across Arizona, Nevada, and Florida. Head to crooked.com slash store to shop now, quick before we go back in time to before

online shopping was invented. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, don't steal $16 million from a friend and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading and not just news about the incoming cicada apocalypse like me, what if there is also a nightly newsletter check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe I'm Priyanka Arabindi

I'm Trayvon Anderson and bug spray won't protect you I might hibernate just gotta stay at the house it look like is that what we gotta do

we might be burrowing it might be quarantine round two it's fine we're prepared we'll get a puzzle watch some bad TV it's fine. We're prepared. We'll get a puzzle, watch some bad TV. It's fine.

We know the drill. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf.

We had production help today from Erica Morrison, Michelle Alloy, Greg Walters, and Julia Clare. Our showrunner is Leo Duran, and our executive producer is Adrienne Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.