Can America fix its gun problem?

After the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, it’s easy to feel discouraged about guns in America because we’ve been here before, and little has changed. But one person who remains hopeful in times like these is Dr. Garen Wintemute. He heads the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, and has been studying gun violence for decades. “Violence is a health problem,” he said. “It kills more people than motor vehicle injuries. And, yes, I’m constitutionally hopeful. But my hope is born out of having done this for 40 years.” On the show today, Wintemute walks us through some of the policies that could make a real difference, from “red flag” laws to universal background checks, and discusses why this time could be different despite the gun control gridlock in Washington. In the News Fix, the nation’s highest court is going to great lengths to find the person who leaked the draft opinion on overturning Roe v. Wade. Plus, if you’re tired of paying high gasoline prices, get used to it. We’ll explain why. Then, listeners sound off on Uvalde, and we all get smart about bourbon! Here’s everything we talked about today: “Heavily outspent, gun control groups still press their case” from Marketplace “The two paths Congress could take on gun control” from Vox “Meet the Doctor Who Gave $1 Million of His Own Money to Keep His Gun Research Going” from ProPublica “What research shows on the effectiveness of gun-control laws” from The Washington Post “Exclusive: Supreme Court leak investigation heats up as clerks are asked for phone records in unprecedented move” from CNN EU’s Ban on Russian Oil Adds Stress to Region’s Economies from The Wall Street Journal