[speaker001:] hi Jim the um well how do you get the most of your information
[speaker002:] uh generally the most of my information I'll get in the morning with my newspaper
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] periodically updated through the day I try to catch the news at least once before I go to work either on TV or on the radio most days it's just catching it on the radio drive on the drive in to work
[speaker001:] uh-huh do you enjoy mainly network news or like CNN
[speaker002:] uh for world events I'll take CNN any day
[speaker001:] yeah any day yeah
[speaker002:] but for local local coverage or statewide coverage I'll take the local news
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] a lot more indepth
[speaker001:] do you um do you do you get them do you feel like the newspapers are generally biased either liberal or conservative views
[speaker002:] I extremely so
[speaker001:] I that's how it is here too that one newspaper is very liberal one of them is very conservative
[speaker002:] and there's no mid ground anywhere in it
[speaker001:] uh doesn't seem to be um granted I I I read primarily the more controversial topics so I'm sure that it's easier for them to uh be you know polarized more so on the topic on the the news items that interest me most but uh it doesn't seem like there's much middle ground in either of the papers
[speaker002:] with what I'm involved with doing is kind of a controversial job anyway
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] I work with the uh state prison system so I'm always kind of interested I look at the what the liberal view is on the inmates need more rights and I hear the more conservative lines that we need to get back to making the punishment fit the crime but they never do go far enough
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] after four years with the system I've got an extreme almost an extremist view on get into the criminal justice system
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] because what they got now sure isn't working
[speaker001:] well I think that it's been proven since somewhere in the early nineteen hundreds that rehabilitation in the forms that we have been attempting it is not realistic um I can't remember the study but it was there was a quite a long-term study done in Europe that uh evaluated the incarceration systems that America has based their systems on and uh it's been proven useless for rehabilitation uh which is what a lot of people tend to believe happens in a prison and um there are amount of reforms that could be helpful in that area are numerous and costly and would require require a lot of task forces and et cetera and um there is a lot of people in our country that would go right off the roof um are do you work with the inmates themselves
[speaker002:] yes that's I'm a inside guard I also work in the segregation department for the ones that mess up
[speaker001:] goodness yeah
[speaker002:] so I get the real sweethearts but I get a aside aside from that I I'd almost say I've got extremist views on gun controls on personal crime convention uh personal crime prevention
[speaker001:] to to which end
[speaker002:] there was a thing recently in the paper there was a bill in front of the state legislature that was going to allow the average citizen to be able to pack his own weapon again
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] concealed or unconcealed I'm all for that
[speaker001:] why is that do you think the average citizen has the the um uh the wherewithals in order to use it
[speaker002:] I don't know if every citizen does or not but just you having lived in Houston you know what it's like out there
[speaker001:] it's
[speaker002:] when I go to a shopping mall if I I feel under dressed if I'm carrying less than two blades from the training I had in the military I'd rather take somebody with a blade at close range than I would with a pistol because I know they're going to go down I know I can keep them down
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] but if the if the option came up to where I could pack a side arm in the open I I don't worry about carrying it concealed I want them to know I'm packing it
[speaker001:] yeah uh-huh
[speaker002:] and given the option of that I would definitely when I went shopping to the malls I would definitely be packing all kind of power firepower
[speaker001:] yeah I uh I I lived in a part of Houston that was uh unpleasant I lived south down in uh the Montrose area
[speaker002:] Wisdom City okay
[speaker001:] yeah and it was it I was um keenly aware of the the the danger in my area um my roommate was attacked and she got away unharmed but scared to pieces and had had all of her clothing ripped off of her um and then I had another friend that was also approached and got away and this was in broad daylight both times so I was keenly aware of the danger in those areas but I didn't I guess I didn't feel like I was competent enough with any kind of weapon to to carry one or to feel like carrying one would be a benefit to me rather than just having them take it you know I mean that's I that's that's truly how I felt I felt like if I were carrying something and if I actually pulled it on somebody that was trying to attack me that their chances of getting it from me would be higher than my chances of using it effectively on them
[speaker002:] that's where the only stipulation I'd like to see tacked on to the legislation saying that there had to be some form of formal firearms instruction N R say NRA certified firearms instruction
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you can't train somebody how to shoot in a combat situation until they've been there I've seen it in Lebanon I was in in the Granada invasion in eighty three
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] I was an advisor down in Central America in eighty four I'm very accustomed to knowing when I pull a piece out whether it's a full sized firearm or a handgun
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] when it clears leather shot the shot's going to be fired you don't pull it out for show you pull it out to take care of business the same way with the blade it it comes out of my back pocket or it comes out of a sheath on my web gear it's coming out and it's going to draw blood you don't pull it trying to think is it uh in the Gurkha forces out of India had a legend that went along with their legendary side arm the Khukri which is their blade
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] you never drew that thing out unless it was going to draw blood which is a good
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] mental training aspect for it
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] that that or any side arm whether it be a blade or whether it be a handgun or whatever
[speaker001:] uh-huh oh I feel that is certainly if you're going to carry one you need to be uh very comfortable with the piece and have enough uh knowledge and insight for your own self on whether or not you're going to use it in that situation and not pull it unless you intend to because I I feel like that's you know I mean I'm I'm I'm all for uh people having having firearms or having whatever form of protection they prefer because you know even though the odds is you know the criminal ends up getting the gun and shooting the people to begin with you know the people that had it in the beginning but if the if if you're talking about uh two people if you're talking about a criminal an assailant that is coming at you with a gun and you don't have a gun at all well the chances are a hundred percent they're going to get you if you if you both of you have a firearm you've at least got that fifty percent chance that you may get them first and so I believe in that but I I've not ever felt comfortable in it I guess it's I'm glad I I'm glad I um I'm that I'm married to someone who feels comfortable with them you know it's it's one of those things um I was reared in Texas so
[speaker002:] t here's also a moral aspect to it a lot of people have not either mentally sat down and gone over the moral aspect can I take human life even in a life threatening situation to myself or to a loved one
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and when it actually comes down they don't have time to think about it
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] in that fraction of a succeed that they're caught I don't know if I can do this there's a bullet already on the way to them or there's a blade already cutting them somewhere because they they had the time to react but they hesitated
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] and that's impossible to in a classroom setting explain that to somebody they've got to on their own have made that decision long before they ever decided to carry a weapon of any type whether it be a fighting staff
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] up to a forty four magnum any any of them in the correct hands they're an absolutely fantastic weapon
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] but if you haven't made that moral decision can I take a human life even under those situations where either my life or a life of a friend or a life of a family member is threatened
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] can you do you defeated the purpose of even having the gun
[speaker001:] uh
[speaker002:] or the or whatever the weapon is
[speaker001:] uh I agree I agree that would be something that would have to be uh evaluated I feel prior to ownership the uh I think a lot of people hear only the sensation stories of this child being killed or