Rise of Active Shootings : Our Request for Safety in the USA

The specter of active shootings haunts our every gathering, casting a shadow over places once considered sanctuaries of joy and community. As we unpack the grim reality of this violence, we don't just recount statistics or policies; we share the raw emotions and personal reflections that come with the turbulent aftermath of a recent shooting near the Super Bowl celebrations. Our conversation delves into how these tragedies chip away at our collective sense of security, the contentious debates they ignite about gun ownership, and the sobering necessity for active shooter training in today's workplaces. Join us for a heartfelt discussion on an issue that's as complex as it is critical, where empathy and responsible gun ownership are keys to forging a safer tomorrow.

As parents, as friends, as members of our communities, the rise in mass shootings touches us all, challenging our understanding of safety and responsibility. We take a close look at the unsettling normalization of violence and draw comparisons with different regions, like Puerto Rico's drug-related and interpersonal crimes versus the U.S.'s mass shootings. The chapter also touches on our personal experiences with active shooter training, igniting our call for change and the collective effort needed to restore peace in our daily lives. This episode is a poignant reflection on the reality that every parent grapples with and every citizen can't afford to ignore.

Peering into the complex relationship between mental health and criminal behavior, we explore the intricate web of environmental influences, personal responsibility, and society's role in prevention. We share intimate stories that highlight the warning signs of a potential crisis and the critical need for mental health support and early intervention. The conversation then shifts to the pressing issue of gun control, where we balance our respect for the right to bear arms with a plea for more stringent protocols to safeguard our communities. It's not just a discussion; it's a call to action for unity and awareness as we stand against the tide of violence that threatens to erode our way of life.

Transcript

Enrique: 0:00

Hello everybody. My name is Enrique and this is.

Linda: 0:02

Linda.

Enrique: 0:03

And today we're going to be talking about a little bit of a controversial subject and a little bit of more serious subject, about the increase of active shooters or active shootings in the US.

Linda: 0:12

But first honey let's do a podcast.

Enrique: 0:22

Hello everybody and welcome back to Honey. Let's do a podcast. I'm your host, enrique, and we have my lovely cohost.

Linda: 0:26

Linda.

Enrique: 0:27

And today we're going to be talking to you about a little bit of a controversial subject. We're debating whether to talk about this or not because we know it can ruffle some feathers, but we decided basically I you know when the whole we were all watching the Super Bowl last I don't know it's a couple of weeks ago now, and you know we're in a friend's house, we're watching, and then after that, in a couple of days, or I think it was the next day or in two days, we found out about the whole thing with the parade and you know what happened there. There was some shootings there. I think nobody got killed, but there were a couple of injures and I think, oh, yeah, there was. There was one fatality. Yeah, somebody got killed, I think a woman, and then another bunch of people were wounded, you know. And then we just we were talking to another man, another one Like it just seems like it just happens every, every other day, and every time there's some type of like I don't know like activity where you're outside and and where people you know meet each other, and there's like you have big, big groups of people.

Enrique: 1:39

You always now have that fear that some of this can happen and then it's just it's unfortunate because people were trying to celebrate, you know when for sports we should be uniting people. And then you know this thing happened and obviously it's just one bad apple or two bad apples we're not saying everybody's like that, but just one or two can just ruin everything for everybody at that particular time and then you can traumatize kids, traumatize people, you know not.

Enrique: 2:09

I'm pretty sure there's somebody, a lot of people don't want to probably maybe go to another public event like that anymore, or kids, or like you know you're a kid and you go through that Maybe. You know, maybe that kids now is going to meet, maybe need some counseling or some physical therapy or something, or I mean talk about mental therapy or something, because you know it's something that can shock you if you have to go through it. So it's just unfortunate that it has to happen and it's just something, the same thing that we had to say every year that it just keeps happening. And you know people are trying to find solutions and solutions, but it just there's.

Enrique: 2:44

There doesn't seem to be any type of real solution in place, at least that it's effective, that it's effective or that you can visually see or you can imagine, or something I just, it just, I don't know, it just blows my mind. And then we were like well, why don't we? Because me and Linda have talked about this subject before and then we have to go through training in our job as well because of this situation have increased.

Enrique: 3:08

Yeah, my job just had a training that brought a sheriff here in Houston and then they did about active shooting and you know, obviously that involves mass shootings and all that. You know all that stuff. But we kind of wanted to like to talk a little bit about this subject, how it affects us and how it affects, I think, most people and some of the controversies around it which obviously you can imagine, it'll involve probably guns and whether we support it or not, we'll, we'll let you know in a minute. But you know, that's the part that's a little bit controversy, because I know, you know, I know some people are really really proud and really passionate about that subject. So we'll get into it. But first I don't know, linda, you have something you want to say first, or we? I mean, I'm going to drive right into it.

Linda: 4:02

I think we can drive into it. To be honest, there is a lot to talk about. This is a very difficult topic and, at the end of the day, what we really want with this podcast is to create awareness on everyone out there and the people that carry gun and the people that don't carry gun and try to be more, try to be better person, better people as a whole, and not just think, oh, I'm just carrying a gun because of safety, but also what if you get mad? What if, whatever the reason is to do this type of situations or create this type of unfortunate situation where other people get affected and other families get affected and I really don't know what cross through these people mind and I'm not sure if I want to go there to be honest, but to try to have empathy also the other person situations, if you are thinking on doing something like this, if something like this is crossing really your mind, and to create also awareness on what is the real situation today and what has been the trend lately.

Enrique: 5:18

Yeah, and I think she's talking about. She brought in the gun subject early because obviously, to create an active shooter, there needs to be guns for an active shooter, right, that's the whole point of active shooting you need to have a gun and obviously there's some, there's some situations where it happens where it's maybe a knife or anything, but those are more. Those are not your typical things and that's not really goes under the category of this of active shooter. But let's, let's, let's do a little recap of of incidents that have been occurring and there's been a big rise. If you go back to 2000 to compare to now, I mean the, the incidents have risen. You know you can see the, the, the shot were at around 2000.

Enrique: 6:07

Everything's like, the amount of mass shootings is like maybe two, three, one, and then it towards now the 2018 to 2022, and all this there's it's just been 12 or 11 or 12 or almost every year, and you know, some years I think the pandemic year or something, or there's a couple years in there where there was a dip after the pandemic and then it, you know it just picked up again. It's kind of been steady lately and the amount of like, if the fatalities. But during these times, specifically since 2018 to 2022, have maintained itself between having really passing 100, but that's still really high compared to what it what it used to be. But, for example, 2021, 2022, we were on out at 100 103. I think 2020, which was that big year of the pandemic Does that start in 2019? 2020 was when everybody was like, you know, nobody could go out and stuff, and that year we only have 38 casualties, or you know fatalities.

Enrique: 7:07

So obviously you would expect a dip there, but once people started going out again, you know, you know this, you know this just got crazy. And if you go by by wounded, this is the big alarming one, because one that's have gone up and in. I think in 2021, there was like 103 fatalities and 140 were wounded. You go to 2022. Now we got 100 fatalities, so maybe you could. This is not a good sign.

Enrique: 7:29

Anyway, right, I'm not saying this is good, but I'm just saying like that stayed the same, but the wounded got to 213. That's a really big increment. That's probably 40%. I don't know, I don't have any more. I don't have any more. That's a really big increment. That's probably 40%. I don't know, I don't have it made the math, but I'm pretty sure that's a high percentage. So that's pretty alarming how it just keeps getting going up and up and up and there doesn't seem to be like any type of slowdown of this. Look at this we just started the year, already had a parade for the Kansas City sheeps and there's already a shooting. Just one fatality, a bunch of wounded, but there was already a shooting there and it's not supposed that's a sports event. I haven't seen that happen in a sports event in quite a while.

Linda: 8:18

I believe the same day of the Super Bowl there was one.

Enrique: 8:22

Oh well, I don't know about that one, the one at the church, oh the church one Were there any. There was no fatalities, but there was. That was the guy, the lady that went on the.

Linda: 8:34

Yes, that's actually the only the church or something with the kid.

Enrique: 8:37

Yeah, yeah, there was right, You're right, that was actually the Super Bowl. That was here and obviously we know the one by Robert Elementary in New Valde that was here in Texas, about the old student, the old student that used to go to that elementary and just went in there and I think she they shot 19 and a lot of them were elementary children.

Linda: 8:59

I don't understand why these things happen.

Enrique: 9:00

These things at all. It just when you hear these things and now we have a little girl, right, we have a almost two year old daughter you hear these things and it's like now you sometimes you fear whether you have to send your kids to school. You know, where do you have to send them? I mean that those are things that really go through to people's minds now and it shouldn't be right. I don't think we should come to this. I don't know why. Like listen, I come from Puerto Rico and I'll be honest with you there's a lot of criminality in Puerto Rico.

Linda: 9:37

Not like this A lot of criminality.

Enrique: 9:39

Well, it's probably more criminality. I think there's probably more criminality per capita over there than here. I'm pretty sure that in Texas, in terms of criminal like drugshed I don't know people who go to a nightclub and they're, you know, somebody disagrees maybe, and then somebody, but it usually revolves around criminality like drug usage, people who are in that world where they sell drugs or stuff like that, they're not civil people, and but there's always somebody who's caught in the crossfire, maybe somebody dies.

Enrique: 10:14

That was around, somebody you know. But. And then obviously there's your criminal stuff about maybe somebody cheated on somebody and they got mad and they shot the other guy or or some you know. There's arguments and then somebody shoots somebody. That that you know, that's just your regular, because I don't think that's for me that's not regular, but I'm just saying those are regular things that can happen between humans.

Linda: 10:36

That's how it used to be back in the day.

Enrique: 10:38

Criminality that I always see, right, but but you don't see, in Puerto Rico, some dude showing up in a school and shooting 20 kids. I mean no, you know, I've never. You know I come from there, which is a high criminality place in terms of like, if you go check the paper every day in Puerto Rico, there's always going to be like, oh this dude, this this guy got killed, oh this other dude. They're reported five fatalities over here, reported six fatalities over there. Whatever you know, there's a bunch of fatalities, there's a bunch of killings, but you don't see mass shootings like we went to the concert and somebody just opened fire and the whole public, I mean those type of things you don't see.

Enrique: 11:19

Maybe it's pretty sure it's happened. I don't have an, but I'm just I don't remember. I lived there 28 years, 27 years. I don't remember that and that would have been a headline in the news.

Enrique: 11:28

I don't remember it being anywhere or my parents telling me about it. I just, you know, when I was an adult I already there. I don't remember that I never heard about it. And when my parents, when I was little, I don't, I don't. I mean, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't tell me, but I would have found out somewhere in school.

Enrique: 11:43

Somebody would have you would have seen it in a paper and then when the news came up after school, my parents always put the news it would have come up somewhere, right, and I don't. I don't remember any situation like that where you know there was just a big mass shooting or a school shooting, or a concert shooting, or it's movie theater shooting or something like that. I don't remember that.

Linda: 12:05

I think the most common ones are drug related, related, you know money, the sorry, you know stuff like that Somebody cheated on somebody. Somebody cheated, that's another one.

Enrique: 12:17

But I believe those are. I'm not saying they're right. But I believe, but I believe those are more common because just it's the human nature that you know. We've been doing this shit since.

Linda: 12:28

For history In the history.

Enrique: 12:29

Yeah, like people just kill each other for because they they're arguing something, I mean, it's just it's just, I think that's just human nature in a way. I don't think if you're, if you have a bad intention, you have bad intentions. There's no way. There's no way to, there's no way around it. Right, you're going to find a way to create those bad intentions, or? Or?

Linda: 12:48

or you know or that those thoughts yeah, but we are not incentivating any of this, to be honest.

Enrique: 12:53

I'm just trying to explain that. If what I don't get is the whole, mass shooting active shooter year. You know like just randomly pulling up a gun somewhere and just start firing without any motive, any type of reasoning behind it, Right, Well, they might.

Linda: 13:12

They might think they have a reasoning behind it.

Enrique: 13:14

Well, but I'm just saying there's no like if somebody cheated on you, you know, if somebody cheated on you, I'm not saying it's right, again, I'm not saying it's right. But if somebody cheated, you're angry at that moment, so you have an anger against towards that person. You're not supposed to do anything to kill that person. But there you could say, okay, that's the motive this dude had, or that's the motive this lady had, or whatever, whether it's right or wrong, but that's a motive. I'm just saying when somebody just opens up in Walmart with people they don't probably don't know about, they don't know anybody there, like they're just going up there, rum, start, grab a gun.

Linda: 13:51

Just because they have hate.

Enrique: 13:53

What I'm just saying there's. What's the motive? I'm just trying to see. That's just. Either they're sick, mentally sick, which a lot of them probably are. I mean probably all of them are mentally sick, all of them are, but it just there's no, there's. What's the purpose? Right, there's no, there's no purpose.

Linda: 14:10

I feel like most of these situations, the biggest trigger is hate. Like think about this LGBT there's some, sure there is for black people, latin places, like it's destined to specific type of people, like maybe the person that is triggering you know you could say that right, but when it's random. Yeah, it's hard.

Enrique: 14:38

When it's kids, you know like an adult.

Linda: 14:39

Yeah, why will you involve? Kids?

Enrique: 14:42

Because if you're attacking a church, let's say you're Christian or you're ex-religion and you're attacking a church, that's not your religion. Just because you have hate with that's a motive. There's a motive there. You have hate towards another religion? Well, that's a motive, right, but a lot of times I don't find any motive behind it. A lot of times, like that one in Mandalay you remember the one in Las Vegas where there's a concert, the dude went up to a hotel to like he got to the top of the whatever the hotel, he went to the window there was a concert and the guy had a sniper rifle, a rifle, and just like there were, like it was a video game, like just over there, oh look, this guy's moving.

Linda: 15:27

That might actually be a factor. This whole video game stuff could be a thing.

Enrique: 15:31

Let's not. I mean, I don't want to get to that point. If you're a violent person and you're hearing violent thoughts, obviously I think that can motivate, but at the end of the day I never like to think. Video games, songs, none of that.

Linda: 15:48

Are you sure that doesn't subconsciously affect a person?

Enrique: 15:51

I think it can motivate you. If you already are that person, yes, but at the end of the day, neither the song nor the video game, nor any of that pulls the trigger.

Enrique: 16:02

The person pulls the trigger. So the person is either sick or has a problem and maybe they hear a song that's talking about killing and maybe they it just amplifies it to them, but that person already is feeling it. Because I can, I can hear a song about someone dude killing somebody, or I can hear a song about some dude punching somebody or whatever. There is violence and that's not going to make me go out and do anything, because I'm not that person.

Linda: 16:28

Yeah.

Enrique: 16:29

But so I don't believe the song or the music or whatever an artist creates for an artist creates for whatever the reason, I don't think that's the reasoning, I don't think that's, I don't think it's a problem. I just think that, the end of the day, the person, the person is the one with the problem.

Linda: 16:51

I have a feeling that the whole environment that that person is going through has a lot to do. Like, for example, if their parents are always fighting, I think that could be a big problem because that kid, what they will learn is not love, it's going to be hate and fight. And if their friends are always fighting, the friends family is always fighting. If he's constantly being part of that type of environment, guess what? That's what the kid is going to learn and when the kid grows up, that's what he will do because that's what he knows, that's what he learned throughout his life.

Enrique: 17:29

And, okay, I agree, there's stuff that I agree with you, for example, that I agree with. An environment can shape a person. Let's say you live in what people call the ghetto or the hood right, people call that right. If it's a rough environment you grew up in, you can kind of move towards eventually move towards doing stuff like that, because everything around you does stuff like that. Now, is that an excuse? No, because there's a lot of people who come out from those places who are really successful and who are really decent, great, great person.

Linda: 18:14

Amazing people.

Enrique: 18:16

So you can live in a shitty environment. Parents hate each other. They fight. All the time your mom leaves Is drunk, all the time they leave you there. Whatever the shitty is environment you can imagine and I understand if that person grows up and has problems, because obviously that's not a great place to grow up, an environment to grow up.

Enrique: 18:36

So I would understand if that person has problems, but at the end of the day it's still an excuse because I believe everybody. The way the person can mold their own future, I don't believe. Even if it's the shittiest one, you have to. At the end you can make that decision, you can choose. You can choose not to do this, you can choose to do something.

Linda: 19:01

I completely agree, whether you need help.

Enrique: 19:04

you might need more help. You might need good friends. You might need counseling. You might need somebody like a fatter figure, somebody who can mold you, even your shitty past that can take you through the right path. You might need that.

Linda: 19:16

I think in that case you might need to have to go outside of your environment If you're having that shitty situation.

Enrique: 19:22

And then your friends, who you're hanging out with are people who are in the bad world, who are in a world that is doing bad shit. Obviously, you can end up doing stuff like them in the future.

Enrique: 19:32

Yes, but again, at the end, that person made all their choices. That person chose to go with peace people. That person chose yeah. So at the end of the day, it's still excuses, unless you really have a mental problem. Let's say you're born and you have a mental deficiency. You're not a hundred percent perfect, normal person. There's something wrong with you and it's. It's. It's factual and it's the doctors and medically you are. You're like there's something issue with you. If that's the case, that's the only time that there could be like you could say okay, this is. This person can really make his own choices perfectly. He can rationalize the same way. You see what I'm saying.

Linda: 20:24

But that's why that's why.

Enrique: 20:26

That's why some situations where there's found out that there's you know how to call it a mental health issues, like somebody has some mental disorder or something, that's why they don't they don't end up going to jail. That's why they go into a mental institution because there's an issue with that person. You know, if it you're mentally sane, you'll go to jail. If you use some shit like that, if you're not mentally sane, they'll have to send you to a mental institution. I'm not saying you're gonna be free. You kill three people because you're mentally ill. Oh, let's him, let us let him walking down the street. No, it's like a jail for men for the mind. You go to a mental institution, right, but but you? But they won't put you in jail because you're not. They. They realize you're not a sane person. You're not. You're not a hundred percent cable. Now do some people, do some people what I like? I say use that to get out of something.

Enrique: 21:24

Yes, yes, they also do some people might be sane and they use that they're mentally disabled or whatever by a doctor or something, just so that they can cross that they can slide, that can also happen and that's happened a lot of times where you're you're deemed mentally unstable when you're really a hundred percent stable but you're deemed like that just because they don't.

Enrique: 21:44

They they want to either minimize your time that you would have to be in jail or you they want one of something. You know they try to get away from something, so they use that that so that that's also used. So I'm not saying it's a hundred percent right, because a lot of times people use that to get out of stuff.

Linda: 22:02

I think also another factor, and I might get in trouble by saying this I think, when these people are emotionally affected to make this type of decisions and they truly don't have control over the right decision and to make the right decision in my opinion that weakness because you don't have the power to control yourself into making those bad decisions and also is a matter of choosing the wrong path you know is the wrong path, but you still do it. So for me that is weakness, personally, I mean other people might disagree with me, but for me I think that's that's weakness. What do you think about it?

Linda: 22:55

you could say is a type of weakness because you don't have control over your emotions, you, you lost it. That that's why I think it's weakness anyway let me talk to you about.

Enrique: 23:12

So, for example, when these things and active shooting happens, you know we've been discussing type of measures that you can use to kind of mitigate this stuff and there's a couple that been used which is like, for example, the physical security measures which has been coming in place and that's your typical. You know, like cameras, surveillance cameras. You know, if you go to like public stuff, they put like those, those bars, like those gates or you know those bars, whatever, so that people can go to some places and they have them like controlled. You know what I can said putting more security personnel in places, like guards or officers or whatever it is. Those are like your physical security measures that you can use.

Enrique: 24:03

I frankly don't like this, that there, because I know they're doing this shit in school now. I know it's necessary. At the moment I don't know if it's effective because they said that's still happening even with all this stuff in place, but I kind of think it's necessary. But I also don't like it because why the kids now kids got to go to school through metal detectors, I don't know like they might have some dude, some arm officers with like machine guns or whatever in the entrance now. So it looks like you're, I don't know. Like sometimes they might look like you're going to the jail, like, instead of school, the way they have it. You know that shit shouldn't be in school, right? They're talking about putting guns with teachers, that's. I heard that shit in Texas. You know, I'm like what the? You know I don't want to say the bad word, but I'm saying what the? What the hell is that? I mean putting guns with teachers, like is that gonna solve anything?

Linda: 25:00

oh that's doom they will get nervous they have 20 kids and they don't even know how to use the guns. Yeah, the first reaction is like get nervous and they want to protect the kids saying that they're gonna give them training.

Enrique: 25:11

I don't give a shit if they're saying they're gonna be in a train. That's not. That's not gonna make any difference when you get trained for two weeks and all of a sudden you know what, how to act in that situation. No, that's. That's a dumb. Whatever decision they're making, that's completely dumb. About just giving somebody they're there to teach. A teacher is there to teach, to teach kids how to become better people in the future, to learn, to educate themselves. It's not there to get a gun and and check for safety with kids. No, that's not their job. That's a police officer's job, that's the military's job, whatever on somebody who trained for that. Not a teacher. They're not there for that somebody that is not gonna be hesitated.

Linda: 25:49

Shoot a person when some that person is not doing the right thing, again, again.

Enrique: 25:52

If I was a teacher, if I studied to teach people about a subject, about whatever it is, that is my passion, that is what I want to do with kids. I'm not there. So you give me some ammunition and ammo and a weapon so I can protect them for what I don't. That's not what I was there for that's not what the whole thing is.

Linda: 26:14

The other fact what if one kid now you have guns in all of those teachers classrooms? What if one day, one of the kids get upset with something that happened in school and was they, get a gun from the school and they start shooting other kids or teachers? Well, I mean, we're just hopefully find a situation you're going to limb there.

Enrique: 26:38

Hopefully they they have these things locked down and stored whatever. But I'm just saying obviously that's what happened.

Enrique: 26:45

It could happen. But I'm just saying let's not go on a limb and think this is, hopefully that doesn't happen, right. I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be smart enough to put these things somewhere where a kid can not reach. But that's one of the other ones but we talked a little bit a while ago which is your mental health supports. So right now in this barry, state by state, to publish to pub, to buy any, any gun or any type of a shoot, shooting like a weapon. You need to be clear by if you're, if you're involved in a mental institution or your some states, even if you're just voluntarily going to a psychologist or something psychiatric thing, they won't allow, they won't let you buy guns. The tip, the problem that we have is that this is a state by state basis, so in the state might tell you no, but in another state they might let you.

Enrique: 27:39

It's a tricky depending on how strict they are with these things, but anyway it's proven, obviously, that mental like it, just because you have a mental problem doesn't mean you're going to be violent or you're going to kill somebody.

Enrique: 27:52

But there's obviously there's been proven that if you have a mental instability there could be a more likelihood, if you're, if you're especially a violent person because of this, that it could lead to this. So obviously a mental health support group getting you knowing this early, you know, knowing, getting to know this early, and putting this person in some treatment and stuff could obviously that could also be a prevention, right, it's like the physical security. Well, this is another type of prevention that they can use now, with the mental health support and so all that stuff. That's why it's so important that that people nowadays acknowledge this and don't don't think, ah, whatever, you know, I'm not that person, I'm not this, you know, like like support anybody who's in, who's willing to go into if they feel like pressure or something where they're breaking down. You know, support that person, support your friend, help them get into the right help that they need, and because these things at the long run has proven to work, what do you think about that?

Linda: 29:00

I actually agree with you. That's definitely a way to minimize a little bit the problem. I wouldn't say we solve it, because still a lot of people are out there that doesn't receive any kind of treatment or don't receive any kind of help, and again it has to do with the whole environment situation If they might not even know that they have it. Actually, they might not even think that they have a problem because they are. If everybody around it are a little bit the same, that's a little bit more difficult when everybody's around this.

Enrique: 29:37

And I think nowadays people need to also help each other.

Enrique: 29:41

And what I mean by this is that if you think and I'm not saying don't judge people just by one thing they do but if you see there's a pattern in a person that you know that it's consistently giving you vibes that this person might be violent and he shows and he puts up people stuff in the social media that's violent and he talks about this thing all the time and he's saying how much hate he has for a certain type of group and then he posts it up again and then he talks about it again and then all he does is this, then that's giving you a little bit of a sign here that maybe you shouldn't just sit around and let this people keep on talking, and maybe in the future you never know when it could snap and something can happen.

Enrique: 30:25

So maybe us need to be more aware of these things and help each other out. You know, I actually told one of my bosses because I had a kid in camp and one of my camps who this kid only taught the only thing he talked about was guns and the kid was always talking about shooting a certain type of people.

Linda: 30:52

Oh, wow.

Enrique: 30:53

Yeah, and it's a kid and me, I was with the counselors and we were like, you know, the first time we heard we were like, joking around, like this kid, we got we scared of you, brother, do we need to be in your good side in the future? You know, like kind of messing with him. But then he kept on doing it every kind of every day that week and we're like, uh oh. So then I ended up telling my boss about it and like, hey, this kid is doing this and this and this and I think. And then I don't know what. I'm pretty sure he contacted whatever who it was he needed to contact to at least check or let him know.

Enrique: 31:30

But I started seeing a pattern with this kid and I'm like, well, let me, you know, this is not kind of normal behavior. Let me just at least let somebody else know who can maybe talk to somebody, maybe their parents or whoever it is that they got to talk to, because this doesn't seem elicits me a little iffy what he's saying. He's saying this every day. So what I'm saying is that I think we have to also be aware and if it's something fishy that it's continuously happening, that's giving you signs and a lot of times these signs end up becoming something, because all these shooters, some of the times when they go through their history, or all these people that have done the shooting and maybe they kill them, because a lot of them end up suiciding, end up killing themselves right after this happens, but when they go, start digging into their history.

Enrique: 32:17

Oh, the profiles Instagram, oh yeah, and you remember this kid when I was little, the ex-friends of them oh yeah, he used to be a violent kid, oh yeah. So all these things start coming out like, okay, so there was a pattern that maybe if they would have you know, known about this, you could have maybe prevented something like this from happening, right? So that's why I think us need to be more aware of these things and if you somebody exhibits these types of behaviors, we at least need to make somebody aware of this right, maybe somebody who's a who could maybe do something about it or at least check on this right. Check on this person or check something. I'm not saying all of a sudden he's a bad person. I'm just saying check on him, because maybe that's a person that if you send him to a good men's health support or something, maybe you can. That's somebody that you could have.

Linda: 33:13

Guy in a better avoid.

Enrique: 33:14

It's something else worse happening.

Linda: 33:16

Yes, yes, guiding to a better path.

Enrique: 33:19

That's a I think us as human beings and as persons and as co-livers in this human in this world, need to be more aware of. Now the last one, or that this is the most controversial one, is obviously the gun control policies. This is the most controversial one because you got your bunch of pro-gons and you got your bunch of people who are against guns.

Linda: 33:49

And there is people that they just want safety.

Enrique: 33:52

Yeah, but and here's my take I'm going to first show you my take. I'm not against. I mean, I'm sorry, I'm not pro-gun. I myself I'm against guns. However, I'm not one of these guys that are going to go out there and say take everybody's guns away.

Linda: 34:14

No, we understand the right.

Enrique: 34:16

We understand the right that you can bear arms. Now I believe that it's too easy to do it at the moment.

Linda: 34:24

Yes.

Enrique: 34:25

And I think that can create a problem.

Linda: 34:27

I can literally go right now and buy a gun.

Enrique: 34:31

Well, anybody can do it. I'm just saying, obviously there's some type of things that, for example, there's states that have, there's states that have more strict laws than others.

Enrique: 34:38

We live in Texas, or ours is a lot more easy guns, not as gun strict right, it's really, it's a more liberal and that's. You can easy to buy a gun right in our state. But there's always they always do a screening. I think that every place does a criminal record. If you have, obviously, if you're a criminal record, you're not going to let you buy a gun right. But right now anybody can go. I can go to Walmart, I can go to Academy Sports, I can go to any of these places and buy guns pretty easily, easily.

Linda: 35:13

In fact.

Enrique: 35:14

I think goes through that I'm not a criminal, whatever the background. Check easy, buy 15 if I want to and take them home.

Enrique: 35:23

I'm going to stop you because I'm just going to give you a little story when we move here actually we were in chalk- Our first time we went to Academy when we went to Academy and they were guns and it was just like buying absolutely anything look like I was in a military compound and I was like OK, let me, I can pick wherever I want. Yes, I mean they got all these rows of everything, everything. Remember when we come from. That's not. You can't do that.

Linda: 35:47

That's not normal.

Enrique: 35:49

I mean, there's gun stores where you can go, but it's not like you see it in your, in your local grocery store. You just go and see them all over and there display display, right, you don't?

Enrique: 36:00

you got to go to a specific store for this stuff To buy them. So for us that was a shock, right? Yeah, what I'm trying to say is I just don't think it's necessary in that way. Now I know you're gonna disagree with me, it's fine. Again, I'm not saying I'm not Pro it, completely against them, right? I'm not saying guy ready, she's not there, stuff removed and now this thing's the worst thing ever. No, you know, because I do know about safety. Now a Person can choose to have their firearm or not. That's completely fine.

Enrique: 36:40

I believe that there should be allowed to buy one, but following certain protocols. I just don't think it should be as easy as it is now. I know I don't know what the government needs to do. I don't know what these rules needs to be. I don't know how strict they got to be, maybe then. But I'm just saying it shouldn't be as easy as it is at the moment. I Think everybody in their house, if they want to have a gun to protect themselves, if somebody wants to enter your house or somebody, you should. If you want to, you should. Now, if you're against it, you don't need. You don't want to buy a gun. Don't buy a gun. Then you don't have a gun in your house. Maybe you defend yourself with a bat or a knife or whatever. It is right, but I Believe everybody should have that right Now. The other thing I'm against it's okay If you want to have a handgun, a revolver, whatever, it is fine.

Enrique: 37:33

I don't understand the reasoning of having M4s and military great weapons. That's the, that's the other stuff that I'm like. What? What there's makes no sense. Are we going to war? It's people going to war. What do we need? Weapons that are meant for military? What's the purpose? You know there's Our people here. Are we in a civil war and are in the state and we need to be protecting ourselves with these type of weapons? No, so why? Why do I need to have it? Because obviously, if I'm gonna do a, an active shooter, you're not coming to the revolver. It's fatal, the same as the military great weapon, but the revolver maybe has seven or eight derounds and the other one has 40 or 60. So by the and it's it's a lot, it shoots a lot faster. So by the time I go I can kill way more than if I have the other one right. So these are type of things that I also do not understand why, why it's like that, why it's that is allowed, why I mean just why, in general, like there's a reason in there, their military great weapons, there's a reasoning because they're military. So I, that's another one. It's not. Obviously.

Enrique: 38:48

There's your hunting stuff. Listen, hunting rifle, stuff like that. Yeah, if you're going hunting, great, have your rifle, hunting rifle. Okay, fine, maybe they should, they should have a license for hunting. Maybe they can have different type of you know, oh, you're, you're a hunter, you like to. You have a. You go hunting season? Great, here's your weapon, but that's fine. There's rifles, and I know all the stuff that they use for hunting, but that's not an M4, right, where it's not a Machine gun or Whatever, it is right. You don't need all that stuff. I Know, I know sometimes you can go to these gun shows and you can even buy grenades and shit. I'm like, wait, hey, like what do you need all this shit? You know, like I don't understand because it.

Linda: 39:28

And then are you going to protect yourself?

Enrique: 39:32

I've been to people's houses who have they. Oh, they click a button and they. This thing opens up and they got enough weapons there.

Enrique: 39:41

For, like in the movie or Rambo, you see more weapons in this guy's house and a Rambo. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, I know this dude, he's a good dude, he's a nice dude, hasn't shown anything. You know the guy's, it's top tier class person. But what if this dude Was in my friend or wasn't somebody? I know, that's a great person and what some dudes. That's a little iffy. And he has all this stuff in this house and all of a sudden he gets up one day and he gets on the wrong side of the bed and he and he shows up and he's pissed up with the world, Whatever he's like, mad or whatever and everything. And he just has enough stuff in his house to blow up a Half a you know, the whole block in his, in his, in his, in his neighborhood if he wants to. So that does the stuff that I'm saying. Maybe limited the amount of weapons somebody can buy. I don't know. There's needs to be some type of Restrictions that I think would help. Now I know the people. What people are gonna counter me with? Oh, oh, bad guys are gonna buy the guns anyway. This and that I'm like, of course, we all know it in Puerto Rico, all the bad guys have guns here. All the bad guys will have guns in the other state all the bad guys without guns. Now Are we all of a sudden we're a John Wick? All all civilians are John Wick's. Or you see bad guys going over with. Like you say, bad guys have a gun right and we have guns right because we can buy guns. So we're John Wick's.

Enrique: 41:16

The dude comes out in Walmart or whoever. I'm just I'm, just give me example. I'm, I keep using Walmart, but I'm whatever. You know, I'm just saying it could be anywhere. But I'm the dude. Goes up in a store and starts shooting and you have a gun and first of all you got to have a gun. But let's say, you have a gun yourself and all of a sudden, you're not gonna shit yourself, you're not gonna have any fear, you're not gonna start running around like crazy. You're not gonna forget that you even have a gun on the first place. You're not gonna try to dodge bullets, you're not gonna try to. You're, all of a sudden gonna have the still mind and the finesse and you're gonna be like a stone-blot killer and you're gonna come out there, bring your gun out, start doing 360 moves around, dodge bullets around and start shooting people.

Linda: 41:58

No, and I should the right person.

Enrique: 42:01

You're not trained for that. Don't give me that shit. Unless you were an ex-military or you an ex somebody, special forces or whatever. You're not gonna be dad, I don't. When people tell me this, I start laughing. I'm like are you serious? You really think if two people come up shooting you're just gonna act cool and you're not gonna get stressed. You're nothing's gonna go through your mind, you're just gonna be stone cold, relax. No, everybody I don't give a shit who you are Everybody when you're in danger, you're gonna. Your instinct of survival is gonna kick in and you're gonna try to run duck, whatever it is. But you're not gonna all of a sudden stand your ground, go up and let them shoot you three times. Yes, you can use the dude. No, that's not gonna come through your mind, unless you were trained for that With years of training or experience.

Enrique: 42:53

So I don't give a shit what people say. That's not true. Okay, if it happens one or two times, oh great, it happened. That's not the majority of time, it's not gonna happen. So I don't believe what they say. Bad guys will have guns. Yes, bad guys were always gonna find a way to buy guns.

Enrique: 43:12

Now they will kill each other the problem is when the dude who goes to Rob elementary and you Valdee, who's a 19 year old kid who has guns in his house no prior criminal records or whatever dudes, not a criminal, but he has guns he shows up in the school, kills to a bunch of kids and some teachers and shit. That's the problem. That's the one you could have. You could avoid it. You can't avoid the dude who's a, who's the criminal, who's a whatever in ex-place, who has a beef with some other dude and comes up with this gang and then shoot Him up. No, you can't avoid that dude. That dude's gonna do it regardless.

Enrique: 43:45

You can avoid the dude who does this, tap a stuff, the guy who goes I'm Manila Bay, who's got guns, who goes up there, parks up in the whatever floor it is and start shooting down the window to people in a concert. You can avoid that dude If he's not easy to get guns by him, because obviously he's not a criminal. He became a criminal, but he wasn't a criminal prior to that. Those are the dudes you can avoid. The other dudes there's no way you can avoid him. Puerto Rico, there's killings all over the place, all over the time. There's criminals all over the time.

Linda: 44:15

But but civilians in Puerto Rico.

Enrique: 44:17

It's not who had guns and it and became mentally unstable. I went to some school or some movie theater and start shooting and I was in a criminal. So I didn't know how to get guns and I and if it wasn't easy I wouldn't have been able to grab a gun and and maybe do that what I did. You see what I'm saying. That's what we can avoid. So that's why I believe in I do believe in print control policies. I don't believe in Eradicating guns. I don't believe that. I think everybody should still have the right to bear guns.

Linda: 44:50

Yes, in Puerto Rico you can have guns, but it is stricter than.

Enrique: 44:53

But there's a little more difficulty getting them and there should be limitations on the amount of guns and the type of guns you can buy. That's what I believe and, again, this is my opinion. I respect you guys opinions. If your pro guns and whatever, and the way it is set up right now, that's the right way for you, I respect it. I'm not gonna come here and disagree with you and that I'm not gonna start a fight with you or whatever. I don't. That's not the point. The point is to try to build some awareness on this. Maybe have you think you know, like we're talking to each other.

Enrique: 45:26

Let's think I'm gonna tell you my, my opinion. You tell me your opinion.

Linda: 45:30

Let's see how we can become, come to an agreement, you know yes, come to a place where both of us can can unite and I think the other point of this podcast is, besides create awareness, to show you what are the stats, what is the information that is out there, and that this skill Keeps increasing, so it's actually getting worse.

Linda: 45:56

Yes so we need to do something about this. We need to try to find ways to solve this problem, because right now it's not just a little problem, it's becoming a big problem, and when you come from other places Thinking that you are safe and suddenly you are not safe, then what is it? What is the purpose? This is America. That's the whole dream. It's not just to buy a house, is to be safe.

Enrique: 46:23

Yeah, safety's first, I feel safety, health, then wealth. Yes so you know, I just we wanted to talk about, like I said, we don't want to want to Talk more about this. I know this is not a great subject, it's not kind of depressing, but we have to be.

Enrique: 46:43

We, we taught, we, you know, we, we saw and we heard about what happened and, like I said, it all came out from that from the active shooter incident in the In the parade of the Kansas City sheeps after they won the Super Bowl, and you know, we just we kind of had enough and we it's like you know we have to at least talk about it, at least, maybe also as a therapy for both of us, even if a lot of people don't listen to us, but Maybe they listen to us in the future, who knows? But, we needed to at least talk about it as a therapy kind of yeah but I Think I think I've had enough about talking about this subject. I think I don't. It puts you in a kind of the pressing mood.

Enrique: 47:31

It's about state yeah, so I don't we usually like to talk about more up Uplifting stuff, but you know there's sometimes that during life you know there's your ups and your downs, and this was a little bit of a down, but I feel like we we wanted to give our opinion and Maybe we sparked some ideas out there for other people and people who are maybe are not completely supportive of our ideas. But maybe you listen to us and it Resonates it night something different. Maybe you can think about a different way you didn't thought about before and maybe it helps us heal each other as humans and maybe Unite and be better persons in the future and grow from this right and then maybe Lay this foundation for future, for our kids or future generations, so that they learn learn how to be a little more you know, live more in harmony and be more helpful. Because I think nowadays the world is, people are too like, there's too much hate and too much shit going on and.

Enrique: 48:31

I think you know, at the end of the day, we're all. We're all from the same. You know we're the same, we're all humans, doesn't matter with your religion or where you come from or the color of your skin anything. We're just, we're the same at the end of the day. You all have two feet, we all have two hands, heart, five fingers. One heart, one brain.

Linda: 48:50

You know, it's the same.

Enrique: 48:51

I mean, it doesn't really matter. So I Don't know. I just felt like I wanted to talk about this, give you my opinion, give our opinions about the subject and hopefully you guys. You know, it makes you think, it makes you analyze the situation and then maybe Let it known to the right personnel and right people in the government, whoever who can make some type of change around this, because the more people will unite, the more people or give their opinion about subjects, the more maybe we can make some change happen. We'd stay quiet. Never. There's never gonna be any change.

Enrique: 49:24

Okay, so, uh, I think that covers up for today. I don't know how long this went, but, uh, it doesn't matter. I think it was needed. We still we don't know. I think next week's gonna be another surprise, when I don't think we've talked about our next one. That we're gonna. We want to say, but Stay tuned for that. Remember, you can follow us on wherever you get your podcast Spotify, apple Music, Amazon. We're in other places too, but you gotta you know Wherever you listen to. I'm pretty sure we're, we're in one of those, and then we also are on YouTube. Honey, let's do a podcast. We got our Instagram. We got our Instagram. Let's do a podcast. We got our Instagram, we got email.

Linda: 50:03

Actually, if you're a visual person, I think YouTube will be the best choice, because we will be showing some graph.

Enrique: 50:09

Yeah, we'll put some graphs up and step on word.

Linda: 50:12

Yeah, and that does does help for those visual learners.

Enrique: 50:15

Yeah, but if not, if you just want to listen to audio, we're in your Wherever you get your audio podcast to. Yes, but again, my name is Enrique. This is Linda. We thank you so much for listening to us today. Hopefully you're not. You didn't get that that down on it. I know it's a little down subject, but hopefully you didn't didn't put you down too much. Hopefully it made you think, hopefully you open your mind to different ideas and Hopefully we can, like I said, we can all grow from this and become better persons. Anyway, thanks for listening to us, thanks for watching us if you're in YouTube.

Enrique: 50:49

Yes we'll see you the next Wednesday and hope you guys have a great rest of your day with your night depending on the time that you are and and see you guys, stay safe.

Linda: 50:59

Bye.