The latest updates on the shooting at an Oregon community college, a look back at the O.J. Simpson trial, Natasha Lyonne talks 'Addicted to Fresno.'
Why it’s so hard to pass effective gun control laws
Authorities are searching for a motive a day after 26-year-old Chris Mercer walked into a community college in rural Oregon and began shooting.
Mercer gunned down 10 people before he was killed in a shootout with police.
In a statement later that afternoon, a frustrated President Obama blasted gun groups for standing in the way of -- what he calls -- common sense gun laws. It was the 15th time the president has spoken in the wake of a mass shooting.
Major gun control legislation is often a non-starter in American politics. Though many states have adopted stricter controls, mass shootings continue to be a frequent occurrence.
UCLA constitutional law professor Adam Winkler tells Take Two that large-scale reforms would require congressional action.
“Things are stalled in congress, there’s no denying that,” Winkler says. But he says, it’s not for the reasons that one might expect. “I think the NRA can deliver votes on election day. In close tight elections -- like so many of our elections are in America these days -- you need that three or four or five percent of people who are single-issue gun voters.”
He adds that if gun control proponents want to see the laws change, they must match the NRA’s power at the polls.
According to Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been 294 incidents in 2015 alone. Winkler says it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why there are so many shootings in America.
“We don’t have a lot of research and data into gun violence prevention,” he says. “The NRA has succeeded in sort of shutting down the spigot of federal research money -- that goes into public health research -- from going towards studies that might support gun control.”
Daniel Webster, director for the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, has studied American mass shooters. He says many of them share some common traits.
“I think it reflects a number of things in our society -- of people wanting attention who feel sort of alienated,” Webster says. But he adds that there is a single factor that sets America apart from other developed nations. “We can’t lose sight of the fact that it’s just far easier to get a gun if you are a dangerous person in the United States than practically any place,” he says.
Press the blue play button above to hear more.
US immigration law at 50: past, present and future of a landmark legislation
Fifty years ago this weekend, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Immigration and Nationality Act, transforming the nation's immigration policy for generations to come.
In many ways, the current debate over immigration has its roots in this landmark legislation. Signed in 1965, during the upheaval in the US over civil rights and anti-communist conflict abroad, the legislation aimed to overhaul an outdated system based on quotas and boost the US image overseas.
In many ways it gets to the core of our national identity: who are we as Americans? What are the rights and responsibilities of a citizen?
For a look at how this influential law came to be and what it means for the future of US immigration policy, we're joined by two guests:
Erika Lee is director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota and author of The Making of Asian America.
Marielena Hincapié is director of the National Immigration Law Center, a legal and immigrant rights group.
Remembering the OJ Simpson verdict 20 years later
Twenty years ago, the football hero-turned-actor OJ Simpson was found not guilty of killing his ex-wife and her friend.
The verdict marked the end of 16-months that riveted the nation in what came to be known as the "trial of the century." It also raised many questions about race relations in the United States. These questions are still very much with us.
Jerry Uelmen was one of Simpson's defense attorneys. He joined us to talk about the trial, the media's role and its influence on the law. We were also joined by civil rights attorney, Connie Rice.
Natasha Lyonne and Jamie Babbit on 'Addicted to Fresno'
In the new film, "Addicted to Fresno," Natasha Lyonne plays Martha, a cheerful and sunny lesbian, struggling to find the right woman.
Judy Greer plays Martha's sister Shannon, a jaded and acerbic sex addict who can't seem to help herself from sleeping with every man she meets.
It's a turn for Lyonne to play the supportive sibling when, in real life, she struggled with addiction herself.
But the turn stems from her friendship with the filmmaker Jamie Babbit.
They first paired up in 1999 indie film, "But I'm a Cheerleader," about a cheerleader sent by her parents to a special camp to "cure" her of her lesbianism.
The film was a critical hit and Babbit went on to have a busy career directing both film and in TV; she's worked on hit shows like Malcolm in the Middle, Gilmore Girls and Ugly Betty.
"Addicted to Fresno" comes from a very real place to Babbit, too. Her grandmother was a sex addict herself.
Babbit and Lyonne talks with Alex Cohen about the film and the unusual process in which it got produced.
On the brink of insanity and and foreclosure in '99 Homes'
For research into the 2008 housing market crash, director and co-writer Ramin Bahrani and actor Michael Shannon traveled to its epicenter: Florida.
“I spent some time with real estate brokers, was startled when they all carried guns,” said Bahrani.
Take Two host Alex Cohen spoke with Bahrani and Shannon on how that experience became the premise for the new thriller “99 Homes.”
Shannon plays real estate shark Rick Carver who evicts Dennis Nash, a young father (played by Andrew Garfield), and his family from their home.
Hard on his luck and willing to do whatever it takes to get back his home, Nash joins Carver on a harrowing ordeal to foreclose on others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfttvNCIJvE
Bahrani says Shannon improvs a line in “99 Homes” that defines their experience in Florida.
“The line is: ‘Who wouldn’t want to rather put someone in a home then drag them out of it?’” said Bahrani. “As soon as I heard it, I was smiling at the monitor because I knew where he had gotten that from — It’s the real estate broker both of us spent time with.”
Interview Highlights:
On their experience in Florida’s foreclosure courts.
BAHRANI: They’re known as the ‘rocket dockets,’ where they decide your case in 60 seconds flat. I went with Lynn Szymoniak. She was one of the pivotal forces in the housing crisis. She’s a fraud attorney.
The banks made a huge mistake trying to foreclose on her and she was relentless in understanding what was fraudulent paperwork, and uncovered robo-signing — which was massive. [She] lead a lawsuit against the banks to the tune of $100 million and won.
On playing real estate broker Rick Carver
SHANNON: I think the damage that Rick is causing, I think it's erroneous to assign the full liability to Rick.
Rick’s not going around just yanking random people out of their homes and Rick is playing by and taking advantage of rules that have been in effect for a long time…that benefits people, corporations, banks. He’s basically taken the time and paid enough attention to understand how to manipulate these regulations and laws to his advantage.
He refuses to play the victim. For Rick, you know nobody ever gave him anything. Nobody ever told him, 'oh, this is how you can get ahead.' He figured it out himself and he did it the hard way, and every once in awhile, he’s got to step on somebody’s fingers to get what he wants. But I think it’s hard for him to see people suffer.
On the concept of home
BAHRANI: For [Andrew Garfield’s character], the physical place has a lot of value because it has history and memories in it, and I can relate to that when I go and visit my parents in North Carolina where I was born and raised…
But Michael’s character in the film thinks that they’re just boxes. And the home he has with his beautiful family in the film, he wants to flip next year and make a profit off of. I can understand that too, maybe it is just a physical space.
SHANNON: Well I associate home mostly with people, not the sort of architectural structure. I mean, there are certain places that are significant to me. For example there’s a theatre that I’m a part of in Chicago that I’ve been with for over 20 years, the Red Orchid Theatre. When I walk in there that feels like home…
But also it’s just the people, like if I’m with my kids, then I feel like I’m at home.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
California's million-gallon water guzzlers
California's biggest water waster used 11.8 million gallons last year – enough for 90 households. This number comes from an investigation by Reveal, from the Center of Investigative Reporting, which obtained records from the state’s water agencies.
Of the top 100 users, 92 were in Los Angeles, in tony areas like Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Brentwood. There were 365 California households that used more than a million gallons.
Graph courtesy Reveal, CIR
Reporter Lance Williams joined the show to talk more about patterns of water consumption during a drought, and the difficulty of getting this kind of information.
Get a fuller picture and comprehensive data at Revealnews.org.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
Weekend on the cheap: The Last 'Spookstore,' Vegan Oktoberfest and more
October may have just begun, but the whole month is filled with spooky and fun activities to do each weekend.
KPCC's Kristen Lepore shares some of the scary (and not-so-scary) things to hit up, including "The Last Spookstore" at The Last Bookstore, an outdoor screening of "The Shining" in a cemetery and Vegan Oktoberfest.
Free weekend? Korean Festival, Brewery Artwalk and Vegan Oktober