What are the origins of the Second Amendment? And what can America’s painful racial history illuminate about our national relationship to guns? 

On this special Live Taping of Now & Then, Heather and Joanne talk to Carol Anderson, professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. 

The trio discuss how the recent spate of mass shootings — and Supreme Court decisions striking down gun control measures in liberal-leaning cities and states — echo the longstanding inequalities embedded in American gun ownership. 

Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history

For more historical analysis of current events, sign up for the free weekly CAFE Brief newsletter, featuring Time Machine, a weekly article that dives into an historical event inspired by each episode of Now & Then: cafe.com/brief

For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/racism-and-the-second-amendment-with-carol-anderson

Now & Then is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network. 

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