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Daniel “Bud” Williams was only 16 when he was shot outside his home in Buffalo, NY, in August of 2003. The handgun used to severely wound the high school basketball star was traced to a gunrunner, who had purchased over 250 guns at a Dayton, Ohio gun show in a mere 6 months. Almost 100 of those weapons – mostly “Saturday night special” handguns – had been purchased from a single dealer, via straw purchases,  paid for in cash. The gun runner then brought those guns to Buffalo, where they were sold on the street for two to three times the purchase price. 

Bud, and his family, along with Brady Legal and outside counsel, brought a lawsuit against the gun companies that had allowed these illegal sales to take place. That suit, Williams v. Beemiller, led to a landmark decision: for the first time since the passage of PLCAA, a court ruled that a gun manufacturer and distributor can be held liable for supplying guns to traffickers. 

To discuss how the Williams family brought this case, and what it meant for gun violence more broadly, two men who worked on the case --  Jonathan Lowy, Senior Counsel and VP of Brady Legal, and  James W. Grable, Jr, Partner at Connors LLC and co-counsel in this case -- joined hosts  Kelly and JJ. 

Mentioned in this podcast:
The damage done (the Buffalo News)
Firearms industry's immunity may not be bulletproof (the Buffalo News)
Real gun reform without Congress: Lawsuits demolish the "good guy with a gun" (Salon)

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby

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For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

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On November 6th, 2015, a gun was acquired illegally via straw purchase.

On November 7th, 2015, Donald Rice (75) and his wife Ladonna (71), were shot and killed with that gun, during a home robbery. The assailants then set fire to the Rices' home in an attempt to cover up their crime.

Miles away from Midway, Arkansas, Judy and Bill Miller, got a terrifying call. Judy, Don's sister, was left waiting to hear what had happened to her beloved older brother. In the days that followed the shooters were apprehended, but questions were raised: how did they get access to the gun?

In the days, weeks, months, and years that followed, Bill and Judy, along with Brady legal and outside council, joined together to bring a suit against the seller who allowed this straw purchase – all to help prevent such a tragedy from happening to other families. Today, they joined hosts Kelly and JJ, as well as  Erin Davis (Senior Counsel with Brady Legal) who worked on the case, to discuss Don and Ladonna, what the case was like, and what fighting for gun violence prevention means for them. 

Mentioned in this podcast:
US Supreme Court Upholds Law Prohibiting Straw Purchase of Guns (Brady)
Amid Dearth of Federal Action on Straw Buyers, States Forge Ahead on Their Own (the Trace)

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

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For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

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In 2002, two shooters killed 17 people and injured 9 during a nine-month rampage across the country. Ten of those killings, and three woundings, occurred over just three weeks in areas around Washington, DC, which is why these horrific events have since been called the Beltway Sniper or DC Sniper attacks. 

After the shooters were caught, law enforcement discovered that the perpetrators had obtained their gun, a Bushmaster XM-15 E2S .223 caliber semi-automatic assault rifle, from a gun store that had no record of selling the weapon. The store was found to have run itself in a grossly negligent manner; in the three years before the attacks, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had found that over 200 firearms had vanished from the merchant's inventory. Brady, in cooperation with outside counsel, survivors, and victims' families, then brought a lawsuit against the dealer and Bushmaster, the manufacturer of the rifle used. 

In this episode, host JJ is joined by Jonathan Lowy, Senior Counsel and VP of Brady Legal, to discuss that lawsuit — Johnson v. Bullseye — which alleged that the store was responsible for the attacks due to its grossly negligent sales practices having allowed the shooters to acquire the weapon used. The suit also ventured that Bushmaster should be held accountable for continuing to supply the store despite years of ATF audits documenting myriad egregious violations. Lastly, the suit claimed that the defendants created a public nuisance by distributing and selling guns in such a grossly negligent manner.

Mentioned in this podcast:
The case of Johnson v. Bullseye (Brady)
D.C. sniper case settlement said to be reached (NBC News)
Sniper Victims Join Lawsuit to Fight Gun Use (Washington Post)
Brady Publishes Largest Searchable Database of ATF Inspection Reports (Brady)

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode a

Support the show

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

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Rachel Renee Duncan was a kindhearted, talented 25-year-old. Close with her family and beloved by her friends, her death in March of 2018 devastated her loved ones and community. Her murder, at the hands of an ex-boyfriend, should have never happened. Rachel had filed for, and received, a personal protection order that prohibited the shooter from purchasing or possessing firearms.

And yet, two weeks later the shooter nevertheless gained access to a gun at a gun store/shooting range, where he rented a firearm and then simply walked out the front door with it. Within an hour of leaving the range, the shooter went to Rachel’s work, and killed her. 

Since then, Rachel’s mother, Gail Duncan, has fought to raise awareness of domestic violence and gun violence. In 2020, Gail joined Brady Legal and co-counsel Sommers Schwartz, P.C., to file a first-of-its-kind wrongful death lawsuit against the range that allowed the shooter to leave with a gun. In doing so, Gail hoped to be a voice for her daughter — and to save other families from experiencing the same pain.

Hosts Kelly and JJ are joined by Gail, as well as Jonathan Lowy (Senior Counsel and VP of Brady Legal) and Erin Davis (Senior Counsel with Brady Legal) who worked on the case, to discuss what happened to Rachel, what loopholes exist within gun laws, and what it’s like to pursue legal relief after a shooting.

Mentioned in this podcast:
Michigan Mother Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit (Brady)
Beyond Bullet Wounds: Guns in the Hands of Domestic Abusers (Brady)
Police: Man stole gun from shooting range before killing ex-girlfriend (Lansing State Journal)
Firearms and domestic violence: the intersections (Office of

Support the show

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

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Like other forms of intimate partner violence, teen dating violence encompasses a wide range of abusive behavior, from physical violence to emotional abuse to sexual coercion. A 2019 study found that nearly 1.5 million young adults and teens in the US – that's one out of three young people – have experienced an abusive relationship before reaching adulthood. Access to firearms only increases the risk for teenagers, as intimate partner violence involving a firearm is twelve times more likely to result in a fatality than any other weapon. 

But while we know that in domestic violence situations involving adults that when an abusive partner has access to a firearm a domestic violence victim is five times more likely to be killed, we don't have statistics on the risk to young people, due in large part to a 1995 provision called the Dickey Amendment,  which prohibited the use of federal funds to advocate or promote "gun control."

To honor Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, and to bring attention to how we can all make one another safer,  hosts Kelly and JJ are joined by Dr. Annah Bender, assistant professor at University of Missouri–St. Louis’, who is an expert on intimate partner violence, firearms access, and dealing with trauma. 

To get help specifically targeted to teens, you can contact the  national teen domestic violence support hotline at 1-866-331-9474 by texting LOVEIS to 22522 or by going online at  https://www.loveisrespect.org/ .

You can also contact the national domestic violence hotline at 1-800-799-7233 by texting START to 88788 or by going online at  https://www.thehotline.org/. 

Mentioned in this podcast:
Teen Dating Violence Prevention Resources for 2022 (NSVRC)
Preventing Teen Dating Violence (CDC)
Guns and Intimate Partner Violence among Adolescents: a Scoping Review (Journal of Family Violence)
Teen Dating Violence Is an Indicator of Gun Violence (Teen Vogue)

Support the show

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

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As a young man growing up in rural Kansas, Ryan Busse grew up with guns. An avid hunter and environmentalist, he was thrilled when he got a position with the firearms manufacturer Kimber America  — which for him, "was like a kid who loved baseball getting called up into the majors."

Yet, decades later, he would leave the business he once loved after becoming disillusioned with the industry's response to mass shootings and increasing violence. In his new book Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America, Busse lays out the ways in which the gun lobby slowly changed the way gun manufacturers did business, the rise of dangerous rhetoric, and the increasing role fear played in decision making (and sales). Busse joined  hosts Kelly and JJ to discuss how those changes happened, how the gun industry abandoned traditional gun owners, and what we all can do to fight back against a growing divide.

Mentioned in this podcast:
With ‘Gunfight,’ an Insider Takes On a Community That Was Once His Own (New York Times)
Blowing the Whistle on the Gun Industry (the Daily Show)
The New West: Ryan Busse’s ‘Gunfight’ among most important books written about guns (Explore Big Sky)

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

Support the show

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

Send us a text

Why do folks support things that go against their best interests, or sometimes even harm them? For example, we know that most firearm suicides in the US are white men living in rural communities; and yet, that demographic votes against many polices that may help curb the number of gun suicide deaths.  Why is there that disconnect? What factors into that decision making?

To try to find answers to that very large question, hosts Kelly and JJ are joined by Dr. Jonathan M. Metzl, the Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry, and the director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Metzl is also the author of books like Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland,  the Protest Psychosis, and Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality.

Mentioned in this podcast:
'Dying of whiteness': why racism is at the heart of America's gun inaction (the Guardian)
How race permeates the politics of gun control (CNN)
Guns and race: The different worlds of black and white Americans (Brookings)
Gun crazy: For too many Americans, guns are tied to masculinity, patriotism and white power (Salon) 

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

Support the show

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

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What is a firearm? Is a gun just a weapon, or is it also a symbol of freedom? A mark of masculinity? A token of white supremacy? Just a tool? Or can a gun be all that and more, depending on the wielder?

Anthropologist Brandon Hunter-Pazzara joins hosts Kelly and JJ to discuss how guns can have "social lives"— how they can be transformed into a multitude of identities and uses, and how understanding that transformation (and it's many contexts) can better help us fight back against gun violence.

Mentioned in this podcast:
The possessive investment in guns: towards a material, social, and racial analysis of guns
(Palgrave Communications)
What guns mean: the symbolic lives of firearms (Palgrave Communications)
Gun that killed Trayvon Martin 'makes $250,000 for Zimmerman' (BBC)  
Gun Control: It's Really About Guns As Symbols, Not Weapons (Psychology Today)
Men, Dogs, Guns, and Cars--The Semiotics of Rugged Individualism (Journal of Advertising) 

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

Support the show

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

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While discussions of white supremacy (the belief that the United States was, and should, remain a mostly white country) have been increasingly discussed, there has been a part of the equation we haven't really touched on: the role white women have played in protecting and perpetuating white supremacist hatred.

While white nationalist groups may be dominated by hypermasculine, misogynist rhetoric, they nevertheless hold many women in their ranks, from the Ku Klux Klan to the Aryan Nation to the alt right. But role do these women play, and what made them join these hate groups? What made them so vulnerable, and then so supportive, of hateful propaganda? And disturbingly, how do people get radicalized into committing violence?

To find out, hosts Kelly and JJ are joined by journalist and author Seyward Darby, author of the book Sisters in Hate: American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism . Together, we discuss: how through profiling three prominent women in the white nationalist movement*, Darby traces out what propelled these women (and many like them) into white nationalism; how insidious this rhetoric is; and what we all can do to combat hate-based violence.

*One woman profiled, Corinna, has left the alt right - you can learn about her journey in episode 97 of this podcast

Mentioned in this podcast:
Origin of an Insurrection (Brady)
Finding the Women of the White Nationalist Movement (CNN)
How Do Women Become White Supremacists (Rolling Stone)
The Women Behind the Alt-Right (The Atlantic) 

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

Support the show

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

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This week, an armed man, making anti-Semitic statements, entered the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, while members celebrated Shabbat morning services. What followed was a ten-hour hostage crisis  that thankfully ended when Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker threw a chair at the gunman, and the congregants were able to run to safety. 

But this terrifying attack isn't the first act of violence based in antisemitism; and, as many experts warn, it might not be the last. To discuss what happened in Colleyville, how anti-Jewish prejudice has become mixed with gun violence, hate crimes, and how we can all push back against this violence, hosts Kelly and JJ are joined by Shira Goodman,  Director of Campaigns and Outreach at the Anti-Defamation League. 

Mentioned in this podcast:
Rep. Lauren Boebert Asked A Group Of Jewish Capitol Visitors If They Were Doing "Reconnaissance" (Buzzfeed News)
Kevin McCarthy Leads House GOP In Blasting Marjorie Taylor Greene's Holocaust Remarks (NPR)
The world has moved on from Colleyville. American Jews can't. (Vox)
Extremists Respond to Colleyville Hostage Crisis with Antisemitism, Islamophobia (ADL)

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady

Support the show

For more information on Brady, follow us on social media @Bradybuzz or visit our website at bradyunited.org.

Full transcripts and bibliographies of this episode are available at bradyunited.org/podcast.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
In a crisis? Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor 24/7.

Music provided by: David “Drumcrazie” Curby
Special thanks to Hogan Lovells for their long-standing legal support
℗&©2019 Red, Blue, and Brady