How Legal Gun Owners Fuel Violent Crime

Coming up on today’s show:

• Every two minutes a gun is stolen in America. In fact, in 2016 alone, there were 237,000 gun thefts. This data comes from a year-long investigation by The Trace and NBC, which finds that “American gun owners, preoccupied with self-defense, are inadvertently arming the very criminals they fear.” Brian Freskos, an investigative reporter with The Trace who led this investigation, has the details. 

• On Monday, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to prevent a deal to merge AT&T and Time Warner. AT&T made it clear that the company plans to challenge the DOJ court. Lina Khan, director of legal policy at the Open Markets Institute and a visiting fellow with Yale Law School, discusses the ins and outs of the suit. 

• A multinational operation is underway to recover an Argentine submarine and its 44-member crew, which has been missing since last Wednesday. Stormy seas have hindered search efforts, but there is a limited amount of oxygen available to the submarine. Paul Byrne, senior producer for The Associated Press, explains.

• A team from CNN, including Senior International Correspondent Nima Elbagir,recently traveled to Libya to investigate the country’s slave auctions and secretly filmed a dozen migrants from Niger being sold for farm work. Elbagir, who described the auction as “one of the most unbelievable things” she had ever seen, explains what she witnessed and how the smugglers’ slave trade operates. 

• Buzkashi is an ancient Afghan game in which horse-mounted players attempt to place a goat or calf carcass in a goal. Jason Motlagh, who was a foreign correspondent covering the war in Afghanistan, returned to the country to cover the sport, which he says represents the country’s current political climate.

• Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist and earned the title as the “father of virtual reality” after he coined the term. He’s now written a new memoir of his life in and out of the virtual world. He joins us to discuss the practical and spiritual sides of VR’s potential. 

This episode is hosted by Todd Zwillich