Responding To Shooting Incidents, Year In Science Headlines, Adult Children Of Abusive Parents

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Holidays are typically a time spent with family, but what about people who grew up in abusive homes? Our guest talks about the difficulty of dealing with abusive parents as an adult. We also recap the biggest math and physics stories in science this year, and learn how police respond to shooting incidents and threats like the one that occurred recently at a Madison mall.

Featured in this Show

  • UW Police Chief Condemns Republican's Pro-Gun Response To Madison Shooting

    University of Wisconsin-Madison’s police chief is taking a Republican state representative to task after the lawmaker called for more citizens to become armed with guns and to end gun-free zones.

    State Rep. Bob Gannon, R-Slinger, released a statement in response to a shooting on Saturday afternoon at the East Towne Mall in Madison. A dispute between teenagers on one of the busiest shopping days of the year left a 19-year-old with a non-life-threatening leg injury. As of Monday, no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting.

    Gannon said in the statement that he thinks gun-free zones aren’t the solution to violence.

    “A gang banger in the mall with a gun is going to think twice if there could be a law abiding (concealed carry weapon) holder standing behind them fully prepared to shoot center mass,” Gannon said in his statement.

    UW-Madison Police Chief Susan Riseling criticized Gannon’s comments on Monday, saying “all the concealed carry in the world” wouldn’t have stopped Saturday’s shooting. In fact, she said she thinks it would put more citizens in danger.

    “I just can’t even fathom how bad that could have gotten so quickly,” she said. “Because people who don’t know who shot the first shot see somebody else with a gun and they don’t know what’s going on. And it’s just more chaos on top of more chaos.”

    Riseling added: “I really think that the representative does not understand the nature of the crime at East Towne (Mall).”

    Gannon has also called for state legislators to quickly pass Assembly Bill 480, which would allow people to carry guns inside public universities and college buildings.

    Riseling rebuked the bill and called for stricter background checks to make sure guns are handled by responsible, law-abiding citizens. She added that giving more people more weapons is “definitely not the answer.”

  • UWPD Police Chief On Responding To Shooting Incidents

    After a shooting at a Madison mall resulted in panic and schools around the country have closed due to threats of violence, we want to know how police respond to these events. A police chief explains how to best handle stressful and possibly dangerous situations.

  • Year In Science: Top Neuroscience, Math, And Physics Stories

    We look at the top neuroscience, math, and physics news stories from 2015 with an editor at Discover Magazine.

  • Grown Children And Abusive Parents Around The Holidays

    The holidays can be an especially difficult time of year for the grown children of abusive parents. We talk to a former advice columnist about this situation and what responsibilities grown children have to their abusive parents.

Episode Credits

  • Veronica Rueckert Host
  • Matt Oleson Producer
  • Amanda Magnus Producer
  • Susan Riseling Guest
  • Sue Riseling Guest
  • Bill Andrews Guest
  • Emily Yoffe Guest

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