italy's prime minister says rome will have to make its own decision about whether to purchase russia sputnik the shot if the e.u. regulator doesn't give the covert vaccine its approval. to british controlled territories reject a government plan to send migrants there for processing the u.k. opposition brands the idea is inhumane and ridiculous. and denmark unveils plans to reduce the number of quote non western residents in some neighborhoods in a bid to improve integration. was their world news headlines for this hour i'll be back with more in just about 60 minutes so i hope to see that.

smith and wesson has been making a lot of money lately making a lot of guns their sales recently doubled over same quarter last year and their website says 911 when you have minutes the 2nd amendment when you don't and that sometimes you have to be your own 1st responder glocks and berettas and 6 hours are other easily concealed semiautomatic pistols that are also selling briskly as are a ar 15 some other tactical type rifles in some places ammunition is being rationed and in january the f.b.i. conducted over 4000000 background checks topping almost 4000000 in december which

was a record slightly fewer last month when winter weather slowed lots of things down on lots of places but fred. where he was still the 7th busiest month since they've been keeping records last year alone there were nearly 4 he 1000000 background checks surpassing the year before which was also a record is an armed america more dangerous plates let's ask veteran washington d.c. metropolitan police officers now criminal justice professor ronald hampton ronald does all of this data horrify law enforcement. i think you. really do think you have to think more about it but that's why. you know i would say. this of people who interest. in purchase a new weapon is to follow the rules and regulations. and and an alarming rate.

and it's always been problematic there in the d.c. area where the gun laws were so strict in the district but a rock n roll across the bridge in virginia and every time a democrat is in the white house gun sales pick up because of fear of regulation lately we've seen these riots at the u.s. capitol and the national shooting sports foundation reports that more than 8000000 americans who have purchased guns in the past year were 1st time buyers ronald what is your advice to new gun owners. well i would add to the number 2 holland that a lot of the gun owners are african-american they purchase and weapons and and is known as. you purchase your weapon then you follow the rules and regulations i think is funny and i don't think that law enforcement is going to be upset with

that what they're going to be paying the tip into is some of these military groups some of the militant groups what watching them and paying attention to them a purchase of weapons because you know that's on the rise it's this on the rocks certainly at jane which 6 they're going to be paying closer to the west when the. simply post sassing a firearm was verboten for so long in d.c. there until that supreme court decision a while back and i remember when the chief turner resigned and ran for mayor there was some controversy about this the former police chief still own a firearm since things have loosened up have guns become more problematic in d.c. . i don't think so i think what we're seeing is pretty much like the history of guns in the city we have a couple of gun units in the pool use

a promise to claim that it's taking aggressively all guns off the street and i think they are i don't know how effective the unit is but. it's about the same in order for d.c. resident of bach they don't have gun stores and won the d.c. you had to go to maryland or virginia purchased a gun and then have a shipped to the police department and then they called you and check you out and there are certain things you have to do in order to ensure a license to have your gun in your home and then if you happen to be somebody who wants to go to route of x. the herring's weapons then you have it's go to some very stringent test as it relates to been able to qualify and all of that so i think they probably would say they probably would say that they have been on the show than watching it and paying close attention to what it is the number is should they aware of the increase in onus of weapons not only here but across. we are speaking with ronald hampton

a long time metropolitan washington d.c. police officer now a university criminal justice professor and ronald it's been exactly a year since they sent me home to do my show i here in rhode island when the pandemic hit and miss seeing you i always enjoyed bump in india with the broadcast center in washington and like many americans i was so sad to see what came down on january sex and even now to see the u.s. capitol the people's house all fenced in with razor wire the way it is described the mood there in the district take us to the streets of washington what's it feel like to be there now. well. in some parts of it it is probably business as usual but when you go down near the capital you had to be very aware of what it is that the fence is up you you see it you see the. national guard

and the police officers the other day when they had. their concern about the. problem all over again i think it was all march to for when it was predicted right you know they sent extra police officers but i think they're doing residence here want to see the city go back to normal and i'm one of those 2 because it really looks strange when you down on 3rd street and you can go into further or you see the fence there and hopefully we're going to get through all of this and be able to have some sense of normalcy but i think as long as the people on the heels below threat no intimidated that i think is correct to make sure that they're going to be safe in their be able to do the job that they do but but it is very strange that i've been home since march the 16th of last year coming up on the working from

and you know it's not easy i'd say it's a home that's not these i know i know i was doing the work in schools and i enjoyed being around the young people too so it's very different. yeah i have enjoyed my time at home here but i'm looking forward to seeing him back there when we're allowed to ronald hampton thank you as always for stepping into the big picture have you gotten your vaccine shot yet if not you will soon president biden says it's going to be enough to go around for every american by the end of may still some are generally wary of vaccines and there is new controversy about the johnson and johnson formula which was developed with fetal cells way back when so those who are strongly pro-life are torn by this and after a year of telecommuting and for many a year with no work at all when things open up will we be welcome back at work

let's ask attorney sarah papen tonio from the 11 papen tonio law firm in pensacola sara for the past year we've heard this pandemic described as unprecedented can an employer require an employee to get vaccinated as a condition of employment. on the short answer that is going to be yes employers will be allowed to require vaccinations but they're certainly going to be limitations so that now the 1st thing you could have to clear up with this is a common mistake that it's this idea that i have rights you can french on my rights now that the idea of you can french on my rights really only applies to government action the government can infringe on rights like right to privacy speech religion but private private businesses and organizations they can as long as they stay within certain parameters like the american with disabilities act the civil rights act so that means that employers can require vaccinations but

a person cannot be pressed to get buy backs a nation if it would be contrary to their health or their religion but aside from nods likely that employers will be able to require that their employees be vaccinated. now. about new hires as a long time long ago long suffering corporate manager i learned that there are a lot of right and wrong questions and answers in job interviews is this the kind of thing that if i'm interviewing a job candidate i am not allowed to bring up. they're certainly going to have to be careful but employers can prior ties safety if there's a direct threat of harm to the workplace and as we've seen it is definitely a direct threat but it gets sticky when you start asking questions and pressing people about why they have or have not gotten the coded vaccine so those questions that get into the nature of a person's health or religion these questions can be construed as a violation of certain employment discrimination laws and so employers are going to

have to be very very careful about how they question in these settings. yeah you mentioned the religious aspect a while ago and this johnson and johnson story is intriguing for that reason is are there other religious. sticky wickets in a job interview or in the workplace generally. yeah i mean religion the religious aspect of whether or not a person decides to get a shot is going to be likely said it's going to be sticky but we have to recognize is that even before coated employees did have the right to refuse vaccines due to sincerely held religious beliefs so that's not going to really change here but in the cases where religion affect someone's decision to get a vaccine or not the employee is going to have to at the employer excuse me is going to have to cater to those needs they're going to have to take steps to ensure that the unvaccinated employee is safe in the workplace rather than deny that

person employment based on those religious beliefs. in a broader sense now that we've become accustomed to working at home some love it some hate it how about employers requiring vaccine aside employers requiring people to come back to work and they may be wary or vice versa. is that going to be a problem as reopening reopens. employers have the ultimate duty of protecting the workplace and making sure that people are safe now people don't feel comfortable coming back i can't see how employed can make an employer can make someone come back because of the threat of carbon in these cases so employers are going to be again very careful that they're not infringing on these people and on people's health and safety. it's times like this that the h.r. consultants must be cleaning up attorney sarah papen tony 11 papen tony a law firm in pensacola thank you for joining us here again in the big picture

coming up many who take issue with that johnson and johnson vaccine have been taking comfort during this past trying year how faith isn't just for the religious when we come back this is the big picture on our 2 america. always be polite never engage with a negative a good or confrontational. don't get into any conversation or start answering questions just ask for an attorney.

survivor tara gage. definitely don't want to be going to try to jump on cups. you're more likely to walk free if you're rich and guilty or if you're poor and. you've got 2 eyes 2 ears and one mouth. so you should be seen in here and a whole lot more in your sand if you don't take that advice easy going to dig yourself will. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics. i'm showbusiness i'll see you then.

as had bene year now president only been a year all over social media we see videos of angry confrontations with wal-mart shoppers who refuse to wear face masks alcoholic beverage sales are up cooped up with kids moms are super stressed but some of us are coping better than others how let's ask john harper host of morning air on relevant radio the network of nearly 200 stations talking and listening to 220000000 catholics across the usa john here in rhode island the motto on our state flag in great big. is the word hope and i remember hearing you tell listeners that every day is a day closer to the end of the pandemic describe the frame of mind to callers to

your show the frame of mind callers to morning or and all of the callers holland relevant radio and all of our programs is one of hope because they see how they've been empowered by their own faith in exercising that hope over the last year in the pandemic and of course with the news that we bring in that you bring to the scene development we know that every day is a day closer to the end of the pandemic in this result now more churches are open for public worship we can accommodate more people than we could before they were close to last year in the season of lent and holy week you could not go to church now you can't with some social distancing the appropriate protocols but that is really faith in action when you look at what we've lived through in the last 12 months. you know we always want what we can't have and i wonder is this going to

bring people back to church member in washington d.c. i would always see these ad panels in the subway around the holidays that say come home for christmas do you have a sense that the people who have been lapsed catholics are going to become churchgoers again. we have found in the beginning of the pandemic and i believe this was a pew study that showed that even those who did not believe those who identify themselves as a gnostic started praying were believing in something at the beginning of the pandemic now that's 12 months later one of the issues facing the bishops here in the united states is how to get those souls back into the pews because there is still a little bit of that fear about social distancing and whether or not i'm comfortable in a crowd so that remains to be the challenge is to get souls physically back in the

pews when some counseling gotten used to electronic worship yeah you mentioned the lenten season and you know i guess we had a pass to miss easter duty under the circumstances there's a james bond movie that's been sitting on the shelf gathering dust for over a year now the last time a baseball season started and ended without me going to a red sox game was before i shaved every day so we all miss getting out and i take your point about people being frustrated and not being able to worship you mentioned virtual church to catholics still enjoy a dispensation to watch a mass on t.v. which when we were kids was always accompanied by a disclaimer that this didn't count as going to church right or streaming as that's still good enough for now with the bishops. yes in all dioceses except the archdiocese of detroit where our church of india runs lifted that last 'd weekend

so now catholics are required to go back with a couple of coffee yachts if you have certain conditions you don't have to go so that distance vision applies for you but in all the dioceses across the united states that dispensation does continue but we expect that to be lifted as more people get vaccinated and you start to see some of the herd immunity when church is closed you can't pass the plate are congregations now cash crunched. yes and it depends on the diocese some individual parishes are doing well but generally and some of the larger archdiocese is based on our reporting those collections are down about 50 percent and that is really the lifeblood of keeping churches open so that's been a real difficulty even though we've moved into an electronic giving platform not everybody is comfortable with that yet still like to put that on pull up in the basket on sunday morning yeah it is

a good feeling talk to me about this johnson and johnson controversy even with stepped up vaccinations demand still exceeds supply is this a dilemma for the faithful. it is in terms of the fact that and you talk about this that you know life begins at conception the moment of conception until natural death now when you look at the pfizer in them are durnovo vaccines in the research they used some stem cells from aborted fetuses but not in the production of the vaccines so both of the vatican and the united states conference of catholic bishops that those are old kade to take even though with a little cough that the research used these stem cells from aborted foetuses johnson and johnson is a little bit different because they used the stem cells from aborted foetuses in the research and in the production now there's even another asterisk after that to answer your question if the other 2 vaccines are not available then it is

permissible to use the johnson and johnson vaccine with the teaching from the vatican and the bishops here in the united states is to defaults to either pfizer or maternal and nothing else is available just as an act of charity to make yourself well and those around you will take the johnson and johnson but only in certain categories and only certain cases i've heard one bishop say just that is for everybody sake get vaccinated as soon as you can if you can avoid johnson and johnson but if johnson and johnson is the quickest way to get your shot get it and you will not be a center that's pretty much the guidance of the. yeah it is and you know that's were a relevant radio steps in the cuz we are that conduit between the bishops of the vatican and those of us who are sitting in the pews so there's that opportunity to

actually speak with the bishops you know a 2 way conversation every day or america's talk radio for catholics and so that's where we step in in the evangelization process in the faith process for 220000000 catholics across the country. for only the 2nd time in our history we have a roman catholic president then joe biden is devout yet by saying his words reproductive rights are a constitutional right he and democrats generally seem to lose your listeners support does thomas trump get a pass on the access hollywood tape and his follow mouth and all the years he was a pro-choice catholic and all arrest of his resume well i don't know if he gets a pass on that but you have to give donald trump in the trumpet district you credit for being the most pro-life that ministration really in the history of the country

as we started going down the road to fund abortions and of course we just saw that in this latest stimulus package that's coming out now that is the source of a lot of conversation on relevant radio and a lot of our listeners want to know if the bishops and joe biden's bishop is is the cardinal of washington d.c. and his home bishop in wilmington delaware if you will be refused your interests and the answer to that is it's between the priest and the communicant and it really is i know we might want to use the eucharist as a weapon but that is truly a personal matter between the bishop the priests the pastor in the community. is too broad brush to say that your listeners tend to be fox news viewers. yeah it is being our listeners are primarily female we have a lot of men who listen and they're really all over the spectrum and as we talked

about the election you couldn't avoid it and put it all through the filter of faith in a matter what's going on in the world we're putting it through the filter of our faith on relevant radio on a daily basis so here's the broad brush to say they're all fox news viewers would be inaccurate they're good catholics who are just looking for answers. yeah we're speaking with john harper host of morning air on relevant radio and john and i crossed paths literally several years ago when he was transitioning from t.v. to talk radio and i was going in the opposite direction so john i've got a hit on here for some shop talk if you missed this your whole weeks ago heere is our colleague talkers magazine publisher michael harrison listen. almost every newspaper or magazine television network or television news show in america today to one degree or another tries to determine through research through market studies what does the audience want and then they just serve it up to them so they're not

disappointed and this is a an issue that we really do have to think about in terms of media theory and the impact of the media and journalism and talk shows on our society that this has become deeply emotional and therefore people need that daily dose of you're ok if your point is right your side is going to win you're going to you're going to be able to save face at the thanksgiving table with your crazy uncle next november everything's going to be ok people have so much riding on it and that's why i often say we're living in a time where we're dangerously close to seeking victory at the expense of truth. isn't that a mouthful and john because you are a former t.v. news doctor i've been dying to ask you about something which i consider valiant and i've been watching with interest there are efforts underway now just tell the

viewer what's happening w g n america's news nation is conspicuously avoiding opinion we've got shepard smith over on c n b c calling at the facts the truth but i'm not so sure that these folks have made a ripple in the ratings yet do you think as michael harrison suggests that affirmation is going to win over information and that news is just a commodity now. well it is a commodity it's a very profitable commodity and that's why local television stations are doing much more local news and why you've seen next hour the owner of w.g. and american out rebranded as news nation get into the bold way in a very expensive way to do a whole evening and soon a morning show and other elements in the day parts of doing news because there's money to be made in new i don't think they're making any money right now in news nation it's too early to tell and they've also made of course shift creek has

a lot of the founding fathers of news nation have left that broadcast but there are still a very talented people there will see what happens you can't be fox lite you can't be the 4th guy in line and saying the same thing what news nation are actually said was you know we're going to you know basically just going to give you the facts ma'am and and i think that was not a strong enough positioning statement for a loose nation you can't tell the audience what you're not going to be you've got to tell them what you're going to be and i never really a.o.l.a. as a viewer to news nation and you know there is a there is a way to get eyeballs on that broadcast and it's probably not including my consultant said on corroboree not that rows are going on right now and you know there's a position in statement for them that's facing them right in the face it's the nation is our newsroom they can bring on what a great low gather the nation is our newsroom news nation the nation is our

newsroom and that stars got this big giant infrastructure to make that happen yeah there's nothing a consultant loves more than a great slogan and we wish him the best john harper morning air relevant radio thank you for stepping into the big picture and thank you for watching the big picture we're going to be back next week same time with another show you want to set your d.v.r. direct t.v. channel 321 dish 280 we are. the live at youtube dot com slash r t america all of our shows are at youtube dot com slash the big picture r.t. and you gotta gotta gotta if you haven't yet download our portable t.v. app free and google play or the app store or a portable t.v. . question more.

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americans love. this was a fundamental part of how our political leadership and our country at large understood the bargain you get a hope and then you know rebel right that's the things you don't revolt if you have a stake in the system. and think about the longer deeper history housings men in the united states not just that question of the american dream but the bigger question of who the dream is for.