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Judge Blocks New California Gun Control Law; Cargo Plane Flies Without A Pilot On Board; FDA Approves First Test To Screen For Risk Of Opioid Use Disorder. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 21, 2023 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: California's governor is irate after a federal judge's ruling that blocks a new gun safety law.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Starting on January 1, this law would have banned licensed gun owners from carrying their firearms in certain sensitive public spaces. CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell is here with more on this. Josh, the judge called the legislation repugnant, but Governor Gavin Newsom hit back saying the same thing about the judge's ruling. What's going to happen here?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, on both sides of the gun control debate, firing off after this ruling. Senate Bill 2, this was a sweeping piece of legislation signed by the California governor, set to take effect just days from now.

And as you mentioned, one key component prohibits where you can carry a concealed firearm in public, so-called sensitive areas. They include places of worship, public libraries, amusement parks, sporting venues, and the like. This federal judge issuing this ruling yesterday, I'll read you part of that ruling.

He said that: SB2 turns nearly every public place in California into a sensitive place, effectively abolishing the Second Amendment rights of law abiding and exceptionally qualified citizens to be armed and to defend themselves in public.

So again, he issued that temporary block. Now, the California governor came out, obviously slamming this decision. This piece of legislation that he signed.

Gavin Newsom saying that: This ruling outrageously calls California's data-backed gun safety efforts repugnant. What is repugnant is this ruling, which greenlights the proliferation of guns in our hospitals, libraries, and children's playgrounds, spaces which should be safe for all.

Now, we'll have to wait and see what happens next with this decision. But as of now, it's temporarily blocked, guys.

SANCHEZ: Josh, what was the judge's rationale in all of this?

CAMPBELL: So, this all stems from that landmark Supreme Court ruling last year involving the state of New York, which essentially Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that for a gun law to be constitutional today, there had to be some kind of historical equivalent on the books at the founding of the nation whenever the Constitution was written. And what he said here is the Senate bill passed in here in California, he didn't see that historical equivalent that would have said there are sensitive places out there in public where you can't carry a concealed firearm.

It's worth pointing out that since that decision last year, there's been a lot of confusion among the district circuit courts because we've seen them come out with rulings basically focused on that same issue with topics pertaining to assault weapons ban, to whether felons can maintain, you know, weapons, all going back to that Supreme Court ruling as the basis. But of course, those who favor gun control continue to point to all the gun violence we're seeing.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, as of this year, they've already been over 640 mass shootings here in the United States. So, this is obviously a debate that will continue. Certainly, lives are at stake.

This ruling, though, certainly celebrated by gun rights activists who say that that legislation in California was sweeping, was unconstitutional. It's worth pointing out that we're waiting to see whether the Supreme Court will ultimately revisit this landmark decision.

There is one case now pending before the court. It pertains to whether someone with a domestic violence restraining order should be barred from having access to a weapon. The ruling in that case could then trickle down and impact all these other cases.

[15:35:02]

Actually, we'll have to wait and see whether the Supreme Court takes another look at the decision that was obviously this major ruling last year -- guys.

KEILAR: Yes, look, California's not alone in this. There's a lot of places, including right here in D.C., where you cannot take firearms. So hard to see how this does not work its way towards the Supreme Court.

Josh Campbell, thank you for that report.

CAMPBELL: You bet.

KEILAR: Still ahead, tell me what is missing from this picture. Are you the pilot? No, there is no pilot. We're going to tell you about this. It's a program that could revolutionize flying as we know it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: You've heard of autopilot, but what about no pilot at all?

SANCHEZ: Yes, the future is here. A company called Reliable Robotics says it recently flew a cargo plane without a single human on board. This is flight -- this is video of that flight, I should say, back in November. The single-engine aircraft took off from Hollister Airport in Northern California, flew for about 12 minutes, traveling 50 miles. A certified pilot can send commands to the plane via satellite signals, but they do not control the aircraft in real time or even get live visuals from the plane.

KEILAR: The company's CEO says quote: This is not a video game. There's no joystick. Think of it as choose your own adventure based on where the aircraft is.

Let's discuss this now with CNN Safety Analyst David Soucie. Beginning of a new era is how you put it, David. No thank you is what I would say. Convince me otherwise.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, I love talking about things that make aviation safer instead of talking about accidents, so thanks for having me on, Boris and Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

SOUCIE: But I did want to tell you, this is really, it is a new era, and this is something that's going to make history going forward. Remember, I used to think I would never get on anything that was pilotless, but I do it every day. When we go to the airport, you get onto a train that takes you somewhere, it just becomes part of the culture eventually, and this will.

I'm a licensed commercial pilot, drone pilot, and so I do a lot of flying like this, but that is with a joystick, and I do see the aircraft as I'm flying it. This is entirely different. This is something that is really going to change things moving forward.

SANCHEZ: David, huge difference between the tram at the airport and something that is thousands of feet up in the sky, not on a rail. So, you mentioned that this is going to be a game changer. Game it out for us. How exactly? What kind of changes can we expect?

SOUCIE: Well, let's start with what it's not, and what it's not is a replacement for the pilot. The pilot is still there. The pilot's still in control, making sure that it's fitting into the airspace the way that it's supposed to, so we don't have to worry about that.

We talk about how it might have a positive impact on the ability to supply pilots, but that's not because there's fewer pilots flying the airplane. The airplanes still can control one pilot to one airplane. But the difference is that you don't have to have a layover for a pilot, the number of hours that they're waiting to get onto the next flight, all of that coordination doesn't have to occur. So, it will have a great impact on the shortage of pilots that we have today, so that will happen.

Now, do I see this happening immediately? No, but I think within the next two years, you're going to see at least cargo airplanes like this one, especially in the regional space. I'm not sure the large commercial cargo planes are going to be in this for another five to 10 years. But I do think in the next two to three years, we're going to see a lot of these regional airplanes moving forward. It can also reduce the costs associated with flying the airplanes as well.

KEILAR: OK, but just to be clear, the pilot, David, is not on the plane, right? Not on the plane.

SOUCIE: That's right.

KEILAR: OK, not on the plane. OK, OK. So, stick with me on this.

SOUCIE: You got that right.

KEILAR: OK, this is my concern here. How do you make it fail safe? How do you stop it from the pilot losing contact with the plane? You have the company saying, if that happens, they can immediately inform air traffic control of its position, Alaska man. Look, that's not making me feel good, David. I got to be honest.

SOUCIE: Yes, well, it's interesting too, because we talk about autonomy and autonomous flight, and this has been around for a long time. World War I airplanes, if you can believe that, had the capability of coming back to the airport and landing themselves, and that was World War I, long, long time ago.

So, the idea of autonomous flight, of an airplane that can take itself back, the reason they developed that was because if the pilots got shot, they could make sure that that airplane returned so that the enemy wouldn't get the technology that was on that airplane. So, they designed that way back then, and that was mechanical things. They worked on vacuums and lines and things like that.

So, it's nothing new, but it also is new in the fact that it has integration with a lot of safety devices that can anticipate, and through, especially through AI, they can anticipate what might happen, not just what's happening at the moment and react to it but be able to do that and autonomously figure out what the best choice is to happen. It is a leap of faith. I'm totally with you on that. It's hard to say, yes, I trust that computer to do the right thing. But at the same time, you know that there's a lot more going on than what a human being could even react to at any given time.

SANCHEZ: Several leaps of faith there. I'm very dubious of AI to begin with. AI on a plane. I also, I thought David was just telling stories for a second there about that World War I thing. I got to look at it.

KEILAR: That blew my mind.

SANCHEZ: It's crazy.

[15:45:00]

KEILAR: Amazing. All right, David, maybe you sold me a little bit. Just a little bit.

SANCHEZ: David Soucie, thank you so much. SOUCIE: Have me on again as this goes on. It's going to be interesting

to watch what happens over the next year or two for sure. So, we'll keep up, keep you up to date on it.

SANCHEZ: You're more than welcome here David. Thank you so much.

Well, it could be a potentially game-changing tool in the fight against opioid addiction. The FDA approving a test that would help assess whether certain people are at risk of developing opioid use disorder. Much more, next.

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[15:50:00]

SANCHEZ: The FDA has approved the first test that can help determine if someone has an increased risk of opioid use disorder. It's called AvertD, and it uses a simple cheek swab sample to analyze genetic markers involved in the brain's reward system that are associated with the addiction.

KEILAR: According to a recent survey from the Department of Health, about six million people in the U.S. ages 12 and older had an opioid use disorder last year.

Let's talk about this now with Dr. Megan Ranney. She's an emergency room physician, and she's the Dean of Yale's School of Public Health. What does this mean? This is really interesting to be able to get a heads up on this.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, DEAN, YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, this is a really exciting development with some caveats. So opioid use disorder is a huge problem in the United States. It developed in large part because of the promotion of opioids by folks like Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler family going back 15, 20 years ago.

And we know that exposure to prescription opioids is a major risk factor for developing opioid use disorder for many people. The opportunity to have a quick genetic test to decide who is at risk of getting addicted and who it is safe to prescribe opioids to in the short term, that just has a tremendous impact for our ability to appropriately treat pain for folks with acute medical disorders. But there are some really big caveats about this new exciting test.

The first is, it really is only for people who are getting prescribed opioids for a short-term problem. So, someone who's getting hip surgery or shoulder surgery, or maybe has an acute trauma.

The second caution is this test is not perfect. It incorrectly identifies 20 to 30 percent of people as either being at risk of addiction or not being at risk of addiction. So, it really needs to be combined with a clinical assessment. So, the takeaway is it's an exciting development, but there are some cautions about it. So, there are a lot is going to depend on how we put it in place in the medical system.

SANCHEZ: Doctor, so the FDA has just approved it. Now, what comes next?

RANNEY: So that is the thing. If you look at the AvertD website right now, they basically say we're under construction, check back for more. The approval is step one. They then have to step up manufacturing. They have to set pricing. They have to get contracts with doctor's offices, and they have to train doctors and other healthcare providers on how to use it properly.

So, I don't see this being in physicians or pharmacists or certainly consumers' hands for months to come, possibly even as long as a year, depending on how ready they are to scale up all those various parts.

And importantly, it's going to be monitored really closely by the FDA once it scales up. So, stay tuned for more data on how it works.

KEILAR: We have to remember, I mean, opioids, we see the scourge that it has been on communities across the United States. In a clinical setting, there is a reason, right, to use opioids. There's a reason why they are not completely eliminated, right, because there are situations where they can be used, should be used, and some people don't have risk factors. What is the issue with someone, say, testing positive on this? They maybe have an increased risk, and how that would interact with whether or not they might need it when they -- use it when they really need it, et cetera.

RANNEY: Yes, absolutely. As an ER doctor, there are times that people really do need opioids. If you break your arm or your leg, if you are undergoing surgery, if you have severe cancer that's causing pain, opioids can help ease that pain and allow people to make their way through to the other side. So, they have tremendous value when used in the right setting.

The risk here is, if this genetic test says, incorrectly, that someone's at high risk of addiction, we might then as doctors feel obliged to not prescribe opioids. That then drives someone's pain up, which has its own set of problems on the other side.

People who have uncontrolled pain have a higher risk of developing post-traumatic stress. They may develop chronic pain because their initial pain is not well-controlled. And as a parent, if your kid has pain, you know how much distress you're in.

You can imagine as a caregiver for someone who has an acute painful condition, it's got to be frustrating to have them not have access to opioids if maybe it could have helped them. So, there are risks with the test incorrectly diagnosing people.

KEILAR: Yes, serious questions here. Dr. Ranney, thank you so much for taking us through that. We appreciate it.

RANNEY: Thank you.

KEILAR: A daytime talk show legend lends his expertise in our favorite story of the day, maybe, to a zoo in Denver after a mystery developed. You'll want to see this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: I've always wanted to say this OK. The DNA results are in. The Denver Zoo welcomed to newborn Orangutang in August, but the jury was out on who the daddy was. Was it 30-year-old Berani or 16-year-old Jaya?

KEILAR: That is, until -- I thought we got a drama right earlier this week when the legendary Maury Povich dropped the baby bomb on YouTube.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAURY POVICH: When it comes to the Orangutan, 4-month-old Siska, Berani. you ARE the father!"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:00:00]

SANCHEZ: What a moment.

I feel like Maury Povich has resolved so many family issues. He's made a name for himself in clearing up really the nebulous fog of parenthood.

KEILAR: Normally people don't cheer after he makes an announcement, though.

SANCHEZ: Some people do back flips. You got to watch those YouTube compilations.

KEILAR: Oh, wow. That was funny.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.