Louder Than Guns

I suspect many passionate viewers familiar with America’s gun violence problem will have strong feelings approaching director Doug Pray’s **LOUDER THAN GUNS** documentary. Whatever expectations viewers will undoubtedly bring to the film – one thing is made very clear: America has a gun control *communication* problem. Pray’s film tackles the communication logjam with an earnestness that is largely absent in public discourse. Sidestepping the polemic cacophony that all-too-easily accompanies any discussion on the 2nd Amendment and school shootings around the country – is Grammy Award-winning Blue Grass musician Ketch Secor, co-founder and current frontman of the longtime Americana string band ***Old Crow Medicine Show***, based in Nashville. After the mass shooting on March 27, 2023, at The Covenant School, in Green Hills, a neighborhood in Nashville, which left three schoolchildren and three adults dead, Secor felt compelled to write an op-ed in the New York Times entitled, “Country Music Can Lead America Out of Its Obsession with Guns.”  Widely discussed in the media from MSNBC and beyond, Secor’s op-ed caught the attention of NPR radio journalist David Greene, resulting in the two teaming up with Pray to open a dialogue about gun rights and gun violence across the country in the hope of finding common ground. Anyone expecting immediate solutions from **LOUDER THAN GUNS** is putting the proverbial cart in front of the horse, failing to understand that before any meaningful change can take effect, an equally meaningful and civil dialogue needs to occur without the fearmongering, and political tribalism that usually co-opt these discussions. As Secor and Greene sit down around the country while touring with the ***Old Crow Medicine Show*** in barbershops, BBQ joints, Churches, and Gun stores with concerned Americans on both sides of the political spectrum, many directly affected by gun violence, a meaningful dialogue unfolds as gun violence activists and 2nd Amendment proponents achieve something rarely seen: common ground. But it is Secor’s affable, avuncular charm, interspersed with his genuine curiosity that puts many of these roundtable discussions at ease, striking the right balance with participants who are passionate one way or another, providing an example for today’s lawmakers that civil discourse is always possible with such a polarizing issue. No; **LOUDER THAN GUNS** is not a panacea for gun violence in America, but it provides a glimmer of hope in an increasingly polemic culture that finding common ground and approaching this issue with empathy and peace can move the needle closer to a real solution. \ **\ LOUDER THAN GUNS is proof that how we converse with one another is arguably just as important than just forcing through legislation to address gun violence in America.**