The Bridging the Divide on Firearm Policy project has demonstrated that if people from opposite sides of an issue come together for respectful dialogue, a willingness to listen to each other, and a desire to change the world, polarization can be overcome.
The field of gun violence prevention is typically viewed as a highly polarized space with two sides—gun owners and non-gun owners—that are at an insurmountable impasse. Over the past seven years, research conducted by Dr. Michael Siegel and his team at Tufts University School of Medicine has discovered significant common ground between gun owners and non-gun owners—large enough to serve as the foundation for a platform of state-level firearm policies that would be highly effective in reducing gun violence.
A core principle of our project was the inclusion of gun owners in the development of a firearm policy platform to ensure that the resulting platform reflects their unique needs and concerns into account and is thus capable of garnering their support and advocacy in state legislatures.
Through this project, a panel of gun owners and non-gun owners across the ideological spectrum was assembled. Essential Partners designed and facilitated 70+ hours of intensive dialogue as well as two weekend-long in-person conferences over the course of a year. The dialogues developed mutual trust, understanding, and a new sense of openness to different perspectives among all the participants. In the end, the panelists coalesced around eight policy proposals that would reduce gun violence while protecting individual rights.
This report details the mission, vision, and context behind that effort, laying out the eight policy proposals in detail.