About Solving Guns
Solving Guns began with a common frustration: gun violence in the news was leading to lots of talk but not a lot of actionable results. As the cohost of a podcast on journalism criticism, I at first focused on the media side of things: maybe the media was getting the story wrong. But the more I examined the issue of gun violence, the more I realized that the problem wasn’t about how we talk about guns—it was about how we talk about solutions. Every conversation seemed to begin and end with a single premise: the solution to gun violence is legislative action. But the reality was legislative inaction.
How do you solve gun violence in the face of legislative inaction? Thus began a years-long journey to examine every form of gun violence, to go deep on the reasons why people own guns in the first place, and to find solutions without passing laws. Not because laws are a bad idea or a good idea—but because laws are not solving this issue right now. Whether you love guns or hate them, my hope is that the solutions here can unite those on the left and the right behind one goal: to save lives. Something we can all agree on.
Solving Guns is a project by Brendan Steidle, a communications specialist in government, technology, and healthcare. He is the cohost of the Polilogue podcast on media criticism, which has been profiled on NPR’s All Things Considered, featured in CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter, and Politico’s Morning Media. He holds a degree in Political Science and Public Communications from American University in Washington, D.C. He lives with his wife Naomi and their two children in Palm Springs, CA.