Thanks to Glen Starkey for his article “Let’s agree to agree” (June 19) about a unique opportunity to create a reasonable conversation between the left and the right about gun culture.
Nobody in the arts news business is better than Starkey, always clueing locals in about upcoming concerts, movies, poetry and visual arts, but this was entirely different, something I would have never known about had I not read about it in New Times.
Not only are guns a tricky subject to have a conversation about, but the event was sponsored by a local chapter California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) with a lot of members in attendance and raffle tickets to win a gun given at the front door.
Sociologist and author David Yamane was the perfect person to bridge the political divide on the subject because he made the transition from someone afraid of and ignorant about guns to one who enjoys using guns and able to see gun ownership as normal, a journey he describes in his book Gun Curious: A liberal professor’s surprising journey inside America’s gun culture.
The discussion at the end was honest, civil, and informative, and I felt such a strong sense of community with the group even as we explored entirely different perspectives.
Studies show that the American people are much less polarized on issues than our politicians are. We need to get out and talk to each other. Local organizations like Braver Angels and the League of Women Voters Civil Discourse Committee, and now the CRPA, are making these conversations happen because that is our way forward.
Thanks to Starkey and New Times I was able to experience this and I am grateful.
Anne Quinn
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Jul 3-13, 2025.