Bridging the Divide on Firearms Policy: Project Report
Key Finding
A year-long, university-led dialogue between gun owners and non-gun owners produced eight consensus policy proposals, showing sustained cross-partisan dialogue can reach concrete agreement on a maximally polarized issue.
About this research
This report documents a year-long, university-led dialogue process convened by Essential Partners together with Dr. Michael Siegel’s research team at Tufts University School of Medicine, bringing together gun owners and non-gun owners from across the ideological spectrum. Participants engaged in more than 70 hours of facilitated dialogue plus two weekend-long in-person convenings, working to surface common ground on firearms policy. The process produced eight consensus policy proposals aimed at reducing gun violence while protecting individual rights, demonstrating that sustained structured dialogue can reach concrete agreement even on a maximally polarized issue.