Wedge issue focus: Guns in America

A friend recently asked if I was optimistic about the future. Not in any particular context - just one of those casual what kind of person are you kind of questions. I stopped what I was doing. Little did this inquirer know that I was in the midst of a months-long journey into the Founding era of America, and that this particular question was among the first things considered by the people we recognize as our founders. My free time had been enveloped by nonfiction, documentaries, podcasts, and reflective writing. And here, in advance of the country's 250th birthday, was the right question for, as it turned out, the right person. I took a breath and lobbed my answer back -

“Do I really have a choice?”