Go past familiar talking points and get curious about what everyday people think
How a local reporter made gun coverage hearable across the political spectrum
Note from Trusting News: John Diedrich is an investigative reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Our Trusting News team has learned a lot from Diedrich’s fresh approach to covering guns that helps fuel curiosity and highlight similarities. We invited Diedrich to share some learnings and insights from his award-winning, state-wide gun investigation, “Behind the Gun.” Diedrich will also be joining a Trusting News training on Oct. 3 on how to avoid polarization when covering hot-button issues. Register for the free webinar here.
Writing about guns can be daunting and maybe no more so than during the high-stakes, spin-heavy election season we are in.
First, let me say clearly: I am not a political reporter. I did that beat for a short time a long while ago, when Bill Clinton was in the White House, and boy do I have deep respect for my fellow reporters who do politics and do it well.
One of the things I recalled as a young reporter covering campaigns all those years ago in Kenosha, Wis: I felt at the mercy of the campaigns and the interest groups on the issue. This was true of many issues and certainly guns.
I sometimes felt like I was simply echoing one side or the other on the gun issue. I would think, ‘if this piece is for average people, was I reflecting their views’?
I never forgot that and it actually helped to inform a project I launched last year at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called “Behind the Gun,” which I did through the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Reporting at Marquette University.
It was an effort to get past more familiar talking points and constructs and get curious about what everyday people were thinking and saying about their firearms. I focused on gun owners because I felt like it was a group I hadn’t spent enough time talking to about guns (which I will say: It is sort of embarrassing to admit that, but hey it was true).
I have been asked to share some of what I learned in the reporting. But first I wanted to say that others have done a good job helping reporters be prepared to write about guns (like this resource from friends at the Shorenstein Center). I am not seeking to replace; rather to add to.
1. Curiosity over defensiveness
Several of my interviews began with the subject asking me, “Do you own a gun?” a question which in the past has sometimes set me on edge. This time, I tried for a different posture. While my answer was ‘no I don’t own a gun,’ I sought to set aside my idea of where things would go from there. Instead, I tried to lean in with curiosity to the person’s experience with firearms. I found people who own guns really like to talk about them (really). It is similar I suppose to the way people talk about anything in their lives where they feel passion. One of the questions that always seemed to open the door was. “Tell me your story around guns? When did you first shoot? Who was it with?” I am asking about guns and at the same time I am really asking about their humanity, their story and the place firearms play in it.
2. Consider language
There are a lot of what I call “catch-phrases” around guns and these are not universally understood and therefore potentially problematic. For instance, “gun violence” is commonly used and yet not commonly understood by our readers, I have come to understand. That is an issue. Same with “responsible gun owner,” “safe storage” and others. Some of these phrases are considered partisan and using them can send away some readers or shut down interviews. The problem is they may miss nuance. To be clear, I have used “gun violence” and such phrases in the past, but as I thought of it, I wasn’t really sure what I meant by it. Certainly that would include fatal and non-fatal shootings. Suicide by firearm? Probably. What about pointing a gun? Or even putting one’s hand on a gun in a threatening situation? My solution was, as one editor always told me, “use more words.” Just adding a little more detail of what I meant went a long way with the subjects I wrote about. Also, I am mindful now of using “firearm” as well as “gun.” This came up when we did a public event, focused on mental wellness for firearms owners, called At the Intersection of Firearms and Mental Health. It was the suggestion of one of the gun owners I interviewed in the project.
3. Be open to and reflect apparent contradictions
Over the years, I have gone into interviews with gun owners with an agenda of sorts, or at least a to do list, which might include asking them to respond to this type of question or that (say on a particular piece of legislation like red-flag laws or waiting periods or about a high-profile incident). In this project, I still got to those questions but I was slower and more open-handed about it. I would ask those questions sure but not pigeonhole people or rush into them. I would instead ask open-ended questions and those subjects just naturally came up.
4. Assume care; ask about their solutions
One thing that struck me was how thoughtful and caring gun owners were about the misuse of the thing they care about very much. This included in suicides, homicides and unintentional gun deaths. Without intending, I think some coverage can be received by gun owners something like this: “Teen died by suicide” or “A 2-year-old child fatally shot” and it is sort of implied that the death is a logical outcome of that person owning a gun. In other words, “that blood is on your hands.” This may not be the intent but the way a question is asked or a piece is written can make it land that way for some. The irony here is that the gun owners I interviewed are hyper-aware of safety and security. It pains them a lot to see such cases and they have thoughts about how to avoid them. Their solutions may differ from those traditionally advanced, may not involve the government for instance. Here I found there was concern and solutions from gun owners. I think it has always been there but not well-covered.
5. Understand the why
I always thought it was important to know why someone owned a gun and be careful of anything that might imply shame over them because of what they said. This is especially true in the issue of home defense or self defense. I feel like when we learn that someone is a hunter, we as reporters are good with that, but if someone keeps a gun for self defense, judgment may be cast, such as, don’t you know that gun is more likely to be used against you or to harm yourself than to be used against an intruder? And while that is broadly accurate, I have come to see that risk is not evenly distributed. Geography matters. Life history, including domestic violence history, matters. Ongoing disputes matter. I am not making the argument for a home defense gun or not, but rather I am trying to take a posture of curiosity about why someone would keep one for such a reason — and why someone else might not — and respecting their lived and felt experience for that decision.
6. Messenger matters
This matters in this space. Firearms owners as a group correct each other — a lot, especially at the shooting range. For instance, it is common for an experienced firearms instructor to lecture a newcomer on keeping their gun safely pointed down range at all times. And I also found that gun owners generally do not appreciate being corrected or lectured to by people who don’t own or understand firearms. So I went out of my way to really focus on gun owners and highlight their voices as sources because when they spoke to other gun owners on matters like training, storage and threat assessment, it was generally much better received.
Please take these as ideas, not rules. I am happy to chat with folks about what they have found. My learning in this space has really opened up with this project and continues.
John Diedrich is an investigative reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at jdiedrich@gannett.com.
Join the training: Avoid polarization on hot-button issues
Hear more from John Diedrich at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at a free training on Thursday, Oct. 3. He’ll share his fresh approach to his award-winning series on guns and how he was able to find common ground across the political spectrum. You’ll leave the training with strategies for how to cover hot-button issues without alienating or overgeneralizing segments of your community, and have a chance to ask Diedrich questions.
The training is 1-2 ET Thursday, Oct. 3. Register here.
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