Coming Sunday: Firearms in the Family

In connection with the one-year anniversary of the tragic shooting rampage that snuffed out 20 young lives and those of six educators in Newtown, Conn., on Sunday the Daily Times will present a special seven-day series taking a look at the role guns play in our society.

Reporters from our parent company, Digital First Media, have fanned out across the country to talk to people about guns, and how deeply they are ingrained in our society. As you can imagine, the passions run strong on this issue on both sides.

We also will talk to those on both sides of the gun issue right here in Delco.

This is not an effort to cast blame, or take sides.

Instead, the series will delve deeply into what guns mean to America as a culture and the role they play in our families. Our journalists spent several months this year traveling the country from Michigan to Denver to California, meeting families and learning what part firearms play in their lives and the lives of their children. Each family agreed that responsible gun ownership was imperative, but definitions of “responsible” varied widely.

We'll profile a family that espouses the belief of 'open carry,' others who forbid guns to enter their homes, and others.

We'll profile six different families and their beliefs.

In the year following the Newtown massacre, there has been no great change in Americans’ feelings about gun control. A brief spike in calls for new restrictions has petered out. By October, only 49 percent of Americans felt existing laws were too lax — a new low.

'Firearms in the Family' is an attempt to explain why, and why this issue strikes so deep in American society. And it starts Sunday.

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