In the years immediately following the murder of his daughter by a crazed gunman at Parkland High School in 2018, Fred Guttenberg channeled his grief into an anger- and sorrow-filled campaign to enact gun control laws in America — as well as to lash out at those elected leaders who stand in the way of reform.

That included Joe Walsh, a former Tea Party Republican and gun lover who frequently sparred with Guttenberg on Twitter. They got into ugly, name calling fights that went nowhere. “We were as nasty and as vicious as two people could be,” Guttenberg recalls.

“[Walsh] saw me as a gun grabber and I saw [him] as part of a group that resulted in the murder of my daughter.”

Until one day … they stopped fighting and started talking. Guttenberg posted about a new initiative he was working on to bring dads into the movement to end gun violence. “I wanted dads to know it’s okay to be a gun owner and want to reduce gun violence,” he says. Walsh retweeted him and said, while he still supports gun rights, he respected what Guttenberg was trying to accomplish.

“That changed everything,” Guttenberg says. “We had drinks. We didn’t talk a lot about our disagreements that particular night. We got to know each other. We got to actually realize we like each other.”

Now, they’re traveling the country together to spread a message that’s badly needed in our politically divisive era: stop fighting, and start listening to and trying to understand one another.

“We’re a nation at each other’s throats and I think it’s because of fear,” Walsh says. “Fear is driving us and the antidote to fear is understanding.”

Give what they have to say a listen. And then, call someone you disagree with and sit down for a beer, or a meal. It’s how we’ll repair our world.

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