David Greene, host of NPR-member station KCRW’s “Left, Right and Center,” left, talks along side Ketch Secor, founder and frontman of Old Crow Medicine Show, during the Louder Than Guns event at McCaskey High School on Monday, March 10, 2025.
Blaine Shahan / LNP | LancasterOnline
Blaine Shahan / LNP | LancasterOnline
David Greene, host of NPR-member station KCRW’s “Left, Right and Center,” left, talks along side Ketch Secor, founder and frontman of Old Crow Medicine Show, during the Louder Than Guns event at McCaskey High School on Monday, March 10, 2025.
School District of Lancaster students, faculty and members of the community gathered in the auditorium of McCaskey High School Monday afternoon to talk about gun violence through music, an approach that sits at the heart of the documentary ‘Louder than Guns’ co-created by McCaskey grad and public radio host David Greene.
Greene, the host of KCRW “Left, Right and Center,” along with Ketch Secor, the lead singer of Americana band Old Crow Medicine Show and filmmaker Doug Pray made the film to start dialogue with people on all sides of America’s ongoing debate about gun violence and safety.
Secor said the documentary ‘Louder than Guns’ and a song of the same name were inspired by his desire to create real change following a shooting at the The Covenant School in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, in March 2023. Three students and three faculty members were killed in the shooting.
“Music moves us, and it’s a vehicle to be moved,” Secor said. “I was moved by the loss of life in my community and I was moved to make this film.”
Greene said the film aimed to move the debate around gun violence away from political rhetoric and towards respectful personal conversations. The documentary features the pair’s discussions in rural and urban communities along Old Crow Medicine Show’s 2023 tour.
“When you sit at a table and get vulnerable with another person, you remind each other what’s really important,” Greene said. “You find shared goals, you find shared values.”
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Ahead of the film’s regional premier hosted by the Steinman Foundation Tuesday night at Mickey’s Black Box in Lititz, Greene and Secor came to McCaskey High School to bring the discussion directly to students.
“How could we possibly have a conversation about protecting our kids without involving them?” Greene said. “We found in our travels that young people have the most compelling, most important and articulate arguments for why we need to protect them.”
Five McCaskey students spoke about their own experiences with gun violence, a conversation similar to those featured in the documentary.
Sophomore Sofia Nesbitt described getting ready to leave her home in Lancaster city when a shooting occurred right outside. She said she thinks often about what would happen if a shooting occurred while she was in class.
“If I’m in a public place and I see someone reaching for a bag, my first thought shouldn’t be whether that is a gun, but it is,” said Freshman Mary Scarlet Schuler.
The students said they were frustrated with the divisive nature of gun rights debates.
“When we have these conversations we always end up attacking one another,” said Nesbitt. “We can never find a middle-ground because no one wants to agree, everyone is so far on one side, they don’t want to listen to the other.”
Community leaders – including Millersville University Chief of Police Pete Anders, Megan Beyerle the Education Coordinator with Mental Health America of Lancaster, Lindsay Pringle the Manager of Community Health and Wellness with Penn Medicine and Dr. Pia Fenimore – spoke on their concerns around gun safety.
Student musicians with Music for Everyone, a nonprofit that supports music education, performed songs, including “Louder than Guns” alongside Secor.
Music was a way to bring people into the difficult conversations featured in the documentary, according to Greene.
Secor described what he called the “front row effect” in which people of various backgrounds and political beliefs are able to find common ground through a shared love of music.
“That kind of unity is kind of hard to come by,” Secor said. He described wanting to use that sense of unity to create respectful and honest conversations around gun violence.
John Gerdy, the founder and executive director of Music For Everyone, said he believed music could be used to heal and soothe divisions between people, describing music as a gift people have, but also a gift that can be given to others.
Secor, agreed with Gerdy and said it would take the work of the younger generations of musicians and leaders to create real change on gun violence.
“I just want to do my best so people like y’all can stand up,” Secor said. “I don’t think I’m the guy to solve the problem. I’m just here to make sure you guys know where the stage is so you can say your truth.”
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
