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.
Aired; March 25th, 2025.
In a time of increasing political and social division, the new documentary Louder Than Guns seeks to do something many have struggled to accomplish—foster meaningful conversations about gun violence across all aisles of the political and social divide. Directed by filmmaker Doug Pray and journalist David Greene, the film was inspired by a song of the same name, written by Ketch Secor, the frontman of Old Crow Medicine Show, in the wake of the Covenant School mass shooting in Nashville.
“It kind of all happened at the same time,” said Greene. “Ketch wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about how, as a Nashville musician, he felt he could bring people together in ways that no one else could. That really struck me, and I reached out. Then we connected with Doug, and that’s how the film was born.”
The documentary follows Secor and his band as they take their message on the road, performing Louder Than Guns in front of audiences that include many gun owners and Second Amendment supporters. The risks of addressing such a important issue were clear. “They were worried about it,” said Pray. “Would fans who come to drink beer and dance really want to hear a song about gun violence? But they performed it anyway—from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, to West Virginia and North Carolina—and the response has been incredibly special. They’ve received standing ovations.”
One of the film’s central themes is the idea of “radical listening.” Instead of focusing on legislative solutions, the documentary aims to show how honest, face-to-face conversations can help bridge the divide. “I’ve never made a political documentary,” explained Pray. “I’ve made films that have social commentary, but I’ve never been interested in making a Michael Moore-type film. I always try to see all sides. We started calling it radical listening—truly listening to someone you disagree with and respecting them.”
For Greene, the approach aligns with his career as a journalist, including his role on Left, Right & Center. “What we did wasn’t about ‘gotcha’ journalism. We sat down, vulnerably, and said, ‘This is a really hard topic.’ And we found that when people—gun owners, survivors of gun violence—really talk to each other, they find shared values,” he said. “No one wants kids dying in schools. No one wants neighbors dying by suicide. That’s where the conversations begin.”
Despite the increasing polarization in media, Louder Than Guns pushes back against the notion that dialogue must be combative. “The media benefits from polarity and extreme views because they’re more entertaining,” said Pray. “But we’re not interested in sound bites. We want to show America how to talk about guns. If Ketch can do it with his audience, if David can do it in journalism, and if we can do it through this film, maybe people will realize they can have these conversations too.”
Listen to the podcast to hear the entire conversation.
