Many 0f you asked when that Time Magazine issue I participated in is coming out. Well, the long-waited TIME Magazine cover and accompanying article “Guns in America” is out TODAY. I joined 244 other Americans, both pro- Second Amendment and pro-gun control individuals, for this unique project presented by French artist JR.
Going into this, I was confident that my words would be respected and honored. I wrote back in August why I decided to partake in this interview. I’m happy to report they, TIME, were respectful and honorable. I’m open to any opportunity to talk about my perspective – a pro-gun, pro-NRA perspective – to mainstream media outlets. They cannot silence or suppress our voices any longer, and they are slowly-but-surely recognizing that. We need to take our views mainstream!
Here’s some social media postings about my experience and the cover/issue:
On CBS This Morning just now, TIME’s Editor in Chief and JR Artist revealed the latest issue of TIME that myself and 244 others participated in! Thanks for being fair and hearing many of us out. Very few people can capture the gun issue fairly. The digital version is LIVE now too: http://time.com/guns-in-america/
Posted by Gabriella Hoffman on Thursday, October 25, 2018
245 people from across America joined together for one TIME cover. It will change how you think about guns https://t.co/kcWAl9HS23 pic.twitter.com/YjeOAIhlbb
— TIME (@TIME) October 25, 2018
Here’s what I wrote on the experience up at The Resurgent:
Here’s why the “Guns in America” issue was printed, per TIME’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal:
Last May, when JR and I first discussed his creating a cover for TIME, we immediately landed on guns. It was just a few months after the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., which had prompted a painful and often vicious national debate over what is certainly a shared goal: preventing the senseless mass murder of children. What drew JR to the subject was that he knew little about it. “In France,” he says, “we don’t have any relationship with guns, and so I’m discovering the whole issue.” What drew me to this collaboration was the hope that his creativity and outsider’s perspective could help those of us in America think differently about this debate, and the many others where rage too often substitutes for discourse.
…JR’s mural envisions the cover of TIME as a table, the kind of setting where we might actually listen to one another. Over five months, he and his team, along with a group of TIME journalists, traveled to three cities—St. Louis; Washington, D.C.; and Dallas—to film, photograph and record, one by one, people who represent the vast range of voices in our gun debate.
The final result brought together 245 people from every imaginable vantage point: veterans and teachers, hunters and doctors, people afraid that guns may kill their children and people afraid they won’t have guns to protect their children. They include Lezley McSpadden, whose son Michael Brown was shot dead in Ferguson, Mo., which helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement; members of the trauma team that treated victims of the horrific 2016 sniper attack on Dallas police; House majority whip Steve Scalise, a gun-rights supporter who was critically injured in a shooting at a congressional baseball practice; and former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head at a 2011 constituent event. We are grateful to the participants for their time.
There hasn’t been anything attempted like this before. Kudos, Time and JR, for a beautiful product. I’m honored to have participated. I hope other media outlets follow suit one day.
UPDATE I:
The issue got coverage in AdAge, CBS This Morning, and others.
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What did you think of this piece? Am I on-target or off-mark?
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