A Civil Conversation About Guns

From Executive Producer Vickie Morgan comes a new documentary “A Civil Conversation About Guns”

In 2017, we were approached to make a documentary about the ACT Matrix.

Tim Folley (an ABA practitioner and trainer in Maine) had met Dr. Kevin Polk in a training session and heard the immortal words “This could be used in any situation” and an idea was born.

Dr. Polk’s extensive experience spanning three decades working with veterans who had been suffering from PTSD resulted in an accessible mindfulness solution that was provided by his mapping out Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on a simple diagram.

When I met with Kevin at a coffee shop in the Portland Market in the spring of 2017, he brought along a Sharpie and a notepad. He sketched out the matrix for me and I asked a hundred questions.

I was afraid to be in a room with people who were angry. I wanted to be fair in representing both sides of the issue. It became obvious very quickly that there may be two extreme opinions but that there was a lot more than meets the eye going on.

An article in the Portland Press Herald shared our call for participants to be in the mindfulness documentary - the only requirement was that they had to have a strong opinion about guns.

We heard from NRA members and Mothers Demand Action. We heard from my mother who feared for my safety. We had one email that told us we “should be hung, while shot and pissed on for questioning the second amendment” and it was then that I knew we had to make this documentary.

A Civil Conversation About Guns took place over four weeks. I interviewed everyone individually before we started and then they met once a week for three weeks to learn from Kevin. In the final week they had a facilitated conversation about guns.

We hope you enjoy the show.

Vickie Morgan, MSEd.

Josh Morgan, MSEd.