A look at two gun shows in Albany

Guns. In a divided era, few topics prompt a wider split. On one side of the cultural and political chasm: Gun owners. On the other side: Advocates for more gun control.

Between them: a gulf filled with disparate worldviews, conflicting definitions of safety, cultural stereotypes and fear. How to cross it?

"Opening up conversation between people right now in America is kinda difficult. Kinda touchy Nobody's giving anyone the benefit of the doubt," said the playwright E.M. Lewis. "So the conversation is very much all or nothing. Which isn't helping. I think there are a million steps in between."

In the coming week, two Albany events will put firearms front and center. The first is a gun show this weekend at the Polish Community Center on Washington Avenue. The second, set for March 27 down the road at the University at Albany, is "The Gun Show," Lewis' one-person play designed to break down assumptions and spark conversation on the topic.

The juxtaposition of the events — scheduled just a few days and a five-minute drive apart — is pure coincidence. When they were planning it, the organizers of the gun show didn't know about "The Gun Show." And the artists behind "The Gun Show" didn't know about the gun show.

But taken together, the two events turn a lens on a subject too often reduced to sweeping generalizations. To some on the left, their counterparts on the right are Second Amendment zealots. To some on the right, people on the left want to revoke it and seize their guns. The subject is so fraught that even the possibility for dialogue is open to question.

"There's no changing their minds. ... The statistics that they throw out are like, you know, the Ten Commandments burnt into stone — which they are not," said David Petronis, who's presenting this weekend's...