A select group of 11 executives and activists struggled to tackle the role of the corporate world in combating one of the most polarizing issues in the United States today: guns.

They didn’t solve the problem. No one has yet. Which is why they were there.

At the head of the table sat two fathers of students who died in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2018. At one corner next to them sat two staunch defenders of the Second Amendment who were worried about having to relinquish their firearms.

Understandably, the two parties clashed. Tensions sizzled and tempers briefly blew. In the end, they committed to continuing the urgent conversation.

“If you, as businesspeople, don’t think as we go forward that you won’t find yourself having personal connections to gun violence, you’re wrong,” said Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg, who died in Parkland.