At a time when anger and fear rule the debate about guns and safety, MassLive is helping to lead a national effort to bring Americans of differing viewpoints together to discuss gun violence and gun-related issues.

We hope you will consider joining us, and people across the nation, as part of "Guns, an American Conversation."

Here's how it will work:

A coalition of American newsrooms is launching a new kind of public service journalism project, bringing together 150 people in a closed, month-long moderated Facebook group to discuss guns, and other related political and social issues. To do this, we're working with the journalism organization Spaceship Media, using their method of Dialogue Journalism for convening people on opposite sides of difficult social and political issues into sustained, moderated, journalism-supported conversations.

"Guns, an American Conversation" will launch with a small, in-person workshop for 20 participants in Washington D.C. March 24 and 25. The focus of the in-person workshop will be on getting to know one another, listening to one another and learning from one another, and exploring how can we have productive, thoughtful conversations about a topic that matters deeply to all of us. The workshop will take place the same weekend of the planned March 24 marches for and against greater gun control, but will not be connected or involved with them. We also ask those who attend to commit to being part of our month-long, moderated Facebook conversation.

For both our in-person and online conversations we are seeking a wide range of people, and a wide range of viewpoints: teenagers, adults, liberals and conservatives, people affected by gun violence and people who use guns.

Advance Local, a collection of local media organizations that includes MassLive, will cover costs for travel and accommodation in D.C. Selected participants will need to commit to full day and evening attendance Saturday March 24 and daytime attendance Sunday March 25. The event will be led by trained facilitators who are experienced listeners and skilled at bringing together people across conflicting points of view.

If you are interested in applying to be a part of this project (either in-person or online-only,) fill out this brief questionnaire by the deadline of Saturday, March 10 at midnight Eastern time.

While we can bring only 20 people to the in-person event, we also know that the 130 who are selected to be part of our online conversation will be part of an important experience and will play a valuable role as participants. We expect the online forum to run for a month after the in-person gathering (roughly through the month of April).

We encourage you to share this form with anyone you think might be interested.