EXCLUSIVE: The nation’s heated debate about guns and the Second Amendment is becoming the subject of a primetime drama series. Sundance Channel has put into development Cold Dead Hands, a family drama set against the backdrop of the National Rifle Association.

The project, whose title stems from the popular NRA slogan, will be written by author-journalist Scott Gold and produced by Tony Krantz’s Flame Ventures (NBC’s Dracula). It centers on the fictional and polarizing head of the NRA, Trip Thibodeaux, and the drama that swirls around him both at work and at home. Trip is a father and husband — and he also happens to be the nation’s most powerful gun-rights advocate and the de facto CEO of the gun industry. A charismatic and polarizing figure, he’ll be forced to navigate a volatile landscape in American culture and politics, as well as crises of his own faith, when his rarefied world spirals out of control. “The debate over gun violence and gun rights has many sides, and in order to help protect lives, promote gun safety and build a national consensus on the issues, we want to respect and understand all sides of this story,” Krantz said. Krantz and Gold will executive produce, with Flame’s Reece Pearson serving as co-executive producer.

Gold, repped by Verve, Media Talent Group and Jamie Mandelbaum, has been a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times since 1999 and has covered such news events as NASA’s mission to Mars and hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. In TV, he worked on the CBS series Under The Dome. Krantz is repped by CAA.