This issue was published on May 14, 1998

“But, you mean your dad doesn’t even have a gun?”

I looked dumbfounded at Trista as she waited for my reply.

“Well, no,” I answered.

Trista is from Fargo, North Dakota, and she was just as surprised by the fact that no one in my family had a gun, as I was at the fact that her boyfriend had just given her a rifle for her birthday.

It was Tuesday night, and 10 regional high school students were visiting Washington, D.C., and debating gun control as part of a Close-Up sponsored activity. Like most of the discussions that week, the gun control debate had gotten pretty heated.

At the end of the allotted debate time, students had not come upon any miraculous solutions, or even a simple compromise as to how our country should deal with gun control legislation.

However, no one was expecting a group of 17-year-olds to solve a problem that Washington’s top politicians have struggled with for years. The purpose was to get students thinking about the issue and to encourage them to try to understand and accept the opinions of others. In fact, this is the primary goal of the Close-Up program.

The Close-Up week gave students the opportunity to see monuments, hear speakers, meet new friends, walk, debate, discuss, and question.

Students made new friends from many states including Montana, Florida, Mississippi, North Dakota, California, and Minnesota.

Meeting and getting to know new people was an important part of the trip. North Dakotans don’t all say, “Yah, you betcha” all the time. Not everybody from Florida is tan and lives near Disney World, and there are other types of people in California besides surfer dudes.

I realized that whether we do it intentionally or not, we stereotype.

Another experience I had at Close-Up was meeting my roommates. Kim Dowling and I were placed in a room with two students from another state. Unlike a few other students who were unhappy with their roommates, we lucked out.

Close-Up placed us in a situation that I’m sure will occur a number of times in our lives. This is all part of the process, the Close-Up experience.

Not only did I learn many important details about the United States government, I also learned to listen and respect the opinions of others – even if they were Republicans.

I can now more clearly understand that I have a responsibility to be aware of what is going on in the world, and to be active in what I believe in.