LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- It has been a difficult past year for Dean Walker. The father lost his daughter, Savannah Walker, last March when she was killed at a shooting while attending a concert. A few months later, his son took his own life with a gun after a long battle with mental illness.
"Gun violence has impacted me tremendously over the past year," he said.
Walker has since become active lobbying for changes to gun laws, including calling for universal background checks and a ban on AR-15 rifles.
"Let's get responsible gun ownership," he said. "I'm not for taking guns away from people. That's not it. Be responsible for what you have. That's all."
Sunday evening, Walker and others sat on a panel discussing the problem of gun violence in the community and around the nation, following two school shootings in the past few weeks. Walker and several others called for legislative change, making it more difficult to purchase firearms.
"It's just ridiculous that in our country that our children are afraid to go to school," Connie Coartney with Moms Demand Action for Gunsense in America said. "And we think it's time our lawmakers and our people in charge in Washington and Frankfort stand up and do something about this issue."
But it was not a one-sided conversation. Barry Laws, the CEO of OpenRange and a firearms instructor, gave his point of view, which does not call for weapon bans or stricter gun laws. Instead, he said the question should be why do people use guns to kill and to solve that issue.
"It's not about sensible laws as much as people taking responsibility for their actions and being held responsible for their actions," he said. "What is the right question to be asking - not 'should we outlaw guns' but 'how can we stop a child from pulling a trigger?'"
Even though the conversation sometimes turned heated, Walker said he's thankful for the diversity of ideas on the panel.
"There are a lot of things I think we see eye-to-eye on. There are other things we disagree on. But if we can talk about it, we can effect meaningful change," he said. "It's not a one-step solution. There are so many things that need to happen, and conversation is the start."
While the panelists have their disagreements, they can agree something needs to change, and that having this discussion is a step in the right direction.