As a communication educator, the author's goal is to help students examine and understand how communication addresses--or, in this case, fails to address--public problems such as gun violence. Communication concepts can provide insight about America's bewildering debates about gun violence, and in turn, these debates can help illustrate and refine communication concepts. The unit described herein is built on the insight that America's debates about gun violence are predicated on competing senses of identity. It begins with two main activities: the first illustrates the role of identity in gun rights and gun reform advocacy emails; the second illustrates partisan reception by looking at disparate media accounts of the speech that President Obama delivered after the 2016 mass shooting in Dallas. Courses: Argumentation, deliberation, public address, rhetorical criticism, rhetorical theory, social movements. Objectives: Using debates about the problem of gun violence as an example, this unit illuminates (1) the role of identity; and (2) the role of reception--especially partisan reception--in public argument and deliberation.