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TUCSON - The National Institute for Civil Discourse is encouraging a civil discussion among citizens in the wake of calls for gun control.

A press release says "a number of deliberative democracy groups across the country have signaled their interests in leading citizen discussions, bringing together ordinary people who hold different views on what should be done about gun violence."

Patricia Maisch, was at the Safeway on January 8th and helped stop gunman Jared Loughner from reloading his gun. She says people must begin to have civil conversations, "we've got to start talking, we just have to do it." Maisch, who supports gun control legislation, admits to having used controversial language, "well they are very strong words and I do feel strongly about this but I'm willing to take it down a notch to try to make it more civil."

The president of the Gun Owners of Arizona, Ken Rineer said it's hard not to speak from the heart, "some people get their, you know their blood pressure raises a little bit and they have to pulled back a little bit but that's human nature."

The hope is that people from different backgrounds can engage in healthy discussion in the future. Carolyn Lukensmeyer, from the National Institute for Civil Discourse said, "people who think differently want to come together and want to have a really honest discussion about why do I feel so passionately about the second amendment and that it is threatened or why do I feel passionately that we have got to do common sense gun regulation."