Following the tragedy at Sandy Hook, it is hard to imagine anyone not being worried about the current level of violence showing up in our schools, shopping malls, houses of worship, or any place where we congregate.

WRAL-TV and Capitol Broadcasting Company have a long-standing commitment to bring to the forefront issues that confront our communities. We believe that honest, open and balanced discussion can create meaningful change ... change for the better. As part of that, we recognize that the circumstances surrounding the murders in Connecticut expose issues that go far beyond any regulation of guns.

Wednesday night, Jan. 23, WRAL-TV debuts a one-hour, commercial-free special, Soft Targets, Hard Choices, that subsequently airs on each Capitol Broadcasting television station in the state. The program exposes the feelings, concerns and opinions of a diverse group of North Carolina citizens, and includes an examination of North Carolina’s gun laws, the right to bear arms, security in public places, violence in entertainment and how the state treats the mentally ill.

Our website, WRAL.com, goes far beyond the television program and offers a wide range of rich material related to the challenges we face, including an exclusive, scientific poll of North Carolina residents.

Our goal for this company-wide effort is to encourage constructive and meaningful discussion of what we should do, what we can do and what we are willing to do as a society to make our world safer. Needless to say, this is just the beginning of a conversation that hopefully will continue until we, as a group of responsible citizens, reach that goal.

We hope you will join in on the conversation and watch the program, and then take advantage of the opportunities to participate in the live online chats that will follow in the hours and days to come.

We hope that together we can find effective solutions before another drop of blood is shed.

This story is part of WRAL's prime time special "Soft Targets, Hard Choices." We welcome your comments and questions. Send email to hardchoices@wral.com or use #hardchoices on Twitter.