The gun debate. IN SONG.

Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 06:44 PM

I have complicated views on this subject, which I'll be happy to express in prose in a suitable venue. However, if this is going to be a debate, it should be at least mentioned that there are songs on the other side, such as Leslie Fish's "They Were Having a Sale at the Gun-Store", which ends

So that was the end of the Jukes boys; the cops had to clean up the mess
So they slandered gun-owning civilians all over the liberal press.
But the victors who might have been victims, though silent, all know this is true:
So long as there's one weapon left in the world, you'd better have you a gun too.

Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: GUEST,MicroBalrog
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 04:18 PM

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1239663&postcount=14

Oleg Volk's, not mine.

Oil and grease and powder
A most welcome smell
Of guns and ammo a-plenty
And of thousands fired shells

Mirage wavers over the barrels
Targets look worse for the wear
We might be tired by end of the day
But, as we shall fight, we have trained

We might need a cleaning
But guns get cleaned first
Belts re-filled with AP and tracers
And magazines topped off

Oil and grease and powder
Smell of tool put to work
Reminder that we're in America
Not in Chicago, LA or New York

A most welcome, that smell
As long as we hold the guns
And anyone trying to take them
Won't, without a fight

They might start it, but we will finish
Just like Finns did in 1918
We'll blow smoke from rifle muzzles
And say "Dead reds smell like freedom"

Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: open mike
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 04:55 PM

Cheryl Wheeler has the perfect gun song..
verbose, but right onl..
it has been covered by Garth Brooks
and many others..
the last line is if it were up to me
I'd take away the guns...

Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 05:01 PM

Wake Up America
by Mike Campbell 2004

I work in a factory making children's coffins,
Seems like I'm working more each day.
I take pride in my craft, polished and shined,
But feel so guilty when I spend my pay.

I read in the paper that young Jimmy was dead now,
Shot through the heart with a big Forty-Five.
His daddy had bought that gun for protection,
Now his little boy is no longer alive.

    Wake up America your children are dying,
    Wake up America there's blood on your hands,
    Guns are the reason for the killing and crying,
    Now's the time to get them all out of this land.

I watched in the rain when they buried his body,
Coffin was shining, brass and wood.
Tonight I'm gonna throw all my guns in the ocean,
But I wonder if it will do any good.

    Wake up America your children are dying,
    Wake up America there's blood on your hands,
    Guns are the reason for the killing and crying,
    Now's the time to pull your head out of the sand.

Subject: Lyr Add: IF IT WERE UP TO ME (Cheryl Wheeler)
From: open mike
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 05:14 PM

If It Were Up to Me

This song was written after the Jonesboro schoolyard shooting incident. She actually didn't realize she was writing it at the time. She was talking to herself while she was driving and suddenly realized that it was a song.
I find this song very powerful. Experts can (and probably will) debate about the cause of the dramatic increase in violence among children. While these debates are going on, more children are dying. Cheryl states the obvious: if we can keep guns away from children, they can't use them to kill others.
The song lists all the excuses that people put forth for the increase in violence among children. The song ends with her saying: "But if it were up to me, I'd take away the guns."

Some have interpreted that to mean that Cheryl is in favor of getting rid of all guns. I think it is more accurate to say that the song promotes keeping guns away from unsupervised children. My interpretation of the song is that we can debate forever over the "cause" of increased violence, but children will keep getting killed until we do something to make it harder for children to get easy access to firearms.

Cheryl explained once that the song lists possible reasons why the kids were angry. Regardless of the reason for the anger, the reason the shootings happened was that the kids were able to get their hands on guns. Our society has decided that adults should be allowed access to firearms. It then follows that adults should make sure that those firearms don't fall into the hands of kids.

Cheryl mentioned hearing a news report that the 11-year-old boy was in his jail cell crying for his mother. It took her breath away, and she was hoping that the kid's mother didn't hear that report. Can any of us imagine what it must be like for a parent to find out that their child has done something terrible?

Rounder saw this song as a way to promote the album Sylvia Hotel. This song was released as the first single from the album. Every time it was played on a AAA station, Rounder donated $5 to the Center for the Prevention of Handgun Violence. This is an organization allied with Handgun Control (ala the "Brady Bill".)

After the Columbine School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, this song was adopted as a sort of anthem. The local radio station played it every half hour. When the NRA decided to still hold their convention nearby, Cheryl was asked to perform the song during a protest meeting.

The interest in this song was significant, not just in Colorado, but around the country. Rounder reinstated its offer to donate $5 every time the song was played on a AAA radio station. They also, with permission from Cheryl, "gave away" the song. It could be downloaded in its entirety from several websites.

Garth Brooks created a medley of this song and "Let's Get Together" to create a song called "Right Now" for his album Chris Gaines - Greatest Hits.


IF IT WERE UP TO ME
Words and music by Cheryl Wheeler
As recorded by Cheryl Wheeler on "Sylvia Hotel," 1999.

Maybe it's the movies, maybe it's the books
Maybe it's the bullets, maybe it's the real crooks
Maybe it's the drugs, maybe it's the parents
Maybe it's the colors everybody's wearin'
Maybe it's the President, maybe it's the last one
Maybe it's the one before that, what he done
Maybe it's the high schools, maybe it's the teachers
Maybe it's the tattooed children in the bleachers
Maybe it's the Bible, maybe it's the lack
Maybe it's the music, maybe it's the crack
Maybe it's the hairdos, maybe it's the TV
Maybe it's the cigarettes, maybe it's the family
Maybe it's the fast food, maybe it's the news
Maybe it's divorce, maybe it's abuse
Maybe it's the lawyers, maybe it's the prisons
Maybe it's the Senators, maybe it's the system
Maybe it's the fathers, maybe it's the sons
Maybe it's the sisters, maybe it's the moms
Maybe it's the radio, maybe it's road rage
Maybe El Nino, or UV rays
Maybe it's the army, maybe it's the liquor
Maybe it's the papers, maybe the militia
Maybe it's the athletes, maybe it's the ads
Maybe it's the sports fans, maybe it's a fad
Maybe it's the magazines, maybe it's the internet
Maybe it's the lottery, maybe it's the immigrants
Maybe it's taxes, big business
Maybe it's the KKK and the skinheads
Maybe it's the communists, maybe it's the Catholics
Maybe it's the hippies, maybe it's the addicts
Maybe it's the art, maybe it's the sex
Maybe it's the homeless, maybe it's the banks
Maybe it's the clearcut, maybe it's the ozone
Maybe it's the chemicals, maybe it's the car phones
Maybe it's the fertilizer, maybe it's the nose rings
Maybe it's the end, but I know one thing.
If it were up to me, I'd take away the guns.
I'd take away the guns.
I'd take away the guns.


(P) October 1, 1997

Penrod And Higgins Music / Amachrist Music ACF Music Group International Copyright Reserved

Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 06:23 PM

I GO OUT A WALKING WITH MY DOG AND GUN

TRADITIONAL IRISH -SONG ?

FIDDLE-4

Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: FriendOfFrancis
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 02:38 PM

Be the first one on your block
    To get your kid sent home in a box.


          My dad is a hard-core right-wing Republican NRA Lifetime Member. We don't see eye to eye on much. My opinion is that when the above lyric was written, the problem of seeing people get blown away in cold blood was from 'the enemy' in a war, or at least in the poorest and most desperate of ghettoes somewhere. Nowadays, the threat is as real and immediate in my little tiny suburban enclave as it is in any war zone.

The answer is education and giving our future generations the chance to learn to be something besides angry and frustrated.

So here's my verse, bad as it may be:

I hear the talk from everyone
About the subject of the gun.
Some say they're meant for every hand,
Some say they're poison in the land.
I say it's nothing but a tool;
Unless the shooter is a fool.
Give the lawless ones a job
So they can work instead of rob
so they can help feed starving kids
instead of closing coffin lids.
If folks learn truth instead of crud,
they won't resort to shedding blood.

    I am no poet, and this topic is definitely not my forte, but I tried.

FoF+

Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 04:15 PM

Russian Roulette, maybe that's the answer.

If one in a hundred bullets were made
to explode when the trigger was squeezed
pehaps people would hesitate
and the shootouts might be decreased.

Or one in ten...or one in one
The same way it was with the Atom Bomb.

Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 02:47 PM

"They also, with permission from Cheryl, "gave away" the song. It could be downloaded in its entirety from several web sites."

Anyone got a URL for such a download please?????

Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 03:33 PM

Some horrific act occurs--a violent criminal steals a firearm and goes on a killing spree, terrorists kill scores of innocents, a drunk drives his car into a crowd, a wild animal kills a jogger, etc., etc--and the bleeding hearts cry, "There ought to be a law...." We now have so many laws that a whole industry thrives trying to interpret (and circumvent) them, and none of these laws have the slightest effect on those who would do wrong. (Did anyone ever stop to think that, by definition, criminals are those who make their living breaking laws and that only those who are honest feel bound by laws. Hey! We have laws against, murder, kidnapping, and rape, and they occur with alarming regularity.)


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An actor puts a .44 magnum loaded with blanks in his ear and pulls the trigger and his estate sues the gun manufacturer. A man gets drunk and drives his $50,000 sports car into a bridge at 100 mph and his estate sues the beverage manufacturer and the car manufacturer. A woman puts a hot cup of coffee between her thighs and drives off in her car burning herself and she sues the restaurant chain. A jogger, alone and unarmed, in a wilderness area is attacked by a wild animal and she sues the state government. There are even warnings on computer keyboards now warning of risk of injury by using them!

Now products ranging from airplanes to plastic bags now carry warnings that you risk death and dismemberment (or worse) if you do something incredibly stupid with them. Cups of hot coffee now all carry warnings "Warning! Contents Hot." Duh? Plastic wrap and bags carry warnings not to put over your face. Sets of kitchen knives have "Danger! Sharp!" warnings advising the user not to put fingers under them.

It use to be that people actually had enough brains to know that firearms, knives, hammers, drills, automobiles, hot things, chemicals, and wild animals could do you serious injury if mishandled. If they did something stupid they owned up to it, accepted the consequences, and didn't try to blame others for their stupidity.

Lawyers are getting rich suing companies because someone used a product in a stupid manner and got hurt.

Maybe there ought to be a law! A law simply banning S T U P I D I T Y !
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Then there is the trend for the government to protect us from firearms by passing laws. Firearms are banned because the "look" evil" or have such things as flash hiders, vertical grips, or bayonet lugs. Bayonet lugs? When was the last time you heard of a 7-11 being held up at bayonet point? In some jurisdictions simply changing the configuration of the wood stock makes you a felon. Large capacity magazines? I feel so much safer since new magazines over 10 round capacity were banned. Consider this. Someone is pointing a pistol with a magazine capacity of 15 rounds at you. Then they remove 5 rounds from the magazine and point the pistol at you. There, don't you feel safer? As for sustained fire, with a modicum of training a person can learn to swap magazines in about 1 second.


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Now the new trend is to make even minor or non violent offenses a felony or to treat them as a felony, and thus proscribe the person from ever owning a firearm. States like NJ are violating ex post facto and passing laws that are retro-active, turning otherwise honest citizens into felons who then have their doors kicked in to "protect" the public. The government is not interested in public safety and order. Even if everyone lived by the Golden Rule the government would still find ways to make that a crime so that they could lord their power over the citizens and make the government employees superior to the ordinary people.


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How about concealed weapons permit holders. Folks with CCW permits undergo a tighter background check in many cases than law enforcement folks, yet they can't carry in many places--because they can't be trusted.


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Of course there is always the issue of political correctness. You can actually be arrested and jailed in many places because you utter something about another person or their life style that someone with too much time on their hands overhears. Meanwhile the utter lack of morals, self control, and honesty among members of the government is "OK."


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Another thing that really gets me is the shallowness of many "friendships" and number of people with the "what's in it for me attitude." They may claim to be a friend but the first time you find yourself in tough times or in need they are conveniently no where to be found. Or, if it suits the occasion or they need to look good, they can speak ill of you to others yet smile to your face if you have what they want or need. I have experienced this enough times and have had others speak of it that I truly believe that honesty, integrity, morals are dying in our civilization
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Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: The Shambles
Date: 22 Mar 05 - 03:12 AM

Refresh

Subject: RE: The gun debate. IN SONG.
From: Frankham
Date: 22 Mar 05 - 03:40 PM

"I'll get even for what they put me through.
They think they're tough and full of fight,
But I really know just what to do.
I can't wait to get 'em in my sight."

He broke the locks on his daddy's door,
And pulled the trophy from it's case.
He had never ever done that before
Tho' he planned the job, and the time and place.

"It's so easy", he thought, "At last
I can beat those bastards at their games.
I can just pull this trigger fast
And watch 'em all go down in flames."

Scattered about as the morning sunned
The little kids, who, on the schoolground lay,
While the lone attacker scared and stunned
Offered his soul to the NRA.

Frank

Subject: Lyr Add: I AM YOUR GUN (Jethro Tull)
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 22 Mar 05 - 03:49 PM

I AM YOUR GUN
As recorded by Jethro Tull on "Broadsword and the Beast" (1982)

Blew my smoke on a sunny day,
when the first black powder came my way.
Hot lead ball from a muzzle cold
to win fair lady and take your gold.

I know it hardly seems the time (I am your gun)
to talk of blue steel so sublime. (I am your gun)
I can understand your point of view. (I am your gun)
To tell the truth I'd scare me too.

Match, wheel and flintlock, they all caught your eye.
Pearl-handled ladies' models, scaled down to size.
I am the peacemaker, so the theory goes.
But I don't choose the company I keep and it shows.

I am your gun.
Love me, I'm your gun.

Maxim and Browning, they helped me along.
Stoner, Kalashnikov thrilled to my song.
Now one of me exists, for each one of you,
So how can you blame me for the things that I do?

Now I take second place to the motor car(I am your gun)
in the score of killing kept thus far. (I am your gun)
And just remember, if you don't mind (I am your gun)
it's not the gun that kills but the man behind.