John Coopey

BANG ! BANG !

Thursday 22nd February 2024 8:28 pm (first posted Tuesday 23rd January 2024 7:57 pm)

(I wrote this before Christmas but thought I'd wait to post it until the next mass shooting. I haven't had to wait long. Though this time in Joliet it was not 8 schoolchildren)

I was 5 and she was 6

He shot the two of us for kicks

Who knows what went on in his head

But 24 of us are dead.

Bang Bang He shot us down

Bang Bang We hit the ground

Bang Bang That awful sound

Bang Bang That madman shot us down.

We teachers told them not to run

Which made them turkeys for his gun

We tried to help but we too bled

So three schoolteachers are now also dead.

Always there’s some crazy fool

Shooting up another school

17 at Parkland High

At Sandy Hook more were to die.

Bang Bang He shot us down

Bang Bang We hit the ground

Bang Bang Round after round

Bang Bang That madman shot us down.

Perhaps a school denied his grade

Perhaps he thought he’s underpaid

Perhaps his brain is strangely wired

No matter; he just fired and fired and fired.

To use this rifle I’ve no qualms

A citizen’s right to bear arms

Through Founding Fathers it was won

I need this automatic gun.

Bang Bang My mark I found

Bang Bang I mowed them down

Bang Bang That sweet sweet sound

Bang Bang I shot those bastards down.

Once this magazine is full

My right is constitutional

I protect from tyranny

But what protects young schoolchildren from me?

🌷(7)

◄ FUJITSU

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE ►

Comments

John Coopey

Wed 24th Jan 2024 18:03

I think you’ll find the US is definite “outlier” among “first world” countries - certainly when compared with Europe as you suggest. It does not enjoy the best of company in gun-related shootings as the attached table shows. And I cannot for the life of me see the need for someone to own an automatic weapon.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gun-deaths-by-country

M.C. Newberry

Wed 24th Jan 2024 15:58

The apparent availability of assault weapons is a blight on US
life. There may be a historical "excuse" for the possession of a
firearm in that huge country, relatively recenlly born out of conflict in which vast distances and inadequate law enforcement
provided a reason for protection by that means, but that being
the case, there should be a limitation to a handgun per adult person/household when not including sporting firearms for
hunting etc. All that said, the relevance of drug abuse allied
to mental illness of various sorts should be paramount in
government legislation in the pursuit of weapon control. In
closing, however tragic the individual circumstances of these
horrible events, it should be remembererd that we are
talking about a land that compares to the whole of Europe
in size. Would these events - if occurring across the many lands of the latter - gain the same attention? Or put down
to the wars and other military associations that have engulfed
that continent in the past? Guns won't go away. So perhaps
the old common sense of proper mature training to teach
respect for them and self-discipline in their users from an
early age is one likely antidote to the carnage that erupts
with appalling ease in modern self-indulgent "entitlement"
times. After all, it works for a land-locked civilised country like Switzerland, with its own standing-army history and ability to keep the
peace against threat from beyond its
mountain borders.

John Coopey

Wed 24th Jan 2024 15:30

Thankyou, Tim. It astounds me and I suspect the rest of the world that the US has a blind spot about guns.

Tim Higbee

Wed 24th Jan 2024 15:09

Our congress closed mental health facilities and cut out a lot of funding and programs for the mentally ill. Every mass shooting they make a show of shouting how tragic; something must be done. So, they did. They made it easier for anyone to get war grade weapons and then made it legal to have them anywhere in public. As long as members of congress continue to rake in millions of dollars in the legal bribery and extortion of weak congress members by the NRA while ignoring mental illness, it won't stop. I believe in the right to bear arms, but our forefathers could not for see weapons of mass human destruction now available for ANY citizen who wants one.
My daughter and her husband are both teachers and they and their two children just a couple of weeks ago went through a mass shooting in their school by a 17-year-old. Thank God they were prepared or a large number of children and adults and would have been dead instead of the two out of eight who unfortunately died before the kid shot himself. I'm on a rant and apologies for it.
Thank you for your excellent poem John.

John Coopey

Wed 24th Jan 2024 08:59

Goal of the Season in August, eh, Stephen? Always a bit presumptious Thanks also, Steve. And for the Likes, Graham, Stephen A and Holden.

Steve White

Wed 24th Jan 2024 07:46

"...thought I'd wait to post it until the next mass shooting".

It's terrifying how quickly the next one comes along. Your mention of Parkland reminds me of what I wrote at the time:

https://stevewhiteandtheprotestfamily.bandcamp.com/track/children-in-the-crosshairs

Stephen Gospage

Wed 24th Jan 2024 07:20

Chilling and brilliant, John. The poem of the year so far. (Singing and playing great as well).

The right to bear arms, eh?

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