Arming Sister Margaret!

If the GOP agrees to sticking out their necks:

Call for comprehensive, universal background checks,

Give police authority to take somebody's gun,

Raise the legal age to purchase them to 21,

I think we should let the teachers in a school decide

If they want to have a loaded pistol by their side...

If they did - and if they're trained on how to use their guns -

I'm prepared to compromise and let them arm the nuns.

(Sister Margaret was armed... She had her rosary.

She'd begin to swing those beads when she was mad at me.

With that heavy, metal cross that dangled from the end

She was not a woman you would argue with, my friend.)

'though, not everyone is Sister Margaret - Thank God! -

My sons had two State cops coach their Varsity Wrestling squad;

I'd trust guys like them with guns if they brought them to school.

I would make that bargain any day...  I'm not a fool.

If the President's sincere and starts to back away

From positions long supported by the NRA

I think that he'd see his polls dramatically increase.

He would have my full support...  Will wonders never cease?

Arming Sister Margaret?

(The stuff of nightmares.)

 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students give me hope

That the NRA has finally got sufficient rope

To go hang themselves. As A+ members call their bluff,

It feels like the tide has turned.  The country's had enough.

Where the politicians feared to tread, these students dare.

Long time donors mailed in checks made out for "thoughts and prayer."

Companies are pulling their support as pressure grows

To do something - even though the lobbyists oppose.

Maybe, when the worst already happens (if you live)

You begin to find inaction harder to forgive.

Maybe all that righteous anger aimed at us adults

Has a halfway decent chance of getting some results.

I'm afraid to hope for much...  I wouldn't bet the store.

NRA has weathered many storms like this before.

I pray it's the tipping point and we'll get something done

(Anything but giving Sister Margaret a gun.)

Parkland, FL - Just Another Massacre

Thoughts and prayers. (Photo courtesy of palmbeachpost.com)

I guess all our "thoughts and prayers" from last time weren't enough...

We don't like school shootings every 60 hours? Tough.

Can't infringe on rights the Constitution guarantees.

Think some more dead children come before that? Honey, please.

We've become like moving targets on a shooting range.

NRA has bought the Congress... Nothing's gonna change.

Maybe if we found some way to siphon off their wealth;

Taxed gun sales and used the cash for funding mental health...

But - of course - we won't do that...  Or anything at all.

Only tired "thoughts and prayers." The writing's on the wall;

This is our new normal and it's likely to persist.

Just another massacre. We'll add it to the list.

Had Enough?

Gun advocates dispute this number, saying that some shootings are "just gang violence."

In my high-school student days ('though it's been many years)

Tests and late assignments were the sum of all my fears...

Trying to be popular though, sadly, I was not

But I never worried that, one day, I might get shot.

Not like kids today, where high-school shootings are routine;

Added to the pressures that they're feeling as a teen

Is it any wonder that their tests show lower scores?

They're distracted by crazed gunmen coming through the doors.

I am not a helicopter parent, but...  Come on!

As I watch more grieving parents mourn a child who's gone

I have got to wonder why our daughters and our sons

Can't get some protection from the lunatics with guns.

Have we grown so powerless that we've just given up?

Let the NRA control the conversation?  Yup.

Time to take the power back.  We have to make a squawk.

Tell your politicians that it's time to walk the walk.

Biometrics? Not A Shot

It would be a start. (Photo/www.thefirearmblog.com)

Massachusetts' Senator Ed Markey just proposed

Making guns more safe...  Surprise!  The NRA's opposed.

Wouldn't want to make it hard for kids to shoot a gun;

NRA wants weapons free for use by anyone.

Biometrics guaranteeing only owners may

Use their guns could, possibly, get in somebody's way.

Plus, it wouldn't work at all, the NRA insists;

Suicidal teenagers would simply slit their wrists.

Wouldn't want to violate their rights; prevent mistakes.

Accidental deaths are rising?  Oh well, them's the breaks.

Can't blame Ed for trying but it is a waste of time:

NRA would fight this if it took their final dime.

Markey wants to make a point I guess, and yet, the flaw

Is he doesn't have a prayer he'll make his point a law.

NRA blocked background checks so what would make Ed think

Safety measures have a shot?  I think his chances stink.

Washington Navy Yard Shootings... Here We Go Again

Cue the scary music that announces Breaking News;

(Thanking God that you weren't standing in the victims' shoes)

Watching as they tally up the injured and the dead.

Speculating; 'What was going through the shooter's head?'

Just another killing spree; this time the Navy Yard.

Proving that we're never safe; not even with a guard.

With a semi-automatic, one could hardly miss.

Wonder what the NRA's response will be to this.

Useless thoughts and prayers go out to those Alexis shot;

All who will be suffering - long after we've forgot.

Just like all the other names and faces from the past.

Sadly, I can guarantee that they won't be the last.

Dear NRA... So Much For That

 

So much for the argument that "good guys" toting guns

Is the way that we'll protect our daughters and our sons.

Tell that to Sybrina Fulton; go tell Trayvon's dad.

Jury didn't seem to think George Zimmerman was bad...

Just a guy who tried to help protect his neighborhood.

Volunteered his time; believed that he was doing good.

Just a guy out in his car - patrolling - packing heat.

That's the guy who gunned an unarmed child down in the street.

If George had no gun then things would not have gone so far;

Would have done as he was told and sat tight in his car.

But he felt like Dirty Harry, caught up in the chase.

Gun gave him the courage to get in a scared boy's face.

You don't have to be a lunatic for kids to die,

All you need's a weapon and a tense, untrained "good guy."

Think the NRA and LaPierre will now recant?

Let's ask Trayvon Martin what he thinks...  Oh, right.  We can't.

Dear NRA... Glenn Beck? Really?

Glenn Beck, too crazy for FOX but not for the NRA. (Photo/ABCNews)

NRA Convention down in Texas - not for me.

There is almost nothing about guns where we agree.

Plus, their A-List speakers like Santorum, LaPierre,

Sarah Palin (Heck, they even stuck Glenn Beck up there...

I thought he'd been relegated to the loony fringe.)

They make me so angry I can feel my eyebrows singe.

I cannot accept that they believe the things they say;

Really think Obama plans to take their guns away.

That would mean they're stupid - or they're crazy...  Take your pick.

I think it's more cynical than that and rather slick.

When they are successful and make citizens afraid

More of us go purchase guns and that's how they get paid.

The 113th Congress and The Golden Rule

The Manchin-Toomey Amendment called for background checks and required 60 votes to pass.  (Photo/Mercury News)

NRA is quite relieved; their Senators stayed bought.

Voted not to implement reforms the country sought.

Politics as usual; the famous Golden Rule...

If you've got enough of it, the Congress is your tool.

Lobbyists with money tell the Congress how to vote -

Wishes of the population given little note.

This, in my opinion, is a national disgrace.

One I hope we don't forget in the next Senate race.

The 113th Congress and the Newtown Parents

Newtown parents joined the President on Air Force One,

Vowing they will never rest until their battle's won;

Flying down to Washington to lobby on the Hill;

Fighting for reforms the NRA would like to kill.

Universal background checks which, most of us agree,

Make good sense and is a measure we'd all like to see

May not pass the Senate which will, seemingly, ignore

Changes that the vast majority are asking for.

How did things get so messed up that it's the NRA

With the only voice that seems to ever get a say?

Newtown parents - those who've buried daughters, wives, and sons -

Speak with more authority on legislating guns.

The 113th Congress - Who Are You Working For, Anyway?

Pistol packin' teachers stationed in the nation's schools;

That's the only change the NRA wants to the rules.

They'll agree to background checks for teachers who are armed...

After all, they wouldn't care to see more children harmed.

That is the extent of any changes that they want.

NRA has always had the influence to daunt

Any politician who attempts to compromise

'cause Wayne LaPierre, their spokesman, stoops to spreading lies.

They're opposed to background checks; they call them registries.

Say we'll come to take their guns away but, honey, please...

That is simply crazy talk. There are no men in black.

We just need a change after the Sandy Hook attack.

Most of us want background checks; that seems the place to start.

We want mental health professionals to play a part.

If the Congress represents The People's will, then they

Need to show us they're not working for the NRA.

Dear NRA... There's a New Sheriff in Town

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gabby Giffords, and Mark Kelly are gambling that they can make a change.

Looks as if the Congress won't ban instruments of war,

Which is what a semi-automatic weapon's for.

Won't restrict the magazines to 15 rounds or less.

Even background checks have caused Conservatives distress.

Claim that it's a registry so we'll know where to start

When we come to pry their guns and cold, dead hands apart.

NRA is threatening to "throw the bastards out."

In the past it's been the only group that's wielded clout.

They should know, another sheriff just rode into to town

And he's got the cash to back the bets that he lays down.

Lately, he and other groups have said they plan to spend

Money on elections and the message that they'd send:

Is that the majority, according to the polls,

Want to see those 3 reforms, want help for tortured souls,

Don't want politicians' specious arguments on rights...

Want them to address concerns that keep us up at nights.

The NRA - WTF? (Wants to Forget)

Since the Newtown massacre the NRA has tried

To deflect attention from the numbers who have died.

(Meanwhile we Americans run out and purchase guns...

Makes me want to swear but I am still afraid of nuns.)

This is what a lobbyist can do when they have cash;

Politicians are afraid the NRA will thrash

Anyone who even tries to bring the issue up.

Is the NRA creating paranoia? Yup.

Once they thought that background checks for everyone was cool;

Advocated for a weapons-free zone at a school.

Now  they say that any list allows our government

To disarm its citizens - with little effort spent.

Now  they want to arm our teachers.  My, how things have changed.

I've begun to fear Wayne LaPierre's become deranged.

Fostering conspiracies appears to be his aim.

Cash is needed if we hope to beat him at his game.

Smeejie Get Your Gun?

(Photo/ REUTERS/Dave Kaup)

In the wake of Sandy Hook, where 20 children died,

Nation in a state of shock; Barack Obama cried.

(He was not the only one who's eyes had sprung a leak

I know that I wept non-stop for the entire week.)

We all swore we'd make a change to stop these killing sprees.

Think that anything will ever happen?  Honey, please.

While the Newtown parents buried daughters and their sons,

People, in the thousands, stood in line to purchase guns.

Weapons sales went through the roof and bullets sold out quick.

Proof, to me, the culture that we live in's pretty sick.

NRA sounds rational when people are afraid.

How far has my own position on this issue strayed?

I've begun to think that arming teachers makes good sense.

Maybe build a moat, or else electrify a fence.

We now have so many guns we can't uncross the line.

There's a gun for everyone...  I wonder who has mine.