March 9, 2001

Who needs a gun?
I can't think of a single soul.
Seems like the ones who think they need them
Are trying to protect themselves from the ones who already have them.
I wish I saw a clear solution to this obsession,
But the drive for increased weaponry only seems to escalate.
More and more, people keep guns in their houses.
More and more, nations buy & build bombs and Guns for their military.
We keep upping the ante,
And I think this attitude will make us all lose in the end.
Human beings don't deserve guns.
We're too impulsive, too clumsy, too jealous and too stubborn.
A gun is that weapon which allows one person
To take the lives of many in a sickeningly brief period of time.
Life is too precious for that kind of power to
Rest in the hands of one.

I believe that to take the life of another being,
Be it a deer or an enemy or an attacker,
The murderer must wrestle the life from their victim.
Guns kill impersonally, from a distance,
With swift and simple motion.
No one should have the right to that kind of
Easy destruction.

It's so easy, even a child can do it.
In wake of so many school shootings lately,
I've been getting over and over again
This e-mail where the father of a slain child
Pleads before congress that the NRA is not to blame,
That what we need is more of God in our lives.
I agree that it is not appropriate to simply
Blame a weapon.
We live in a culture that is obsessed with violence,
A culture where people are encouraged to be
Rude & Disrespectful to one another for laughs and status.
I think we have a multi-faceted and difficult road to pave
If we wish to decrease the numbers of school shootings and petty violence.

I think one of the most important places to start is in making weapons less available,
Putting more restrictions on who can buy them,
And promoting more education for those that do buy them,
To store/use/manage their tool of murder
More responsibly.
If I chanced upon a genie lamp,
I'd un-do all the bombs and guns and tanks that I could.
Because I truly value life, not the destruction of it.
I don't think I'll ever see the day where
Pork-faced NRA members will set their guns down and say, "No more, this is going too far."
Or the day where all the countries
Risk being vulnerable
And disable all their nuclear weapons,
Find ways to deaden their landmines,
Incapacitate their bombs and say,
"Let's focus on bettering our communities instead of our military."

But I'll try and do what I can to
Make that more of a possibility for someday.
We're already so deep into this mess
That it terrifies the living breath out of me.
Lives are stolen too too easily.

Dubya recently commented on the shooting in Santana, San Diego, saying it was
"A disgraceful act of cowardice," adding, "When America teaches our children
Right from wrong and teaches values that respect life in our country, we'll be better off."
I think how he'd probably send this country to war
Over oil, sell some of the Earth's most precious
Resources on a whim, Take money from social
Programs that would help heal some of this
Country's deep injuries and use it to
Over-fund the military even more.

This business of selling people and communities out to financially advance is so damn ugly.
The attitude of "As Long As I Get Mine"
Is completely contrary to our nature as primates.
The more we value money & wealth over human beings,
The more we can expect the children of our world
To blow themselves and each other away on a lark.
If we don't seem to value life, why should they?

I wish the people who controlled the money in this world
Would wise up and spend some of that bloated weapons budget
On people and their well-being.
But as long as more money funds the military
And the prison industrial complex than funds
Our education system, I think congress and The Powers That Be
Should stop being so flabbergasted
Every time some kid snaps and reeks havoc.

Maybe some day it'll hit home hard enough
That politicians will start caring more about humans
Than their careers.
I am ever hopeful.

"The sun is setting on the century
And we are armed to the teeth.
We're all working together now
To make our lives mercifully brief.
And school kids keep trying to teach us
What guns are all about.
Confuse liberty with weaponry,
And watch your kids act it out.
And every year now like Christmas,
Some boy gets the milk fed suburban blues,
Reaches for the available arsenal
And saunters off to make the news.
And the women in the middle
Are learning what poor women have always known:
That the edge is closer than you think
When the men bring the guns home.
Look at where the profits are
That's how you'll find the source
Of the big lie that you and I both know so well.
By the time it takes this cultural
Death wish to run its course,
They're gonna to make a pretty penny
And then they're all going to hell.
He said the chickens all come home to roost,
Malcolm forecast it this way
Are we really going to sleep through another century
While the rich profit off our blood?
Yeah, It may take some doing
To see this undoing through,
But in my humble opinion here's what I suggest we do:
Open fire on Hollywood.
Open fire on MTV.
Open fire on NBC and CBS and ABC.
Open fire on the NRA
And all the lies they told us along the way,
Open fire on each weapons manufacturer
While he's giving head to some Republican senator.
And if I hear one more time
About a fool's right to his tools of rage,
I'm gonna take all my friends
And I'm going to move to Canada
And we're going to die of old age."

-- Ani DiFranco, To the Teeth.

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