A Bad Guy With a Gun

"Only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun." So says the gun lobby—the bad guy with a gun! School, shop, and street wax wet with blood, But the hum of the gun works drowns out their cry. Their tears, still, run deep in our ears Sweeping away old lies about guns That gun shop bums so glibly put forth. By caskets in a ditch, they make their pitch To conjure gun sales out of every shooting. "Strap a mop to a gun butt to blot the blood," they'll say Knowing that in our fright they can fly us like a kite And lead us by a string to gun shops and the like. Soon, though, we see not more sales alone But in their red wake more hells too. By right we arm but by love disarm. Now is the nation called to love: By gun control we challenge not your rights But your heart to sacrifice that love entails. So give me not a reading of the law But tales of love's deeds in hearts and homes— How racks have shed arms like autumn leaves And turned the land from red to gold.