Explain it to me
Make me understand
Convince me that you’re right
Do not discharge me out of hand
When I hear you say guns are not to blame,
that guns don’t kill, people do.
I hear you admit that the solution
is to restrict what people can do.
Universal background checks
with a waiting period for you.
Permanently ban assault rifles
and extended magazines too.
We can’t spot a psychopath
or harden every public place.
We can sell them fewer guns
to slow the roll of this arms race.
None of us will ever be safe
when anyone can buy any gun.
It could have been my daughter,
next time it might be your son.
Copyright © 2023
RidgeMagee
All Rights Reserved
Mental illness is obviously a causal issue,
but the common denominator in all mass shootings
is the recent legal purchase of an assault rifle.
I naively hope my poetry & prose
fosters awareness in the uninitiated
and clarity of conscience in the culpable.
I offer no apology for my perspective.
It’s merely what I believe to be true
at a given point in time
tempered by my liberal* nature.
Just one bloke’s pragmatic,
prophetic & pontifical perspectives
on people, piety & politics.
Nothing for anyone
to get their panties in a knot over.
Engaging and exploring alternative points of view nourishes and expands
our own convictions and makes us a more enlightened and self-assured
individual.
For consideration;
Independent thinking is the process of making sense of the world based on your own observations and experiences rather than depending on the word of others.
It is the ability to trust your own judgments, even if they are not in agreement with what others might say or believe.
Free thinking: A Freethinker is a person who forms opinions independently of tradition, authority, or established Belief. No one can be a freethinker who naively conforms to another’s creed.
* liberal | ˈlib(ə)rəl | adjective
1. willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own; open to new ideas. • (in a political context) favoring policies that are socially progressive and promote social welfare.
2. relating to or denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise: a liberal democratic state.
