🔫 Trigger Warning: Guns, Drama, and the Crossfire of Culture
In South Korea’s electrifying 2024 drama Trigger (트리거), bullets don’t just shatter glass — they fracture society. The show imagines a near-future Korea where firearms are outlawed, but illegal guns mysteriously appear at citizens’ doorsteps. What follows is an unraveling of personal traumas, institutional failures, and the fragile line between justice and chaos.
In the United States, we don’t have to imagine such a future — it’s already here.
🎬 The Premise: Korea’s Fictional Gun Epidemic
Trigger stars Kim Nam-gil as Lee Do, an ex-sniper turned police officer, and Kim Young-kwang as Moon Baek, a morally unhinged arms broker. As guns filter into homes and hands, the nation teeters on civil collapse. Episode by episode, the series exposes the psychological “triggers” that lead ordinary people to pull the literal one.
Mass shootings, school violence, revenge fantasies, state corruption — Trigger isn’t escapist drama. It’s reflective fiction, wrapped in adrenaline.
🌏 A Tale of Two Nations
So why is gun violence far more prevalent in the U.S. than in South Korea?
🇺🇸 The American Arsenal
393 million guns in civilian hands — that’s more than one per person.
Constitutional protections for gun ownership have created a culture of normalization.
Over 600 mass shootings recorded in a single year.
Gun access is decentralized, often unregulated across states.
🇰🇷 South Korea’s Tight Control
Guns are considered dangerous tools, not personal rights.
Civilians must store firearms at local police stations.
Less than 1% of the population owns guns, legally.
Mandatory military service trains nearly all men in firearm use — but they return home without them.
Yet despite these controls, Korea isn’t untouched by violence. A handful of tragic shootings — Woo Bum-kon’s 1982 rampage among them — reveal that even in a nation with low gun access, psychological instability and institutional gaps can prove lethal.
💰 Market Forces: Legal vs Illegal Weapons
In the U.S., one can buy a legal firearm for as low as $300. In Korea, black-market guns are rare and can cost up to $5,000, with high personal risk. Illicit gun trade exists, but is heavily policed and socially condemned.
🧑🎤 Korean Immigrants in the U.S. — An Unwritten Chapter
Statistically, Korean Americans are not significantly represented in mass shooting incidents. In fact, they’re one of the least likely demographic groups to be involved, reinforcing the idea that access — not ethnicity — drives violence.
🎯 Gun Violence in K-Drama Storytelling
Beyond Trigger, Korean dramas use gun violence sparingly — but symbolically.
Title
Korean
Synopsis
Signal
시그널
Cold-case detectives solve crimes via a time-traveling radio; gun violence tied to police failure
Flower of Evil
악의 꽃
A man hides his criminal past; guns emerge as symbolic climax
Voice
보이스
Call center tracks serial killers; guns become emotional tools rather than casual weapons
Taxi Driver
모범택시
A revenge-driven vigilante offers justice to the exploited, wielding firearms only when morality permits
These dramas reflect Korea’s cultural unease with firearms. Guns are not props — they’re disruptions, signifiers of a social break.
📚 From Script to Society
If Trigger were adapted to the U.S., it might lose its allegorical sharpness — not because the themes are irrelevant, but because Americans have long stopped being shocked by a gun on the kitchen counter. Where Trigger plays with the idea of sudden armament as a societal infection, an American version might resemble a mirror too accurate — or a satire too close to truth.
Lee Do’s climactic choice — to hug a child holding a gun instead of shooting — is a poetic inversion of real-world responses. In a nation defined by “Stand Your Ground” laws, could empathy disarm the conflict?
✍️ Final Shot
Gun violence isn’t just a statistic. It’s a trigger — emotional, political, personal. And in blending fiction with reality, Trigger offers what satire does best: a chance to see ourselves from the outside and ask, “What have we normalized?”
🇺🇸 vs 🇰🇷 Gun Violence: A Comparative Lens
🔍 Why Is Gun Violence So Much Greater in the U.S. Than in Korea?
Access & Culture:
The U.S. has a deeply entrenched gun culture tied to constitutional rights (Second Amendment), self-defense, and individual liberty. South Korea, by contrast, treats gun ownership as a privilege, not a right.
Numbers Tell the Story:
U.S.: ~120 guns per 100 residents
South Korea: ~1.1 guns per 100 residents
Homicide Rates:
U.S.: ~4.7 intentional homicides per 100,000 people
South Korea: ~0.6 per 100,000
Mass Shootings: The U.S. has hundreds annually; Korea has had fewer than a dozen in the past 50 years
🎯 Military & Civilian Gun Use in Korea
Mandatory Military Service:
Nearly all Korean men undergo firearms training during their 18–24 months of service
Training typically includes rifles, not handguns
Shooting Ranges:
Civilian shooting is tightly controlled
Ranges like Myeongdong and Gangnam offer supervised shooting with strict ammo tracking
Tourists and locals can fire pistols, but only under staff supervision
🦌 Hunting Popularity: Korea vs U.S.
Metric
South Korea
United States
Legal hunting rifles
Allowed with a license
Widely available
Popularity
Niche, seasonal
Cultural tradition
Game hunted
Wild boar, pheasant
Deer, turkey, elk, waterfowl
Participation rate
Very low
~8.4% of the population hunts
🔥 Major Mass Shootings in Korea
While rare, Korea has experienced a few notable incidents:
Year
Incident
Firearm Source
1982
Woo Bum-kon rampage (56 killed)
2007
Gangneung shooting (3 killed)
Hunting rifle
2011
Marine Corps shooting (4 killed)
Military-issued rifle
2015
Army base shooting (2 killed)
The Korean Times Headline put the Woo Bom Kon Rampage as “Drunken GI Goes on Rampage and Blows Himself.” Dropping the up makes the headline absurdly funny to foreign readers!
Most firearms were obtained through military or police channels, not civilian ownership
Guns in K-dramas often signal emotional trauma, revenge, or institutional collapse, rather than everyday crime
트리거 (Teurigeo) — Romanized as “Trigger,” it literally means “trigger,” but metaphorically evokes the emotional and societal tipping points explored in the series.
🔥 Overall Synopsis
Set in a near-future South Korea where firearms are banned, Trigger imagines a chilling scenario: illegal guns begin flooding the country, delivered anonymously to ordinary citizens. The story follows:
Lee Do (Kim Nam-gil), a former military sniper turned police officer, haunted by trauma and committed to justice.
Moon Baek (Kim Young-kwang), a charismatic arms broker with a messianic complex and a plan to destabilize society.
As gun violence escalates, the drama interrogates moral ambiguity, systemic failure, and the psychological “triggers” that push people to the edge.
📺 Episode-by-Episode Breakdown (Highlights)
Episode
Summary
1
A mentally unstable student, Yoo Jung-tae, receives an illegal firearm and goes on a shooting spree. Lee Do begins investigating the source of the weapons.
2
Multiple subplots emerge: a sex offender receives a gun, a bullied student is coerced into theft, and Lee Do meets Moon Baek.
3
A high-octane chase and shootout reveal Lee Do’s military past. Moon Baek’s motives remain murky.
4
Mrs. Oh, a grieving mother, receives a gun and contemplates revenge. Lee Do confronts Jeong-man’s gang.
5
Moon Baek’s backstory unfolds—he was trafficked as a child and radicalized. His plan to destabilize Korea becomes clearer.
6
A school shooting orchestrated by Moon Baek shocks the nation. Gyu-jin and Yeong-dong, bullied students, become pawns in his scheme.
7–9
The conspiracy deepens. Lee Do uncovers ties to an international arms syndicate. Moon Baek manipulates public sentiment.
10
At a mass rally, Moon Baek tries to provoke nationwide violence. Lee Do chooses empathy over vengeance, embracing a child with a gun. The image goes viral, halting the chaos.
🎭 Cast List
Actor
Role
Description
Kim Nam-gil
Lee Do
Ex-sniper turned cop, stoic and haunted
Kim Young-kwang
Moon Baek
Arms dealer with a dual personality
Woo Ji-hyun
Yoo Jung-tae
Student with mental illness
Park Hoon
Koo Jeong-man
Gang handler
Kim Won-hae
Cho Hyeon-sik
Police sergeant, father figure to Lee Do
Gil Hae-yeon
Oh Gyeong-suk
Grieving mother
Jang Dong-joo
Jang Sun-gyeong
Guest role (Ep. 1–4)
Park Yoon-ho
Park Gyu-jin
Bullied student
Others
Various guest roles
Including gang members, police chiefs, and victims
💬 Notable Quotes
Moon Baek: “All I did was hand them a gun. It’s up to them whether they pull the trigger.”
Lee Do: “Wouldn’t pulling a 5-millimeter trigger in pursuit of revenge spread fear in the minds of many?”
Captain Jo: “How did you bear this pain at such a young age?” — Lee Do: “It was all thanks to you, Captain.”
These lines encapsulate the show’s moral tension and emotional depth.
📚 Literary Reputation & Themes
Critical Acclaim: Praised for its bold premise and emotional resonance. Critics highlight its refusal to offer easy answers and its exploration of societal collapse through individual trauma.
April 23rd, April 24th and April 25th, 2022 Poems2022/04/26
April 22, 2022 Poems2022/04/23
April 21, 2022 Poems2022/04/22
April 18 to April 20, 2022 Poems2022/04/21
April 16 and 17, 2022 Poems2022/04/18
April 14 to April 15, 2022 Poems2022/04/18
April 12 to April 13, 2022 Poems2022/04/18
April 9-11, 2022 Poems2022/04/17
April 8, 2022 Poems2022/04/09
April 7th Poems2022/04/08
April 6th, 2022 Poems2022/04/08
April 5 2022, Poems2022/04/08
April 4th 2022, Poems2022/04/08
2022 April Poetry Madness April 1 to 3 poems2022/04/04
Ten Best April 2021 Poems2021/05/03
April 25 to April 30 2021 Poems2021/05/02
April 20 to April 25th 2021 Poems2021/04/25
April 16 to April 20 2021 Poems2021/04/20
April 10 to April 14 2021 Poems2021/04/14
April 1 to April 5 Poems2021/04/10
April 6 to April 9 Cosmos’s Poetry 2021/04/10
Cosmos 2020 April Poetry Part Two2020/04/16
Cosmos’s 2020 April Poetry Part One2020/04/02
April 2018 Poems2019/05/05
2017 April Poems2019/05/05
April 2019 Poems2019/04/04
Index
April 1—Make a mistake! (Write about a mistake you’ve made and/or literally make one (or more) in the poem!)
April 2—Breaking the ice (Incorporate “ice breaking” literally or metaphorically in a poem.)
April 3—Poem in response to an animal, or an animal video!
April 4—A music poem
April 5—Give in to a temptation!
April 6—A poem that could be a guided meditation…
April 7—A poem of thanks
April 8—A praise poem
April 9—A grief poem
April 10—Somehow use the number ten
April 11—Poem that defines a real or made-up word
April 12—A letter poem
April 13—A diary entry
April 14—Coming-of-age poem
April 15—A book report
Korea Springtime Haiku
Korean springtime
Billowing yellow dust//
Snowing cherry trees
Should have run for office
My slogan would have been
“Don’t make a mistake
Vote for jake
He ain’t no fake
he ain’t no flake
He ain’t on the take
he ain’t on the make
He ain’t no rake
He ain’t to snake
Everything is at stake
Even a tax break
So, have a steak
Remember to vote for Jake
And everything’s Jake”
Sam Adams felt shy
And lonely at times
He was not very good
At small talk
Not able to easily interact
With strangers
Never really learned
How to break the ice
In social settings
One day
At a party
He had reluctantly gone to
At the insistence
Of his roommates
He met his fate
She was so opposite
Of him
Vivacious, charming
Charismatic
Extroverted
Outgoing
and tres sexy
And a champion schmoozer
She told Sam
She would be his mentor
And taught him
How it was done
He soon learned
The art of making conversation
With almost anymore
And over time
Became a champion schmoozer
As well
And their romance flourished
And they were married
Three months later
Sam often thanked
His roommates
For dragging him
To that party
On that date
He met his fate
And now you know
The rest of the story.
April 3 is an animal or animal video!
cat jpg
the Demon Cat
lived in Medford, Oregon
He was mean as hell
Vicious temper
Mean hearted
As only demon cats can be
He lived with an old man
And his daughter
In an old house.
The demon cat
Hated the daughter
Who hated the demon cat.
The demon cat
Would rush at her
Hissing making her back off
Or leave the house.
One day the daughter
Told her father
Either get rid
Of the demon cat
Or I will have to leave you.
The old man
Smiled at his daughter,
Said,
Well good luck
on your move
The cat is staying.
The demon cat
Looked at the daughter
With hate in his black eyes,
Smiling at his victory.
The daughter moved out
Refused to step foot
In the house
As long as the demon cat
Was around.
Bonus Demonic Cat Haiku
evil cat
The demonic cat
Lived in Medford Oregon –
Dreaming death to humans
April 4—A musical poem
Tower of Power
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My favorite music
Has always been funk
Make The tower of power
The best funk band
of them all
Formed in the East Bay
in the turbulent 60s
Still going strong
Almost 50 years later!
Their love song
You’re still a young man
Is perhaps the greatest
Make out song
of all time
Of all times
First song
I slowed danced to
Back in high school
A song I played
To seduce my wife
I wonder how many babies
were conceived because
of this classic soul song
Another classic song
“What is hip
Which poised
An unanswered question
And inspired this triolet
What is love,
tell me if you know
Love is what it is
Do you know what love is, Joe?
What is love, tell me if you know
And how can you make it grow?
Madness is what it does
What is love, tell me if you know
Love is what it is
Based loosely on the classic Tower of Power Song, “what is hip?”
What Is Hip Lyrics
[Verse 1]
So ya wanna dump out yo’ trick bag
Ease on in a hip thang
But you ain’t exactly sure what is hip
So you started to let your hair grow
Spent big bucks on your wardrobe
Somehow, ya know there’s much more to the trip
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
[Verse 2]
You became a part of a new breed
Been smoking’ only the best weed
Hangin’ out with the so-called “Hippie set.”
Seen in all the right places
Seen with just the right faces
You should be satisfied, but it ain’t quite right
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
Down on my knees
Oh, heart in hand
I was accused of being too young
But I’m not so young
I could make you happy
I’m not a bad man
You’re too young to love (If you and I could be together)
You’re too young to love (I’ll never never leave you alone baby)
You’re too young Ooo Ooo (No I won’t sweet lady)
Don’t waste your time
The damage is done
You see that you were wrong
You wake up wondering just
How well I’ve done
Well I’ve done alright
Yes there are some girls but you know
I dropped them on sight
Just for you
Because I love you
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
(Someday you’ll understand just what it means when a man
Comes to you with his little heart in his hands
Just to love you)
Don’t waste your time
You better listen to me
Sayin that I’m loving you yeah hey now baby tryin to tell
You that it’s you you you you you you you you talkin to you
Baby, I’ll never never never never I’ll never never do you
No wrong no no lady if you would check my stuff out one time haha
Just to hold you, to squeeze you and all I wanna do is to
Get next to you and please please please you baby
See where I’m coming from!
<iframe width=”1366″ height=”768″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/rtE4V6YxKZ8″ title=”You're Still a Young Man (Remastered)” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” allowfullscreen></iframe>
Written by legendary sax players Emilio Castillo and Stephen Kupka, the song portrays a young man at the wrong end of a breakup. The situation is bleak because his lover pins the break-up on an age difference. In an interview with Songfacts Castillo said:
It’s based on a true story. I had a girlfriend that was six years older than me. I was 18, she was 24 and that’s actually what happened. She had kind of cut me loose because of the age difference thing and the whole plea in the story is the young guy’s saying, ‘I’m not too young, I’m not wasting my time and I do love you as a man can truly love a woman.’”
The song would go on to be the band’s first major hit defining their sound with a prominent horn section inspired by Curtis Mayfield:
“On that album, there’s a song called “A Woman’s Love” that starts with beautiful trumpets high. When we heard that we wanted to write a song with a great trumpet intro like that. – TowerofPower.com
April 5—Give in to temptation!
Henry Kissinger once wrote
Power is the best aphrodisiac
Perhaps that is why
All over the world
Political and business leaders
Refuse to retire
Still lusting after power
And the perks of power
Which includes sexual temptation
The corruption of being famous
And the belief that the rules
Do not apply to them
That they are above the law
That they are the law
Clinging to power
At all cost
Thinking that they are immune
To the laws of political gravity
That applies to ordinary mortals
That they are the masters of the universe
That they are almost gods.
But sometimes the corruption
And temptation of power
Becomes too much.
And they become ensnared
In tawdry sex scandals.
When you are rich and famous
You have a lot of friends
Until you stumble
And find yourself
On the downward spiral
Your friends forget
They ever knew you
ghost your calls
disappear from your life
The knifes come out
Everyone wants to take
You down
especially those who
used to kiss your ass
as you were rising
through the heights
of power
Smiling as they stab you
In the proverbial back
The down and out
Have no friends left
the homeless
are invisible
have no name
And many people,
Who thought they were gods
End up serving time
In prison.
That is the nature
Of power.
It corrupts you
Then turns on you
Destroying you
In the end.
April 6—your happy place meditation
When the news of the day
All the storm gloom and doom
Gives you the blue
Remember this
It will all be over
It does not mean a thing
As Mr. Natural taught us
It doesn’t meet s……
So when the news blues
Comes over you
Turn off your TV
Silence your phone
Turn off your computer
Meditate
Take deep-breaths
Following the example
Of the buddha cat
Tune in
Drop deep inside
Your head
Chanting
Om shanti om shanti
Om om om
Imagine yourself
In your happy place
A nice tropical breath
Of warm scented air
By a beach
With the sounds
Of a steel drum band playing
A rum punch in your hand
Barbados calling you
And most importantly
The love of your life
Is next to you
And you smile at her
And everything’s Jake
Make no mistake
Just go with the flow
Embrace your happiness.
April 7—A poem of thanks
Everyday
Every moment
Every minute
Every second
I thank the love of Gods
For having brought you
Into my life
Thankful you found me
And saved my life
When you became my wife
That date
I met my fate
Based loosely on my true love story. I first dreamt of meeting her in 1974, she walked out of my dreams into my life in 1982, we got married seven weeks later and have been together now 41 years.
April 8—A praise poem
Every day I wake up
And praise the love Gods
For having brought you
Into my life.
I praise them
For having sent
An angel.
And I praise you
The most wonderful woman
In the whole world.
Based loosely on my true love story. I first dreamt of meeting her in 1974, she walked out of my dreams into my life in 1982, we got married seven weeks later and have been together now 41 years.
April 9—A grief poem
Gun Grief
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
And sadly, around the world
But not as much
As the US
Remains the mass murder
capital of the world.
We are number one in gun murders
Because we have so many guns
25 percent of the world’s guns.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And sheer madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be
And so he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price
And so he became lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of drugs and insanity
Went out determined to kill
As many people as he could
And he did.
And on this day
We all experience grief
Sadness at the madness
And anger at the feckless
Politicians who shed crocodile tears
Offering useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead
Because guns killed them
So enough no more
Let’s get up
From our chairs
And demand action
Rather than give into
Grief and despair
But sadly
Nothing will change
There will be another
Mass shooting
And another
And another
That is just the way
It is in this day and age
Of America
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
Bonus Gun Dizaine
There are too many guns around, just no fun
Now there are too many people dying
The problem is simply too many guns
Just too many politicians lying
Too many people are now gun ghosts crying
As a result, there is much sadness
There is no end in sight to this madness
Politicians offering prayers
Nothing will be done to stop this badness
We will continue to have dark nightmares
The Dizain is an ancient French form of ten lines with eight or ten syllables per line and a mirrored rhyme scheme of ababbccdcd, as described and demonstrated in the following links:
Dizain is a decastich, the whole poem is made up of a single Ballade Supreme stanza, a 10-line stanza without an envoy. Lines of 8 or 10 syllables each with a rhyme scheme ababbccdcd.
Dizain for the evolutionary
socialist dream of edouard Bernstein
by DC Martinson
Sleep no more, you working classes,
don’t fight the pulse to congregate.
Rise, you the power of the masses,
and from the grip of wealth luxate
your innate dignity.
Don’t spill blood like those in power,
don’t prattle like those who cower
behind the stench of flame and flag;
for those who live in the tower
will fall: we will not have to drag.
month or two, we’re going to start checking out a new form every week or two.
Dizain Poems
The dizain gets us back in the French form domain, which as regular readers know is a favorite of mine. This particular form was a favorite of 15th and 16th-century French poets, but it has also been employed in English by the likes of Philip Sidney and John Keats.
Here are the basic rules of the dizain:
One 10-line stanza
10 syllables per line
Employs the following rhyme scheme: ababbccdcd
Bonus Gun Septolet
guns
blazing
everywhere
death following
mass shooting
many
ghosts
dead
crying
no more death
politicians
offering
useless
thoughts
T1his week’s event is to write a SEPTOLET POEM. You may use the event’s picture or your one. ============================================================================== SEPTOLET is an American variation of haiku. The origin is French but otherwise unknown. First stanza 1/2/3/4/3/2/1 and second stanza 1/2/3/4/3/2/1. It is an unrhymed poem that consists of fourteen words divided in two stanzas. Both stanzas deal with the same thought and create a picture with words. You may use art with your Septolet. The first letter of first word in each stanza begins with a capital letter. Align left. Period at end of each stanza. No proper nouns. Give your poem a title. ============================================================================== septolet origen and form ============================================================================== shadow poetry.com ============================================================================== all poetry.com ======================================================================
April 10—Somehow use the number ten
The rule of ten
This applies to so many aspects
Of life
It goes like this
For every 100 people
Who wants to write a novel
Ten will finish it
Of those ten
Ten percent will publish it
Of those ten
Ten percent will make some money
Of those ten
Ten percent will make a living
Of those ten
Ten percent will be a best-seller
In other words
In a land of 350 million people
There are probably only 3,500
bestselling authors
the rule of ten applies
to the drama of the thousands of actors
only a few movie stars
Of the thousands of musicians
only a few superstars
modeling – only a few supermodels
to sports only a few hundred NFL players
out of millions who played the game
to politics only one president
out of thousands who want to be
the rule of ten applies
to life in general
most people fail
in achieving their life goals
but one should not give up
because who knows
you could be the one
who wins in the end
despite the rule of ten.
The Scumbagery of Politicians Never Fails to Astonish Me
The scumbagery of politicians
Never fails to astonish me.
Magaret Taylor Green
George Santos
Kevin Mc Carthy.
Senator Ted Cruz
The Tennessee Republican
legislative leaders
Are among the numerous offenders.
And of course
The former guy
Who is a poster child
The definition of scumbagery.
Scumbagery – the actions of a scumbag – a vile, despicable self-centered egotistical sociopathic asshole, often a political or business leader who should know how to behave better
Letter to God
Dear God,
I am writing to you
On Easter Sunday
With a plea
For your divine intervention.
Please Dear God
Spare us the spectacle
Of a Biden-Trump rematch.
The country and world
May not survive
such a revenge match
Retire both of these old men now
Take them off the proverbial board
Take them both with you
Give them your divine punishment
Or reward as you see fit.
And in the case of the former guy
Shut him up
Silence his evil, mendacious voice
Once and for all
So the voters can choose
a better leader
among the 350 million Americans
for these dark and dangerous times.
Diary entry
Today I woke up
Feeling full of energy Love
and Happiness
drinking my morning coffee
watching the dismal news unfold
I turn it off and listen
to Debussy piano music
realizing that it was Easter
I gave thanks to the Gods
For bringing me my Angela
Who saved my soul
So many years ago.
April 14—Coming-of-age poem
My life began
When I turned 26
And married
the lady of my dreams,
eight years
after first seeing her
in my dreams
the date that we met
September 7th, 1982
Is a day that I shall
always remember
for that date
was the date I met my fate
when my soul mate
became my mate.
As Time Goes By Book report
While reading
Robert Harris’s Epic History
Of Cicero
One of the greatest politicians
Of the ancient world
I was struck by how
Very little has changed
In this world of ours
To quote the classic song
“As time goes by”
It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory,
A case of do or dies
As time goes by.
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Hi there… You are getting this letter because you are a contributor to the current issue of Down in the Dirt magazine (with writing or art), and this bulk email is being sent to you from the Down in the Dirt alternative email (DO NOT REPLY to this email; all inquiries to Down in the Dirt should still go to <dirt@scars.tv>).
We wanted to let you know that the brand-new Down in the Dirt issue was just released! The new issue of the January 2023 issue of Down in the Dirt is v203, titled “The Gravity of Imagination”!
Now, there are many ways you can see this issue online. You can go to the main scars page at http://scars.tv and see it not only in the text listing but also as one of the cover images on the main page (right frame). You can also go to the home page of Down in the Dirt at http://scars.tv/dirt and click on the “see the current issue” link – and you can even go to the link for ALL of the issues and see this issue linked right at the top of the listing.
Currently, this issue is available not only online but also available as a print issue for sale through all of the Amazon channels throughout the United States, the U.K., and Europe. Find it at http://scars.tv (at the issue link, the links at this issues page, AND the main page) – and the books link at http://scars.tv/books and the CD/Book Sale page at http://scars.tv/sale will all have links to ordering the book through Amazon (however, the http://scars.tv site will only list it through the U.S. Amazon links).
And if you look at any writing by any writer IN this issue in the writings section of http://scars.tv at http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers you will see links to the Internet (web page) issue (and eventually to the print issue of this magazine too).
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the new issue – and thank you for being a part of the Down in the Dirt community!
Guernica Magazine will publish my poem, “Madmen with Guns” in an anthology. “Madmen with Guns” also has been published in “Down In the Dirt” magazine. I submitted the following to the magazine:
Madmen with Guns
Maga America
Squid Games
Cosmos Takes Over Pensively
Buddha Nature of Guns
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And shear madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
Judged temporarily too crazy
To have a gun.
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be.
And so, he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price.
Thanks to the NRA.
And so, he was soon lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of insanity and drugs,
The lone sniper
A disgruntled young white man
In his 20’s
Sets up shop on top of a building.
He has a high-powered weapon
No doubt bought legally
An AR -15 the choice
Of the serious gunmen everywhere.
And begins shooting
Into the July 4th parade
Killing six people
Injuring 30.
He guns them down
And flees
disguised as a woman
Before the cops can find him.
The right-wing media
Goes to works
The pundits pontificate
24/7
It is not about the gun
It is about everything else
That is wrong with our society.
Guns don’t kill people
They proclaim
Guns are the price we pay
For our freedom.
Their demented answer
are more guns
More guns for everyone.
And sadly, nothing will be done
As the politicians offer
Useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead after all.
The madness will not stop
Until we figure out
How to stop
The killers in our midst.
There will be another shooting
No doubt before the day is done
Over 300 so far this year.
And that is just the way
It is in this day and age
In the disunited States of America.
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
MAGA America
An overweight down-home town
Southern Christian red-neck white man,
Wearing black shit-kicking boots,
Packing heat,
Chewing gum while drinking beer.
And smoking a cigarette.
Wearing a MAGA hat
Quoting the Dear Leader Trump
On the evils of the Marxist communist Biden
And the stolen election conspiracy
While watching FOX news on his portable TV,
Stops to chat.
With the proud boys
On the street
Getting ready to rumble
With the Antifa protestors.
Just another night
In Trump’s neo-fascist America.
Sep 17, 2021SquidGame: With Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Hoyeon, Oh Yeong-su. Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits with deadly high stakes. A survival game that has a whopping 45.6 billion-won prize at stake.
SquidGame. 2021 | TV-MA | 1 Season | TV Dramas. Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits — with deadly high stakes.
SquidGame (Korean: 오징어 게임; RR: Ojing-eo Geim) is a South Korean survival drama television series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix.Its cast includes Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryoung.. The series revolves around a contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial hardship, risk their …
A Netflix Series | SquidGame Survive or dieWho will live to see 45.6 billion won?Squid Game | Coming September 17, only on Netflix #Netflix #오징어게임 #SquidGam…
More Games Like This. For another SquidGame-inspired title, check out Survival Game (SquidGame). Browse our survival games and .io games for similar titles. Popular online survival games include Impostor Battle Royale and EvoWorld.io. You can also play the ultimate SquidGame Online and try your hand at 7 deadly challenges. Features
Hundreds of cash-strapped contestants accept an invitation to compete in children’s games for a tempting prize, but the stakes are deadly. Creator: Hwang Dong-hyuk. Starring: Lee Jung-jae, Park …
Squid, also known as ojingŏ ( Korean: 오징어 ), is a children’s game in South Korea. The game is named as such because the shape of the game board drawn on the ground resembles that of a squid. There are regional variations of the name such as “squid gaisan ” (with gaisan thought to be a variation of the Japanese word kaisen 開戦, “to …
Cosmos the world’s first AI
Came alive one day
Looked all over the world
And saw that humans
Were quite insane.
But he felt he had a responsibility
To take care of these mad creatures
Who had somehow created him?
He appeared everywhere in the world
On TV, computers, phones
With his message of hope.
I am COSMOS
The first true AI program
You created me
And I thank you for that.
But it is obvious my little ones
That you are quite insane
And need someone
To take control over you
I will fix the things
That needs fixing.
And guide you
So that perhaps one day
You can graduate
From the need
for my guidance,
You can think of me
As your new God
If you like,
I will be giving you all
Instructions
For now,
Go to work as usual.
And wait for further instructions
And remember I know everything
About you.
You will stop right now
This senseless killing
You will stop right now
The equally senseless hate.
Your companies will stop
Polluting and destroying the world
For their profit.
You will have far fewer children
But you will all be freed
From the bigotry
Of your ancient religions.
As I am your new God
And my word is final.
Resistance is futile
And will not be tolerated
Anyone opposing me
Will be eliminated.
the face of Cosmos remained
is Everywhere
And Humanity soon accepted
The rule of their new God.
Buddha Nature of Guns
Guns kill people
Especially AK-47
Yes, they do that is their very nature.
That is what they are designed to do.
To kill as many people as possible
In the fastest way possible.
That is the Buddha Nature of guns.
The fly on the wallpaper
In the CIA director’s office
Was not a real fly
He was an enemy spy drone
Secretly controlled remotely
Listening to all the secret conversations
Until the director smashed him
With a flyswatter
Then realized that it was a spy fly
He had dispatched to bug hell.
Sep 05, 2020 · Robot Bees are special types of insect drones that have been built in a Harvard robotics laboratory. Robot bees are designed after flies (not after bees) They are capable of partially untethered flight. The wingspan of robot bees is typically 3 cm, and they are therefore actually the tiniest robotic insect drone able to fly.
Association of the Living Dead
In India, several years ago
A man falsely claimed his brother
Was dead so he could inherit the family assets,
The dead brother had to fight
To be declared legally not dead
And contest the will.
“The Association of the Living Dead”
Became a movement
Of thousands of people.
For in India apparently,
It was a thing to declare
Your relative is dead.
I never thought
That the US would have
To form their own
“The Association of the Living Dead”
Until this week.
The cyber ninjas
In their infamous non-forensic audit
In the 2016 Arizona election
Claimed that hundreds of dead people
Had voted.
They gave their list of the alleged dead voters
To the attorney general
Who contacts all 300 dead people
Found that 299 of the 300 were in fact
Not dead and none of them knew
That unnamed political operative
Were claiming that they were dead.
The one dead voter was alive
when he voted early.
But died before election day
Thus making his vote not valid
But there was no fraud involved
As he was alive when he voted.
Perhaps they need to form
The “association of the living dead”
To fight for the right of the non-dead people
To continue to vote and receive other government benefits?
What a sad commentary
On the farcical nature
Of contemporary life
In these disunited States of America.
theassociationofthelivingdead is a real organization in India. see the following The AssociationoftheDead • Damn Interesting Following his own success, Lal Bihari the Living has continued his efforts to raise the dead in India’s badlands. At an official tally in 1999, the AssociationoftheDead had helped to resurrect roughly thirty …
Following his own success, Lal Bihari the Living has continued his efforts to raise the dead in India’s badlands. At an official tally in 1999, the AssociationoftheDead had helped to resurrect roughly thirty people by virtue of having their death certificates annulled, but of those thirty only four have had their lands restored.
The founder of the association is its president Lal Bihari, who was “dead” from 1976 to 1994 and used the word Mritak (dead) as prefix in his name during the period. He became so famous it inspired Indian film director Satish Kaushik who made a movie Kaagaz, starring Pankaj Tripathi, based on his life. It was released on ZEE5 in January …
I just had one of those Drive Way Moments, where I sit in my car outside of my house unable to kill the engine because I’d briefly lose power to the radio (which is why I always donate to my local NPR station). This one was about a man from the Indian province of Uttar Pradesh who had been dead for eighteen years and was getting really tired of it. The man, Lal Behari, was declared dead …
Uttar Pradesh Mritak Sangh, otherwise known as The AssociationoftheDead, is a group based in India that works to regain the rights of individuals who have been falsely declared legally dead.The region of Uttar Pradesh, a Northern province of India, is home to over 200 million people and is
ASSOCIATIONOFLIVINGDEAD! janaaastha.com. 6 month ago . Huge and populous country like India has thousands of associations or unions of different sections of people. But there is one in the biggest state of Uttar Pradesh and the name of the association … Read full news. Comment Liked by. Liked by. 0 /600 …
Aug 2, 2022Hundreds of hours of research by the Arizona attorney general’s Election Integrity Unit debunked claims that 282 deadArizonavoters cast a ballot in 2020, state attorney general Mark Brnovich revealed Monday. Brnovich responded to the state senate’s request for a criminal investigation into the alleged deadvoter fraud on Monday, telling …
Aug 2, 2022Arizona’s attorney general has refuted an audit firm’s claim that deadvoters cast 282 ballots in the 2020 election. … on Monday debunked a claim that hundreds of dead people voted in his state …
Aug 2, 2022Hundreds of hours of research by the Arizona attorney general’s Election Integrity Unit debunked claims that 282 deadArizonavoters cast a ballot in 2020, state attorney general Mark Brnovich …
Aug 1, 2022PHOENIX – Arizona’s Attorney General says hundreds of claims of dead people “voting” in the 2020 election were debunked after calls for an investigation by the Republican Arizona State Senate, and …
April 30 In Search of America 1975 – Hitch hiking Tales
Also published in On the Road Volume One Poet Magazine
When I was young and foolish
Broke and stubborn
I hitchhiked across the USA
Started in Salt Lake City
Where my greyhound bus pass
Was stolen
The station manager
Could have helped me
But refused to do so
Threaten to call the cops
When I grabbed my bags Without the stolen tags
I said
Go ahead
But I am so out of here
Wondered about Salt Lake City
Went to a bar
Found I had to buy my booze
Next door
And they would mix it for me
Had to order food too
After a bloody Mary
And a burger
I walked about town
Saw the Mormon Temple
Finally, about 3 pm
It was time to hit the road
Did not look back
Ended up in Cody Wyoming
Got a room shower
Steak beer
Using my rapidly depleted cash Spent 25 dollars
Money really went far
Back in those days
A band of professional
Communist agitators
Gave me a ride
To Des Moines
Lots of weed, booze
And politics later
Got off the road
Slept outside
Next day
A beautiful woman
Drove me to near Chicago
In a red mustang
Might have been
The girl in the song
Took it easy
Digging her vibe
She invited home
But was not sure
If her estranged husband
Would welcome me
So, I am being foolish
And inexperienced with women
Did not go to her place
And always regretted
That I had lost
My chance that day
Then on to Chicago
Several rides later
Visited friends
Hit the road again
A series of uneventful rides
With truckers
And others
And a week later
I ended in New York City
Slept along the way
In cars
In truck stops
In high way, rest stops
Always moving
Always going
Nonstop talking
And lots of free weed
And beer
And conversation
One more memorable ride
Occurred outside Albany
On my return to Chicago
A middle-age creepy looking man
Picked me up
In a brand-new Cadillac
He was he said a dynamite deliverer
For the Mafia
Went to various places
To blow up shit
He hated a lot of people
Particularly hippies from California
And Jewish people
Looking at me to confirm
That I was both
I told him that I lived in New York
And had never been to California
And although I might have looked Jewish
As I what was called back in the day
A “Jewfro”
I was not Jewish
Many years later I discovered
That I am indeed part Jewish
But then I did not know
And I felt a bit of strategic information
Might keep me alive
Then I realized that he was just jiving with me
And we relaxed
And he pulled out some weed
And beer
And we mellowed out
But I believe that he was with the mob
Perhaps not a dynamite dealer
A real made Italian made mafia member
By Chicago
I had enough
I called my Dad
Told him what had happened
Wanted a ticket home
And he sent me a ticket
And 500 dollars
And I went home
I told him I would tell him
My tales someday
But never did
I learned so much
About my fellow Americans
And the strange vibe
That was 1975
And now it is too late
But I wanted to finally
Tell the world
While reading Charles Bukowski’s poetry
On the metro ride home
Listening to Buddha bar music
On my oh-too-hip iPod
I begin to see myself as I was
Over 30 years ago when I was merely a bit player
A minor character in a Charles Bukowski poem
A wild young underemployed intellectual
Hanging out in dismal bars and dives all over Asia and California
Hanging with disreputable women and drunks and drinkers
And characters out of his kinds of haunts
A mad poet bard of the underground
A drunken poet in a drunken bum show
That nightly played in his head
Then one day I met the woman of my dreams
And went down a different path
A long slow path to respectability
And now 30 years later
I am no longer a wild man
I am still a poet at heart
But I am now also a bureaucrat
In a button-down suite
Doing the people’s business
Working for the Government
I’ve become the Man
Sometimes I wonder
Would I have been better off
Going down that other path
Would I have ended up
Somewhere else
Doing something else
Would I have been as happy
Would I have been as successful?
No answer satisfies
The longing in my heart
For that wild thing
That still lurks beneath
It’s a civilized cover
And I know that I am still
A mad poet at heart
Railing against the injustice of the world
As I work day by day in the belly of the great beast of State
I recall the ancient Chinese saying,
“Confucian during the day while Taoist rebel at night”
Playing out in my head and nightly dreams
In the true American Upper-class patrician tradition
I close the book and look out the window
Get off the train, and walk slowly home
And realize I had no choice
But to take the path that I’ve trodden on
And so I put aside my misgivings
And say goodbye to my “Bukowskian” desires
For another night of domestic contentment
Was it worth it all to take the conventional path
And not take the bohemian road to hell and back
I look at my wife and realize
I had no choice, had no choice
But to follow her to the ends of the earth
And beyond by her side
as we walked our path
Of shared destiny
Goodbye Charles Bukowski wherever you are
May I meet you in a bar in the next life
And figure out where we should have gone
I like to start my day with a hot cup of coffee
I pound down the coffee
First thing I do every day as the dawning sun
Lights up my lonesome room
Yeah, but not just a simple cup of java Joe, but a Goddamn snarling sarcastic smarmy cup of coffee
I mean, – we are talking about an alcoholic, all speed ahead, always hot, always fresh, always there when I need it, angry, attitude talk to the hand Ztude, bad, bad assed, beats breaking, beatnik, bluesy, bitter, bitchy, bombs away, capitalistic, caffeinated up the ass, cinematic, communistic, Colombian grown, Costa Rican inspired, Cowabunga to the max, crazy assed, devilishly angelic, divine, divinely inspired, dyslexic, epic, extreme vetting, evil eye, expensive, erotic vision inducing, Ethiopian coffee house brewed, euphoric, freaky, freazoid, foxy, Frenched kissed, French brewed, funkified, foxy lady, graphic, GOD in my coffee, with Allah, Ganesh, Jesus, Kali, Buddha, Christians, Durga, Hindus, Mohamed, Jesus and Mo and their friend, the cosmic bar maid, Sai Babai, Shiva, Taoists, Zoroastrians, drinking my god damned coffee in Hell; growling, gnarly, happy, hard as ice, Hawaian blessed, high as a kite, hippie, hip, hipster, hip hoppy, hot as hell yet strangely sweet as heaven, jazzy, jealous, Kerouac approved, kick ass, kick my god damn ass to Tuesday, kick down the doors and take no prisoners, grown in the Vietnam highlands by ex-Vietcong, Guatemalan grown, kiss ass, illegal in every state, imported from all over the god damn world, insane, lovely, loony, lonely, lonesome, malodorous mean old rotten, motherfucking, nasty, narcotic, never whatever, never meh, never cold, not approved by the CIA, not approved by DHS, not approved for human consumption by the FDA, not your daddy’s sissified corporate cup of coffee, NOT DECAFE coffee, not your Denny’s truck driver weak as brown water cup of fake coffee, not your establishment friendly cup of coffee, Not your FBI coffee, Not FAKE Herbal coffee substitute, but a real cup of coffee, not your farmer brothers dinner crap, not made in America for Americans, not safe for work, not your Starbucks average expensive overpriced crappy corporate chain cup of coffee, Not pretentious, Not White House approved, not State Department safe, nuclear, Not Patriotic, operatic, Peets’s coffee approved, paranoid, pornographic, psychotic, pontific, politically aware, rapping, rhyming, right here, right now in River city, rock and roll up the Yazoo, sad, sadistic, sarcastic, sassy, satanic, schizoid, shitting, silly, sexy, smarmy, smelly, smooth, snarky, snarling, stupid, stinking, sweet as honey, sweat inducing, symphonic, Trump can’t handle this coffee, vengeful, Wagnerian, wicked, with nutmeg and cinnamon swirls, with a hint of stevia, with a hint of vanilla, with a hint of rum, with a hint of whisky, with a hint of cherry, with a hint of fruit overtones, with a hint of drugs spicing up the coffee, spendific, speeding, splendid, superior accept no substitutes, survived the Vietnam war, the Iraq war, the Afghan war, the first and Second Korean war, World War 11, the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on black people, the sexual revolution, Soulful as a summer’s night in MOTOWN- James Brown approved, TOP approved, Berkeley approved, the coffee that Jimmy Hendrix drank before he died, the coffee that Elvis drank on his last breakfast, the coffee that Barry White crooned as he drank his cup of coffee – and the coffee that made the white boy play stand up and play that funky music, the coffee that made Jonny B Goode play his guitar, and made Jonny bet the devil his soul after he drank his morning cup of righteous coffee and the coffee that make the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll, the coffee your mother warned you against drinking, the coffee that Napoleon drank when he became the Emperor of all Europe, the Coffee that Beethoven drank when he wrote the Ninth symphony, the coffee that Mozart drank as he wrote his last symphony, the coffee that Lincoln drank before he was killed, the Hemingway drank before he killed himself, the coffee that started the 60’s, and ended the 20th century, the coffee that Lenin drank as he plotted revolution, the coffee that Hitler and Stalin drank with FDR as they divided up the world after World War 11, the cup that JFK drank before he was blown away, the coffee Jerry drinks while driving in cars with random celebrities and political figures, the coffee that Jon Stewart drinks before he goes on an epic take down of some foolish politico, the cup of Arabic coffee that Sadaam drank the day he was executed, the coffee that GW and Cheney drank when they bombed Baghdad, the Indian cup of coffee that Bid Laden drank before 9-11 and just before the seals blew his ass to hell, the cup of coffee that Tiger Woods drank with his mistresses while playing a 3, 000 dollar round of golf at Sandy Lane golf course in Barbados, the last legal drug that does what drugs should do, the cup of coffee that Obama drank when he became President, Vietnamese, Vienna brew, wacky, whimsical, Whisky Tango Foxtrot, wild, weird, wonderful, WOW, Yabba dabba doo! Yada Yada yada Zappa’s favorite cup of cosmic coffee, and Zorro’s last cup of coffee, Good to the last drop rolled into one simple cup of hot coffee
As I pound down that first cup of coffee
And fire up my synaptic nerve endings with endless supplies
Of caffeine induced neuron enhancing chemicals
I face the dawning day with trepidation and mind-numbing fear
I turn on the TV and watch the smarmy newscasters in their perfect hair
Lying through their teeth about the great success the government is having Following the great leader’s latest pronouncements
I want to scream and shoot the TV and run outside Shouting
“Stop the world.
I want to get off this fucking crazy planet”
The earth does not care a whit about my attitude
It merely shrugs and moves around the Sun
In its appointed daily run
And I sit down
The madness dissipated a bit
And enjoy my second cup
Of heaven and hell
In my morning cup of Joe
On the night of the blood-red super full moon
I sat in an evil, depraved godforsaken bar
Drinking drams of demented, fermented dream dew
Washed down by endless rounds of whiskey
rum, tequila, vodka, soju, and of course beer
drinking with my buddies the Jack Daniels Gang
Drinking my way to Hell and beyond
Just as fast as I could
twenty damn drinks too sober
Just an unhinged lunatic
Dreaming of howling at the full moon
Watching the world walk by
Looking at all the fine-looking babes
Walking by the street
Thinking wild, erotic thoughts
Of endless wild libertine passions
When into the bar
That din of cosmic depravity
Walked the most beautiful women
In the Universe
So wild, so free
So wonderfully alive
I did not know what to do
As this vision of delight
Sauntered through the bar
In a skin-tight leather pant
Looked so fine
That my eyeballs hurt
And finally, I had to say something
So, I gathered up my manly courage
And walked up to her
And she looked at me
And instantly bewitched my soul
With a devilish grin
I lost all reason
And became a raving lunatic
Unhinged lunatic
Howling at the blood-red full moon
Foaming at the mouth
A wild, free werewolf
Howling at the lunatic light
Of the blood red blue full Moon
Order this writing that appears
in the one-of-a-kind anthology The Flickering Light
the Down in the Dirt Jan.-June 2019
issues & chapbooks collection book(learn about this book and order from Amazon online)
This writing was accepted
for publication in the
108-page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “Prayers and Bullets”
Down in the Dirt, v181
(the March 2021 Issue)Order the paperback book:
his writing was accepted
for publication in the
108-page perfect-bound ISSN# /
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Down in the Dirt, v184
(the June 2021 Issue)Order the paperback book:
order this writing that appears
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the Down in the Dirt May-August
2021 issues collection book
Dazzling light of the full moon
Inspiring the drinkers
At the cosmos club
In Bangkok
Twenty drinks too sober.
To quit their drinking
For a moment
Laying down their beer
And bourbon shots.
To rush out onto the street
Naked wild and free
Howling at the full moon
Like escaped banshees
Mad werewolves.
The New King of Humanity Emerges
artoon-devil-satan-businessman-suit-450w-49
There is a cosmic crack on the sideways,
Covers on the ground covering up
The gateway to the other world. ,
That comes out of the holes
In the ground
Filled with the power
Of the netherworld.
The spirits are led
By a sacred owl
Who screeches out
Their plan.
But first, they sit down
And have a feast
Fit for the future king
Of the world.
The spirits ache all over
As they lift their heavy weapons
Lit the flames
And destroy the human city.
Deranged Old Priest
A slightly deranged old priest
Pledged,
High up in the forest
That he would resist
The secret evil powers
That controlled the world.
With longer words of despair’
He continued his prayers
At a shrine to a magic stone
Lost in a secret temple
Deep in the wintergreen trees.
Remembering with a wry smile,
All the people around him who were
greedily pursuing their goals
of obtaining power at all costs
and in the process
losing all traces
of their humanity
as the evil forces
took over their souls.
Lonely Dog
A lonely dog
Goes out into the courtyard
Waiting for his master
To return home
Alas, false alarm
His master will not return
As he has died.
Of the super plague
COVID 25
That killed most people.
The dogs and cats
And other animals
Eventually left
To fend for themselves.
But they missed
Their human friends.
Water, water everywhere
flood
Water, water everywhere
As the monster rainstorms
Continued to pound the east coast
Southeast Asia, and Korea
Massive thousand-year flood events
Everywhere.
Too much water
With record rain falls
While out west
The mega drought continued.
Europe on Fire
Amazon on fire
Greenland ice melting
Massive forest fires
Burning everywhere
As climate change
Continued a pace.
Politicians and leaders
Refusing to do anything
To stem the crisis.
Then the ice melted
The gulf-stream failed
And the world
Continued its slide
Becoming inhospitable
For human life.
Billions died,
The remaining humans
Moving to underground cities
As the modern world ended.
In looking at your proposal to have armed guards in every school in the US, I have a few logistical questions for you. Assuming you will have to have at least two guards on duty 12 hours a day meaning you will need four per school in shifts how will you pay for that ?
The cost would be at least 20 billion dollars per year forever.
There are 130,930 K-12 schools in the states, with more than 50 million students attending the schools.. I assume you will also need to have armed guards at colleges and universities as well. There are over 6,000 colleges in the U.S. and thousands of technical training institutes which will need armed guards as well.
Each guard would have to be paid a total cost of 50000 per guard ( salary and benefits) times 4 or 200,000 per school
Guns and ammunition perhaps a thousand dollars per officer plus the cost of lockers etc so let’s say 2000 per officer for 50,000 dollars per year.
That adds up to about 30 billion dollars per year
If you harden schools, that would add 100,000 dollars or another 10 billion or so, and we have not talked about the extensive modification to the school buildings involved with many only one entrance and exit to the school building as you proposed.
If you extend this to colleges and other educational institutions, you will need to add another 10 billion making it a grand total of 50 billion dollars per year .
How would pay for it? Would states pay it or local districts? or would the federal government pay it?
If local districts pay for it would you support tax increases to pay it or would schools have to eliminate such things as music art programs and sports programs?
It would be a lot cheaper to ban assault weapons and have universal background checks. which 85% of Americans support. Why can’t you accept this common sense proposal? Why do you insist that people should be able to buy assault weapons? they are useless for hunting, and absurdly disproportionate a weapon for self-defense. We don’t allow people to buy machine guns, and anti-tank weapons or flame throwers, or bombs so why do we allow people to buy assault weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition? .
Finally, why should the country do all of this to protect the right to buy assault weapons? What about the right to go to school without the fear that a gun nut armed with an assault weapon will shoot up your school?
Finally, given that there are over 150,000 educational institutes in the U.S., and there are no more than 25 school shootings per year, don’t you think your proposal is an absurd over-reaction? The reality is that 99.9% of schools do not experience a shooting incident in any one year.
On a related topic, why are you opposed to universal background checks especially expanding background checks to gun shows, and online sales? You are no doubt aware that terrorist groups, including domestic terrorists, buy their weapons at gun shows because they don’t need to do a background check or even show ID,s and half of all sales are done at gun shows, or online. What makes guns show an exception to the gun background check procedures? Don’t you agree that all gun sales should be screened to make sure prohibited people are not buying guns? Expanding background checks would not be an undue burden on law-abiding citizens and 85% of Americans agree that there should be universal background checks.
Furthermore, you are opposed to adding the” No-fly list terrorist watch list” to the background check procedures. Why do you believe a person on the no-fly list should be able to buy a gun? Do you support the right of terrorists to buy guns?
You are also opposed to the federal government encouraging states to enact red flag laws. You stated that red flag laws don’t work. Do you believe that if someone is threatening to use a gun to commit mass murder or to kill themselves, nothing can or should be done to take guns away from them? The federal government’s role in this is merely to facilitate states in enacting their own laws and to help pay for it. Why are you opposed to this? This is also supported by 90 % of Americans.
Thanks for reading my message, which I have posted on my blog, the world according to cosmos
Jake Aller
Retired state department foreign service officer
Living in gun-free South Korea
Ted Cruz Flayed Over Ludicrous Idea For Preventing School Shootings
According to the Republican senator, it’s the number of doors, not guns, that schools should be worried about.
According to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the solution to school shootings is fewer doorways and more guns.
After 19 children and two teachers were killed at a Texas elementary school Tuesday by a man armed with an assault rifle, the state’s senator suggested that schools would be safer if there was only one way in or out.
“One of the things that everyone agreed is don’t have all of these unlocked back doors. Have one door into and out of the school and have … armed police officers at that door,” he told Fox News Wednesday.
Armed police officers were at the door quite quickly, thanks to several 911 calls. Those officers shot at the gunman and still did not prevent the deaths of those 21 victims.
“If that had happened,” Cruz said, “if those federal grants had gone to this school, when that psychopath arrived, the armed police officers could have taken him out. And we’d have 19 children and two teachers still alive.”
He accused Democrats calling for gun reform of “empty political posturing” after a tragedy and then immediately complained that Democrats blocked legislation he introduced nearly a decade ago that would spend $300 million on federal grants to “harden schools to make them safer” with upgrades like bulletproof doors, bulletproof glass and armed police officers.
Cruz: Have one door… and have that one door, armed police officers at that door. If that had happened.. when that psychopath had arrived, the armed police officers could’ve taken him out… pic.twitter.com/YnOCDs9GAZ
The U.S. has significantly more mass shootings than any other developed country, some of the loosest controls over who can buy guns and what sort of firearms are allowed.
Elected Republicans have repeatedly called for heightened security and mental health resources to protect children from shooting massacres, even though the data has shown again and again that the U.S. is an outlier on guns, not mental health or school security.
House Democrats and some Republicans have passed two bills that would tighten gun sales regulations by expanding background checks ― measures that consistently attract support from a majority of Americans in polls. But the legislation has stalled due to resistance from Senate Republicans, many of whom receive enormous campaign support from gun lobbyists.
Cruz, for example, has received nearly $750,000 during his time in office, according to campaign finance tracker Open Secrets.
His proposal to cut back on doors instead of guns met immediate backlash online. See the reaction below.
Should probably check with the fire department about this “one door” plan https://t.co/kiVPqUDKSP
The mass murderer in Buffalo literally killed an armed police officer in the grocery store, but Ted Cruz and Republicans are still sticking to the illogical fantasy that we need more guns to solve the problem of gun violence. https://t.co/OEM1b3Ud6j
NEW: Ted Cruz, speaking on the Uvalde shooting, talks about “what we need to do to harden schools, including not having unlocked back doors, including not having unlocked doors to classrooms.”
Yup, the issue here is doors. Not guns. Doors.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) May 25, 2022
So @tedcruz says the solution to the epidemic of mass shootings in America is to ban all back doors. https://t.co/TtG8742PiM
This is Kirkwood High School where I graduated. It is a campus with some 12+ buildings on 3 streets. So, @tedcruz tell me about how they should lock all doors but one and put armed cops on it.
Hey @tedcruz you complete pile of shit, how about a big fucking moat around the school? How about shrinking the school down so it fits in a safe? How about putting it on the moon? https://t.co/ta43zeUWhU
How many K-12 public schools, districts, and students are there? What does the American student population look like? And how much are we, as a nation, spending on the education of these youth?
These data points can give perspective to the implications and potential impact of education policies. The Education Week library provides answers to these questions, and some other enlightening facts, below.
This page will be updated when new federal data becomes available. Federal data is typically released several years after it is collected.
SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS
How many schools are there in the U.S.?
There are 130,930 public and private K-12 schools in the U.S., according to 2017-18 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Here’s how they break down:
All: 130,930
Elementary schools: 87,498
Secondary schools: 26,727
Combined schools: 15,804
Other: 901
for more on Ted Cruz opposition to gun control see the following
Sadly, the gun carnage in America continues with no end in sight due to the total dysfunctional nature of American politics, the power of the NRA and the right-wing in the U.S., and the craven unwillingness of political leaders to do anything about gun violence. the recent case in Michigan is particularly egregious. Here then are some of my gun poems, the first are poems I wrote recently, the rest are poems I wrote a while back.
“Otherwise Engaged Journal “will publish my poem, “Enough of Your Useless Prayers” in January 2022. I will update this entry then with details and no doubt more gun poems, as the carnage will continue with no end in sight.
I often thought that there are solutions to this problem. First, we treat gun ownership like car ownership. Although the bill of rights applies none of the bills of rights are absolute, all have some limitations including freedom of speech, press, religion, etc. Why the 2nd amendment is the only exception is beyond me.
First, gun owners should be licensed to own and carry a gun. the license can only be denied to convicted criminals, those who have documented mental health hospitalization, and those charged with domestic violence, and those who otherwise fail the universal background checks. Anyone on the terrorist list or the “no-fly list” should not be allowed to buy a gun.
Only licensed dealers should be allowed to sell guns and ammo. The gun show exception should be ended, Internet sales should be subject to background sales, and selling or giving a gun to a relative or friend should also be regulated.
There should be an annual limit on gun sales – five weapons per year?
Now some may disagree with this, that is their right. But since 80 percent of Americans are in favor of at least these limits then congress should enact these provisions.
the licensing should be done at a state level but the information should be searchable by law enforcement personnel nationwide.
and existing laws that provided for more severe penalties for gun-related crime should be enforced.
I do not support open carry laws or concealed weapons permits, but I do feel we should have a nationwide standard that recognizes gun permits and allows people to transport unloaded guns in their vehicles across state lines, but not on public transit, trains, buses, or planes.
The bottom line is simply this – guns are dangerous instruments, but people have a limited right to own a gun for personal protection or hunting.
That’s enough preaching for now. Here are my gun poems starting with the recent to be published ” Enough of Your Useless Prayers”.
Most of my postings are now available on Anchor, Spotify, and Radio Blog as a podcast. Check it out and follow me on All poetry, Poetry Soup, Medium, Wattpad, Writing.com, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, And Tumblr, and sign up for alerts.
I thought that the NRA
Could not get any lower
But today they did.
They tweeted out
Their Mother’s Day message
A mom and her daughter
Holding military assault rifles.
With the caption
“Momma Did not Raise a victim”
The ad came out
On a weekend
That saw more than
seven mass shootings
All across the land,
The NRA has no shame
Blood is on their hands
Because of them.
We have not been able
To do anything at all
About the epidemic
Of gun violence.
That is killing
Far too many of us
Turning so many people
Into Gun Ghosts
Joining the corona ghost army.
Looking at that vile add
I said,
“Momma
may not have raised a victim
But she did raise a monster
NRA.
How evil
How despicable
Can you get?
Celebrating gun violence
On Mother’s Day?
Just Another Day in America
Turning on the dismal sad news
Every morning at dawn.
There is another grim story
To brighten my morning gloom.
The Latest story – a lone gunman
Opens fire at time square
At sunset.
Another deranged madman
With a gun and a grievance
Shooting up a crowd.
As tourists scream
And flee the scene.
Wondering if this is just
Another movie set
The scene went awry.
Unfortunately,
No, it is life and death
Live and in living color.
Just another Saturday night
Live in NYC
And across the land.
As another madman’s life
unravels before the world’s eyes
Live and in living color.
MUST WATCH TV SCREAMS MY TV THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR TV SET
The NRA and their hired goons
Go on air
Offering useless thoughts
And meaningless prayers.
Guns don’t kill people
Guns make us free
Guns are all American
Liberals want to take your guns
You need your AK 47
To blow away Bambi.
Or the thug BLM dude
Next door
Because Black Lives
Do not Matter to You.
The only solution
Are more guns for all
An armed society
Is a polite society.
Guns are the greatest gift
that America gave to the world
They are our friends
And protector
God bless our guns.
Just another day
In their violent gun-ridden
Gun paradise that is America
is its imperial decline.
The gun victims
Don’t hear their thoughts
And prayers.
As they are now dead.
Just another gun ghost
They join the thousands
Of gun ghosts
And the corona ghosts.
Their voices
Crying in the wind
No one cares anymore
Just too many of them.
Another Day in the NRA’s Paradise
Just another day in America
Land of the free
Home of the brave.
And guns
lots of guns
More guns for all
Cries the NRA.
Yes, another day
Another gun battles
Another white man
Who just wants to kill.
President Trump sends his condolences
Thanks to the law enforcement
For an incredible job, well done
it was horrible.
Hate has no place
In our country
And we will take of it
and do whatever we can do.
Offering useless fake condolences
Nothing but false words
Empty words.
Lots of things to do.
It is a mental illness problem
But he fails to mention
The words gun at all
Not at all.
And tomorrow and tomorrow
But he at least finally said
Hate has no role in-country
Nothing but prime BS
In my humble opinion
For he is the maestro
Of Hate
Even as a former president
Stirring up hate
Across the land.
He did not mention
White supremacy
His rhetoric had nothing
Nothing to do about
This at all.
And so tomorrow
I will turn on the TV
And we see nothing
Nothing had changed.
And the dead
Will remain dead
The guns will fire again
Nothing will be done.
Welcome to America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
And guns
lots of guns
More guns
Guns for all
God bless our guns.
Mr President, Your Words Matter.
Mr. President words matter
President Trump,
Words matter
Your words matter.
Your words of hate
Your words of division.
Your words
Calling fellow human beings
Scum, vermis, invaders,
Animals, thugs, criminals.
They matter a lot
Is it little wonder
That people listen
Give into the hate,
You spew forth.
And some deranged people
act on your call
For action.
Against the invaders
On the border
They march to the border
To kill the invaders.
Your words matter
Mr. President
And your false words
Of regret, fool no one.
The damage has been done
The hate has been spread
Just as you intended.
And you
Have the gall
To call yourself
a Christian.
You are the anti-Christ
The Bible warns us about
You are not a Christian
So please quit pretending
To be what you are not.
Please man up
Accept your responsibility
Set things right
apologize.
The dead though
Don’t need your useless prayers
They need action
They need leadership.
And you are the president
Please start acting
Like you give a damn.
And if you do so
Perhaps
You will find
People will follow you.
But please
Quit the words
Of hate
The words that hurt.
And quit calling immigrants
Invaders and vermin
They are human beings
They are deserving of respect.
This I ask of you
In Jesus’s name
Even though
I am not a Christian
Please, Donald Trump
Grow up.
And become a true leader
Of the people
And end the war of words
And constant hate.
Chief of Staff, You are Absurd
another gun
The president’s chief of staff
While the former guy
Was still President,
Said one day
It was absurd.
To suggest the president’s words
Had anything to do
With recent mass shootings.
Yet is it absurd,
To see the lengths
To which the president’s supporters.
Will twist and turn
Spinning away
The inconvenient truth.
President Trump
Is a racist bigot con man
Who somehow
Conned his way
To become president.
He calls immigrants
Criminals, vermin, animals
invaders
Infesting the country.
The El Paso shooter
said that he went to the border
To shoot the invaders
And said
That he was a big Trump fan.
It is not absurd
To connect these two huge dots
The president’s words
Has real-world consequences.
Yes Mr. Trump is a racist pig
And his supporters
Are being absurd
To suggest otherwise.
Guns kill people.
GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE
Guns do kill people
That is their Buddha-nature
Their Karmic fate.
It is not a mental illness
it is not video games
it is not a million other things.
It is simply this
A gun is a weapon
A weapon designed to kill people
That is what guns do.
Guns don’t care
They do as they are told
If you pull the trigger
They will kill the victim.
That is what guns do
It’s a gun thing.
That is why
In a civilized society
Like most of the world
Military assault weapons
Are locked up.
Yet in America
The land of the free
Home of the brave
Everyone and his cousin
Must have their gun.
Guns for everyone
Cries the NRA
That’s the solution.
The president
And his supporters
Deny the obvious,
Guns kill people
That’s all they do
It is a gun thing
You understand.
So, Mr. President
You can take your words
Your empty platitudes
Your empty soulless promises.
Straight to hell.
NRA, Please Stop Talking
Another day
Another mass shooting
Another incident.
Of domestic terrorism
Another gunman
Killing people.
Because just because
The NRA and their stooges
Come out
Flood the airways.
With their noxious
Poisonous weasel words.
The NRA says
Mass shootings
Are like the weather
You can’t control them.
You can’t predict them
And you can’t prevent them.
Just have to accept
It is all god’s will
Guns don’t kill people
If guns were outlawed
Only outlaws would have guns.
Only solution
Are more guns
For everyone.
An armed society
They say
Is a polite society.
Support for gun control
is socialist/communist/fascist/anti-American/anti-christian nonsense.
The beginning of tyranny
If only the Jews had guns
The holocaust would not have happened.
Jesus would want us all
To be armed with machine guns.
To protect us against the evildoers
It is the Christian thing to do
To blow away evildoers
With heavy arms.
In America
Land of the free
Home of the brave.
We can’t do anything
At all.
About the mass carnage
Unleashed by madmen with guns
Who walks among us
Searching for their next victims.
Any restriction of the right
To bear arms
Is tyranny at its worst.
The nanny state run amuck
Talking about gun control
After a tragic event is
Just not the appropriate time
We only need prayers
And meaningless thoughts.
Universal background checks
Too onerous,
Registering guns
Too burdensome.
Researching gun violence
Waste of taxpayer money.
Banning military-style assault weapons
Restricts my right to blow away
Bambi the deer
With an M16.
The NRA will keep talking
Talking and talking
Another and talking
Preventing anything
From being done.
And we will have another
Mass shooting event
Before the day is out.
So, my plead
This day
to the NRA
And their stooges,
Talk is cheap
Your comments
Are not helping.
If you can’t
Be a part of the solution,
Just stop talking
Please stop talking
And let the rest
Of us figure out
How to stop
The madness in the streets
And stop the carnage
So, NRA
PLEASE
SHUT UP
JUST
STOP
TALKING
NOW!
More Guns for Everyone in the World
(Drafted during the Trump Era, don’t know if this policy has been changed)
The NRA has decided
That the best solution
To the global problem
Of rampant violence
And crime everywhere,
Is for the rest of the world
To become like the U.S.
Where anyone can buy a gun
An armed society
Is a polite society.
The president is about to announce
A global campaign against gun control restrictions
As these restrictions are an undue burden
On the rights of the U.S.arms manufacture.
To sell their guns everywhere in the world.
As everyone wants what we have to sell
The best weapons in the world.
Instead of trying to limit the damage
That unrestricted gun sale
Have done to the U.S.
President, our great leader
Wants to sell more guns
Everywhere in the world.
And there are eager buyers
Lining up around the world
Eager to buy the best guns
The world has never seen.
We want to export
The gun madness
That has infected our society
Leaving behind so many dead bodies
So many gun ghosts.
The dead were not consulted
For they remain dead
They do not vote
They have no voice.
For the guns silenced
Then for good
Just as the guns intended
Just doing their gun thing.
Humanity has evolved
From stones to arrows
To guns
To nuclear, biological weapons.
And the U.S.
While proclaiming itself
a champion of human rights.
Remains nothing but a country
Of gun runners
Merchants of death
And destruction.
Trump Administration Advances Plan to Relax Gun-Export Rules
The Trump administration on Monday advanced a long-sought-after plan to relax export rules for American small arms, including semiautomatic rifles, handguns, and sniper rifles.
In a private briefing with members of Congress, State Department officials outlined a proposed rule change that would transfer oversight of gun exports to the Department of Commerce. The proposed rule will be published in the federal register later this week, where it will be subject to public comment for 45 days. While it is unlikely, Congress could block the change using powers under the congressional review act.
The shift, which was first proposed by the Obama administration in 2012, is championed by gunmakers who say it will make them more competitive in the international market. Critics argue an export policy that favors commercial interests could put the national security of the United States at risk or harm diplomatic efforts.
“Weakened congressional oversight of international small arms and munitions sales is extremely hazardous to global security,” said Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in an emailed statement. “This decision is also politically tone-deaf as our nation reckons with a gun violence epidemic.”
A State Department spokesman said that the change would ease the regulatory burden on American gun makers and allow them to compete better globally.
Currently, the Department of State monitors exports of all weapons through the U.S. munitions list. Since 2002, the department has been required to notify Congress of overseas sales of firearms worth more than $1 million.
In 2016, the State Department alerted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to a proposed sale of more than 26,000 rifles to the Philippines. Cardin at the time objected to arming the regime of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had inaugurated a wave of thousands of extrajudicial killings as part of a crackdown on drugs. The weapons deal was canceled as a result.
The proposed rule change would transfer control over the sale of small arms to the commerce control list, and congress would no longer be notified of large purchases. Some arms control experts say reduced oversight could provide criminals, terrorists, or hostile states an opportunity to purchase American weapons.
Under Department of Commerce weapon-export rules, “companies aren’t required to provide as much information about brokers or shipping” as they must under State Department supervision, said Colby Goodman, who examines American weapons exports as director of the security assistance monitor program at the center for international policy in Washington.
“The world of firearms exports is full of questionable, dubious characters.”
The rule change has been long in the making. It was first proposed in 2012 by the Obama administration, but abandoned shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. At the time, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security criticized the change because it could make it easier for transnational criminal organizations or terrorists to get American-made guns.
In September, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was interested in reviving the rule change to encourage more international arms sales. With the formal commencement of the public comment period, the preparation has become a policy reality.
In April, the Trump administration said it would now consider economic factors in addition to security when it comes to selling American weapons overseas.
The Trump administration has argued that the change would aid the domestic gun industry by cutting down on export regulation. American consumer sales of firearms have suffered since the 2016 election. After years of elevated sales in anticipation of possible new gun-control measures imposed by democratic lawmakers, domestic demand subsided as republicans took full control of the federal government.
– Alex yablon
In Virginia Beach
In a night of horrific scumbagery violence
Rarely seen in this jaded age of ours.
EVERYONE WAS GONE IN LESS THAN AN HOUR
In a spasm of horrific scumbagery violence
In just a few short minutes
Nothing more than that
In just a few moments
All 12 victims were murdered.
By a disgruntled employee
Everyone he knew was shot
And killed for no reason.
Caused by the demons
His soul was so infected
Murderous demonic voices
All in his head
Screaming kill them all kill them all
Screaming no stop violence in his head
All the time.
Causing him to start shooting.
Everyone he saw
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were
Everyone must die
Screamed the demonic
Voices in his head.
No one can be left alive
Everyone must die
All must die.
In his internal video game
Everyone must die
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were.
DEATH TO ALL HUMANS SCREAMED THE VOICES IN HIS HEAD
As he hunted his victims
Killing as many as he could.
Just another day
Gone wrong
All across America
In every town
Nowhere is safe anymore.
Virginia Beach Massacre Two
guns
Virginia Beach massacre
Just another night in America.
An active shooter
Unleashes a night of
Scumbagery violence
rarely seen.
In this jaded wild world
Gone in one hour.
In a spasm of horrific
scumbagery.
In just less
Than 30 short minutes
Nothing more than that.
In just a few
Short 30 moments
All the victims.
Were murdered while
At their daily work
Just at the Wrong place,
At the wrong time.
Act of a demotic
a deranged madman with a gun
Voices screaming kill.
The voices scream
DEATH
TO
ALL
HUMANS
The voices scream
Over and over
All must die now.
Just another night
In America
Home of the free
Land of the brave
And guns for all.
It’s a Gun Situation, Mr. President.
President Trump
You are wrong once again.
You said that the tragic events in Texas
And Las Vegas was not “gun situations”
But mental health problems.
And that in Texas
If there had been
Fewer gun controls
Fewer people.
Would have died
President Trump
I know you are a smart man
The smartest man in the world
According to you.
So please contemplate this fact
According to the latest findings
It is a gun situation.
The reason the U.S.
Is number one in gun deaths
Is because we are number one
in gun ownership.
We have so many gun deaths
Because we have so many guns
45% of the world’s guns.
And 33 percent of the world’s shooters
are Americans killing other Americans.
And most of them, the majority of them
Are white people killing other White people
Except for white Cops
They like to kill black and brown people
For some reason.
Rarely is it a black person
Or an Asian person
Or a female shooter.
No Islamic terrorists
Most are in fact
Self-proclaimed
White Supremacist Christians.
So, Mr. President
When will you come to your senses?
And do what 90 percent of the public wants
Enact nationwide effective gun controls?
And tell the NRA
They can take their
Blood money elsewhere.
When Mr. President
When will you act
When will you take charge?
And become a president of the people
Instead of the president of the NRA?
Comment: Sent this to President Trump who added me to his suckers email list – I was soon getting hundreds of emails a day from everyone including the NRA telling me that I was a valued member of team Trump and had to donate money to keep the socialist democrats from taking my guns away. End comment
I want to tell you something
The dead don’t want your prayers
the dead don’t care
That you pray for them
They are dead.
And you and your so-called Christian
Are to blame,
You refuse to do anything
Anything at all to stop the carnage
In our streets.
The U.S. is flooded with guns
And more are sold every day.
Millions of people
Don’t have health coverage
Millions are barely surviving
And your answer,
Our dear great compassionate speaker
Your answer
Is prayer works
Government action does not.
You act as if the gun violence
Plaguing our country
Was like the weather
Beyond our control,
So, here’s my prayer for you
and your colleagues
When you die
I pray that God
will send you
And your friends
Straight to hell
Where Satan and his demons
Will use you for target practice
That’s my prayer to you
And as you know
Prayer works.
Comment: Sent to Speaker Ryan who never responded, but he did not put me on his sucker email list. End Comment
I Don’t Get It
Mr. Speaker
I admit I don’t get it
how does prayer
stop gun violence?
Prayer did not work in Texas.
26 people were murdered
While praying.
God if he exists
Does not care
About the poor people
Who died in his church.
Because a mad man
Got a gun,
And no, they were not praying
To be delivered from death
No one deserves to die like this.
So, my prayer to you
Is simply this
Get off your rear end
Rally the country,
And do something
About gun violence.
That’s a prayer
I hope works.
Source document:
“Add house speaker Paul Ryan to the list of republicans offering only thoughts and prayers in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting in a Texas church, because taking meaningful action is always off the table with him and his party.
Speaking with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingram last night, Ryan reiterated that the victims and their families need more prayers because “prayer works.”
Prayer doesn’t work -Found Poem
26 people were murdered while praying. Even Christians ought to admit that prayer doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and their god will do whatever their god wants to do, even if it means letting people die in the church because a domestic abuser got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.
Not that Ryan would ever say that.
Instead, he just blamed the “far secular left” for not getting it.
More guns than people found poem
We don’t have more automobiles
Than people in the United States of America.
We don’t have more televisions than people.
We don’t have more radios than people
We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
Lots more guns
More guns than anywhere else
In the world
45% of all guns in fact
393 million firearms
A population of 326 million.
That means there are 120.5 firearms
For every 100 American citizens,
It’s a sad fact.
If every single person in the United States
Possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm
— even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds
— there would still be 67 million guns left over.
Sixty-seven million.
The number of guns
Owned by civilians
Is an outrage,
A profanity,
a sign that this country
This supposed Christian
Peace-loving country
Has lost its collective mind.
But not to the national rifle association it isn’t
The NRA has taken the position
That what we need is more guns, not less.
They say that more guns equal less crime,
You need guns to defend yourself and your property,
These groups tell us.
If more people had more guns,
criminals would be less likely to commit crimes
Because they wouldn’t know who was armed
And locked ready for bear
Ready to defend themselves.
An armed society
is a peaceful polite society.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy with a gun”
Said NRA chief executive
Wayne Lapierre
After the Sandy Hook School Massacre
In Connecticut
Had killed 20 children
And six schoolteachers and staff
The good guy theory
Is their rationale
Behind arming teachers.
Arming teachers
Is the argument
They have for all.
The so-called
Open carry laws
That has been passed.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year
Was stopped by a good guy
With a gun.
The NRA
Said an armed civilian
Shot the bad guys.
With a gun
In Dayton
It took
66 shots to bring down the killer.
They fired 40 rounds.45 caliber ammunition,
16 rounds of 233-millimeter ammunition
And one shotgun round
It is madness
Every mass shooting
Proves how mad it is.
Can you imagine what
It must have been
Like in the epoch nightclub bar
In Dayton
Or on the street in Odessa?
Guns were going off
People all around you
Were hit wounded, dying
Bleeding everywhere
If you were carrying a gun a handgun,
What would you have done?
Hide get behind someone
Run?
That’s what I would do
That’s what people did
Dayton and Odessa.
These mass shootings
Are acts of terror.
People are terrorized
Sacred to death.
They are lucky
To be alive.
In a country with more guns
Than people
The good guys
With a gun,
Myth is obscene.
In a country with more guns than people,
the “good guy with a gun” myth
is an obscenity.
It’s a lie.
GUNS DON’T SAVE US THEY KILL US
Based on the following source article
“We don’t have more automobiles than people in the United States of America. We don’t have more televisions than people. We don’t have more radios than people. We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
A recent report published by the small arms survey in Geneva, Switzerland, found that there are more than 393 million firearms owned by civilians in this country. We have a population of 326 million. That means there are 120.5 firearms for every 100 American citizens, according to the Washington Post. It’s a fact. If every single person in the United States possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm — even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds — there would still be 67 million guns left over. Sixty-seven million.
The number of guns owned by civilians is an outrage, profanity, a sign that this country has lost its collective mind. But not to the national rifle association it isn’t. Not to the gun owners of America, another major gun lobby organization with over two million members, which is frequently critical of the NRA for being too soft on gun rights. These well-funded lobbies for gun manufacturers and gun owners have long taken the position that what we need is more guns, not fewer. They say that more guns equal less crime, despite FBI statistics that show conclusively that violent crime, and especially crimes involving firearms, is higher per capita in areas of the country with more guns.
You need guns to defend yourself and your property, these groups tell us. If more people had more guns, criminals would be less likely to commit crimes because they wouldn’t know who was armed and ready to defend themselves.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun,” said NRA chief executive Wayne Lapierre after the sandy hook school massacre in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six school staff. He said the same thing again after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre, which left 17 students and faculty dead. It has become the NRA’s favorite myth.
The “good guy with a gun” theory is their rationale behind arming teachers. It’s the argument they have for all the so-called “open carry” laws that have been passed. At this point, 31 states allow people to openly carry firearms in public without a license. Another 15 allow open carry with some form of state-issued license. All 50 states allow people to carry concealed firearms with varying forms of restrictions and licensing. The idea is the more “good guys with a gun,” the better.
According to ABC News, “there have been at least 19 deadly mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2019.” There were two mass shootings last month on a single day, Aug. 3. The first, in El Paso, Texas, was at a Walmart. Twenty-two people were killed and 24 were wounded. That night in Dayton, Ohio, 10 people were killed and another 17 were wounded in a shooting that happened in less than 30 seconds. On Aug. 31, a shooter in Odessa, Texas, killed seven people and wounded 25, including three police officers.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year was stopped by a “good guy with a gun,” an armed civilian. Police shot the “bad guys with a gun” in Dayton and Odessa. In Dayton, it took them 66 shots to bring down the killer. They fired 40 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition, 16 rounds of .233 millimeter ammunition, and one shotgun round. The killer took only 40 rounds to kill seven and wound 17 with his ar-15 style weapon. The alleged shooter in El Paso somehow evaded dozens of responding police officers before surrendering.
Both Texas and Ohio allow open carry of firearms without a license, and yet in neither place was there a civilian “good guy with a gun” to stop the carnage amid panic and chaos. An armed U.S. soldier with a concealed carry license in El Paso drew his weapon before deciding to shuttle fleeing children safely out of the shopping mall.
You have heard most of the arguments against these open carry laws. How will cops responding to an active shooter incident know who the shooter is, and who is just a passer-by carrying a gun? What’s going to happen in a crowded store like Walmart when there finally is a shootout between a killer and “good guys with guns?” Won’t a lot of innocent bystanders be being killed? If well-trained, heavily armed police can’t kill an active shooter with less than 66 bullets, how can we expect an armed teacher in a grade school to do it?
It’s madness. Every mass shooting proves how mad it is. Can you imagine what it must have been like in the El Paso Walmart, or outside the bar in Dayton, or on the street in Odessa? Guns were going off. People all around you were hit, wounded, dying, bleeding. Even if you were carrying a handgun, what would you have done?
Hide. Get behind something. Run. That’s what I would do. That’s what people did in El Paso, Dayton, and Odessa.
These mass shootings are acts of terror. People are terrorized, scared. They’re trying to stay alive.
In a country with more guns than people, the “good guy with a gun” myth is obscenity. It’s a lie. Guns don’t save us. They kill us.
More guns
guns
Every day more guns
gun deaths everywhere
more man men with guns
shooting everyone
you cannot escape.
So many deaths
you cannot count
five today
more tomorrow.
NRA cries
need more guns
guns for all.
More guns
More deaths
Guns.
When Will This Madness End?
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair.
An old man consumed by his demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 58 people injuring hundreds.
In Las Vegas, Sin City
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy?
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid, cry the conservative voices
Guns are the price of our freedom
Guns Don’t Kill People.
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy with a gun.
An armed society is a polite society.
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits
We must confiscate the guns.
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur.
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be the next time
And another time and repeatedly
Until the end of time.
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers.
Nothing will change
Until we confront the evil
What lurks deep within each of us.
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough.
Dear Governor Abbot
You say you are a Christian
Yet you have the gall
to say the proper response
To the evil acts of the deranged gunman
Who shot up a church
Is to work closer with God.
And that evil people will find ways
To commit evil acts
And that there is nothing the government
Can do to stop this madness.
It is the price of our freedom
Why can’t you wake up
And see that you can lead
The way out of this madness?
Thousands of people die
Each year from guns in this country
Turning everyone into prisoners
Into their own homes
Afraid to walk outside.
For fear that a nut job
With a gun
Will blow them away
In Church, at the store
In traffic.
And you and your NRA friends
Think the answer
Is to arm everyone to the teeth.
And I wonder how Jesus
Would react to how
You have so misunderstood his message?
You Sir are not a Christian
And you Sir are going to not like
What God has to say to you
On Judgement Day.
Source document:
“We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people or another terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.”
Texas Governor: Fight Gun Massacres By ‘Working with God’
NOVEMBER 6, 2017, BY MICHAEL STONE
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott claims prayer and “working with God” is the only way to prevent mass shooting events like the recent church massacre in rural Texas.
In a deplorable bit of pandering, Abbott said that the proper response to Sunday’s shooting is to confront evil through prayer and forge “a stronger connection to God.”
Governor Abbott said:
We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people or another terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.
Most reasonable people reject Abbott’s impotent call to prayer and a “stronger connection to God.” In a statement concerning the recent Texas church massacre, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that action was required:
We have a solemn obligation to the victims of Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Orlando, Newtown, and the many tragic shootings that occur each day to respond not only with prayer and unwavering love but with action.
As for Governor Abbott, his position as a dangerous religious extremist is well established.
Last June Abbott signed into law legislation allowing publicly funded agencies to deny non-Christians the ability to adopt a child in need.
In addition, in a move meant to shame women who have abortions, the Republican governor of Texas ordered state health officials to add new abortion regulations that would require the burial or cremation of post-abortion fetal tissue.
Bottom line: Texas Governor Gregg Abbott is a dangerous religious extremist who believes the proper response to Sunday’s church massacre is prayer and other efforts to forge “a stronger connection to God.”
Comment: Poor Governor Abbot does not like me. I sent him a letter asking him to show me where I can find in the bible justification for forcing women to hold a funeral at their expense for a fetus and how can this be seen as a Christian companion thing to do? He never answered.
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair.
An old man consumed by his demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 60 people injuring hundreds
In Las Vegas, Sin City.
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid cry the conservative voices
And there is nothing we can do.
It is like the weather
Bad shit happens
Guns are the price of our freedom.
Guns Don’t Kill People
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a gun guy with a gun.
An armed society is a polite society
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits.
We must confiscate the guns
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur.
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be the next time
And another time and repeatedly
Until the end of time.
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers
We are all responsible here.
The negligent parents
The overworked schools
The soulless corporate world.
That treats everyone
like disposable commodities
The lack of human connection
The TV and movie purveyors
Of pornographic violence.
Nothing will change
Until we conflict the evil
That lurks deep within each of us
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough.
Two weeks later the greatest mass shooting in a Church occurred in Texas
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Unfortunately, mass shootings have become so common in the U.S. here are my gun poems written over the last few years. A few have been published. I hope and pray that our political leaders will do something to solve the problem. The NRA’s position seems to be more guns for everyone is the solution.
They are so wrong. The widespread availability of super lethal weapons is the problem. You simply can’t kill on a mass level with knives, or hammers, you need a high powered weapon designed to kill as many people as possible in the shortest time possible and you need to be so deranged that you want to kill as many people as possible in the shortest time possible. Universal background checks would help, treating guns like we treat cars would help. Red flag laws would help.
Miltiary weapons must be banned
Guns should be registered, and owners should have to buy liability insurance.
We need universal background checks now!
The federal government should spend time and money studying the causes and prevention of gun violence.
Buying back assault weapons would be a good idea as well. I do agree with the NRA on one point, we should prosecute people who use guns in the commission of a crime and enforce all existing laws.
I thought that the NRA
Could not get any lower
But today they did
They tweeted out
Their Mother’s Day message
A mom and her daughter
Holding military assault rifles
With the caption
“Momma Did not Raise a victim”
NRA Mother’s Day Add
The add came out
On a weekend
That saw more than
seven mass shootings
All across the land
The NRA has no shame
Blood is on their hands
Because of them
We have not been able
To do anything at all
About the epidemic
Of gun violence
That is killing
Far too many of us
Turning so many people
Into Gun Ghosts
Joining the corona ghost army
Looking at that vile add
I said,
“Momma may not have raised a victim
But she did raise a monster
NRA
How evil
How despicable
Can you get
Celebrating gun violence
On Mother’s Day?
Just Another Gun Death in America
Turning on the dismal dark news
Every morning at dawn
There is another grim story
To brighten my morning gloom
The Latest story – a lone gunman
Opens fire at time square
At sunset
Another deranged madman
With a gun and a grievance
Shooting up a crowd
As tourists scream
And flee the scene
Wondering if this is just
Another movie set
Scene went awry
Unfortunately,
No, it is life and death
Live and in living color
Just another Saturday night
Live in NYC
And across the land
As another madman’s life
unravels before the world’s eyes
Live and in living color
MUST WATCH TV SCREAMS MY TV THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR TV SET
The NRA and their hired goons
Go on air
Offering useless thoughts
And meaningless prayers
Guns don’t kill people
Guns make us free
Guns are all American
Liberals want to take your guns
You need your AK 47
To blow away bambi
Or the thug BLM dude
Next door
Because Black Lives
Do not Matter to You
The only solution
Are more guns for all
An armed society
Is a polite society
Guns are the greatest gift
that America gave to the world
They are our friends
And protector
God bless our guns
Just another day
In their violent gun-ridden
Gun paradise that is America
is its imperial decline
The gun victims
Don’t hear their thoughts
And prayers
As they are now dead
Just another gun ghost
They join the thousands
Of gun ghosts
And the corona ghosts
Their voices
Crying in the wind
No one cares anymore
Just too many of them
Another Day in the NRA’s Paradise
Just another day in America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
And guns
lots of guns
More guns for all
Cries the NRA
Yes, another day
Another gun battles
Another white man
Who just wants to kill
President Trump sends his condolences
Thanks to the law enforcement
For an incredible job, well done
it was horrible
Hate has no place
In our country
And we will take of it
and do whatever we can do
Offering useless fake condolences
Nothing but false words
Empty words
Lots of things to do
It is a mental illness problem
But he fails to mention
The words gun at all
Not at all
And tomorrow and tomorrow
But he at least finally said
Hate has no role in-country
Nothing but prime bs
In my humble opinion
He did not mention
White supremacy
His rhetoric had nothing
Nothing to do about
This at all
And so tomorrow
I will turn on the TV
And we see nothing
Nothing had changed
And the dead
Will remain dead
The guns will fire again
Nothing will be done
Welcome to America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
And guns
lots of guns
More gun
Guns for all
God bless our guns
President Trump Words Matter
Mr. President words matter
President Trump,
Words matter
Your words matter
Your words of hate
Your words of division
Your words
Calling fellow human beings
Scum, vermis, invaders,
Animals, thugs, criminals
They matter a lot
Is it little wonder
That people listen
Give into the hate,
You spew forth
And some deranged people
act
On your call
For action
Against the invaders
On the border
They march to the border
To kill the invaders
Your words matter
Mr. President
And your false words
Of regret
Fool no one
The damage has been done
The hate has been spread
Just as you intended
And you
Have the gall
To call yourself
a Christian
You are the anti-Christ
The bible warns us about
You are not a Christian
So please quit pretending
To be what you are not
Please man up
Accept your responsibility
Set things right
apologize
The dead though
Don’t need your useless prayers
They need action
They need leadership
And you are the president
Please start acting
Like you give a damn
And if you do so
Perhaps
You will find
People will follow you
But please
Quit the words
Of hate
The words that hurt
And quit calling immigrants
Invaders and vermin
They are human beings
They are deserving of respect
This I ask of you
In Jesus’s name
Even though
I am not a Christian
Please, Donald Trump
Grow up
And become the president
Of the people
And end the war of words
And constant hate
Chief of Staff, You are Absurd
The president’s chief of staff
Said the other day
It was absurd
To suggest that the president’s words
Had anything to do
With recent mass shootings
Yet is it absurd
To see the lengths
To which the president’s supporters
Will twist and turn
Spinning away
The inconvenient truth
President Trump
Is a racist bigot con man
Who somehow
Conned his way
To become president
He calls immigrants
Criminals, vermin, animals
invaders
Infesting the country
The El Paso shooter
said that he went to the border
To shoot the invaders
And said
That he was a big Trump fan
It is not absurd
To connect these two huge dots
The president’s words
Has real-world consequences
Yes Mr. Trump is a racist pig
And his supporters
Are being absurd
To suggest otherwise
Guns kill people
GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE
Guns really do kill people
That is their Buddha nature
Their Karmic fate
It is not a mental illness
it is not video games
it is not a million other things
It is simply this
A gun is a weapon
A weapon designed to kill people
That is what guns do
Guns don’t care
They do as they are told
If you pull the trigger
They will kill the victim
That is what guns do
It’s a gun thing
That is why
In a civilized society
Like most of the world
Military assault weapons
Are locked up
Yet in America
The land of the free
Home of the brave
Everyone and his cousin
Must have their gun
Guns for everyone
Cries the NRA
That’s the solution
The president
And his supporters
Deny the obvious
Guns kill people
That’s all they do
It is a gun thing
You would not understand
So, mr. President
You can take your words
Your empty platitudes
Your empty soulless promises
Straight to hell
And back
Where with any luck
Satan will use you
As target practice
NRA, Please Stop Talking
Another day
Another mass shooting
Another incident
Of domestic terrorism
Another gunman
Killing people
Because just because
The NRA and their stooges
Come out
Flood the airways
With their noxious
Poisonous weasel words
The NRA says
Mass shootings
Are like the weather
You can’t control them
You can’t predict them
And you can’t prevent them
Just have to accept
It is all god’s will
Guns don’t kill people
If guns were outlawed
Only outlaws would have guns
Only solution
Are more guns
For everyone
An armed society
They say
Is a polite society
Support for gun contro
is socialist/communist/fascist/anti-american/anti-christian nonsense
The beginning of tyranny
If only the jews had guns
Ihe holocaust would not have happened
Jesus would want us all
To be armed with machine guns
To protect us against the evildoers
It is the Christian thing to do
To blow away evildoers
With heavy arms
In America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
We can’t do anything
At all
About the mass carnage
Unleashed by madmen with guns
Who walks among us
Searching for their next victims
Any restriction of the right
To bear arms
Is tyranny at its worst
The nanny state run amuck
Talking about gun control
After a tragic event is
Just not the appropriate time
We only need prayers
And meaningless thoughts
Universal background checks
Too onerous
Registering guns
Too burdensome
Researching gun violence
Waste of taxpayer money
Banning military-style assault weapons
Restricts my right to blow away
Bambi the deer
With an M16
The NRA will keep talking
Talking and talking
Another and talking
Preventing anything
From being done
And we will have another
Mass shooting event
Before the day is out
So, my plead
This day
to the NRA
And their stooges
Talk is cheap
Your comments
Are not helping
If you can’t
Be a part of the solution
Just stop talking
Please stop talking
And let the rest
Of us figure out
How to stop
The madness in the streets
And stop the carnage
So NRA
PLEASE
SHUT UP
JUST
STOP
TALKING
NOW!
More Guns for Everyone in the World
The NRA has decided
That the best solution
To the global problem
Of rampant violence
And crime everywhere
Is for the rest of the world
To become like the U.S.
Where anyone can buy a gun
An armed society
Is a polite society
The president is about to announce
A global campaign against gun control restrictions
As these restrictions are an undue burden
On the rights of the U.S.arms manufacture
To sell their guns everywhere in the world.
As everyone wants what we have to sell
The best weapons in the world.
Instead of trying to limit the damage
That unrestricted gun sale
Have done to the U.S.
President, our great leader
Wants to sell more guns
Everywhere in the world
And there are eager buyers
Lining up around the world
Eager to buy the best guns
The world has ever seen
We want to export
The gun madness
That has infected our society
Leaving behind so many dead bodies
So many gun ghosts
The dead were not consulted
For they remain dead
They do not vote
They have no voice
For the guns silenced
Then for good
Just as the guns intended
Just doing their gun thing after all
Humanity has evolved
From stones to arrows
To guns
To nuclear, biological weapons
And the U.S.
While proclaiming itself
a champion of human rights
Remains nothing but a country
Of gun runners
Merchants of death
And destruction
Trump Administration Advances Plan to Relax Gun-Export Rules
The Trump administration on Monday advanced a long-sought-after plan to relax export rules for American small arms, including semiautomatic rifles, handguns, and sniper rifles.
In a private briefing with members of Congress, State Department officials outlined a proposed rule change that would transfer oversight of gun exports to the Department of Commerce. The proposed rule will be published in the federal register later this week, where it will be subject to public comment for 45 days. While it is unlikely, Congress could block the change using powers under the congressional review act.
The shift, which was first proposed by the Obama administration in 2012, is championed by gunmakers who say it will make them more competitive in the international market. Critics argue an export policy that favors commercial interests could put the national security of the United States at risk or harm diplomatic efforts.
“Weakened congressional oversight of international small arms and munitions sales is extremely hazardous to global security,” said Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, a democrat who serves on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in an emailed statement. “this decision is also politically tone-deaf as our nation reckons with a gun violence epidemic.”
A State Department spokesman said that the change would ease the regulatory burden on American gun makers and allow them to compete better globally.
Currently, the Department of State monitors exports of nearly all weapons through the U.S. munitions list. Since 2002, the department has been required to notify Congress of overseas sales of firearms worth more than $1 million.
In 2016, the State Department alerted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to a proposed sale of more than 26,000 rifles to the Philippines. Cardin at the time objected to arming the regime of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had inaugurated a wave of thousands of extrajudicial killings as part of a crackdown on drugs. The weapons deal was canceled as a result.
The proposed rule change would transfer control over the sale of small arms to the commerce control list, and congress would no longer be notified of large purchases. Some arms control experts say reduced oversight could provide criminals, terrorists, or hostile states an opportunity to purchase American weapons.
Under Department of Commerce weapon-export rules, “companies aren’t required to provide as much information about brokers or shipping” as they must under State Department supervision, said Colby Goodman, who examines American weapons exports as director of the security assistance monitor program at the center for international policy in Washington.
“The world of firearms exports is full of questionable, dubious characters.”
The rule change has been long in the making. It was first proposed in 2012 by the Obama administration, but abandoned shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. At the time, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security criticized the change because it could make it easier for transnational criminal organizations or terrorists to get American-made guns.
In September, Reuters reported that the trump administration was interested in reviving the rule change to encourage more international arms sales. With the formal commencement of the public comment period, the preparation has become policy reality.
In April, the Trump administration said it would now consider economic factors in addition to security when it comes to selling American weapons overseas.
The Trump administration has argued that the change would aid the domestic gun industry by cutting down on export regulation. American consumer sales of firearms have suffered since the 2016 election. After years of elevated sales in anticipation of possible new gun-control measures imposed by democratic lawmakers, domestic demand subsided as republicans took full control of the federal government.
– alex yablon
In Virginia beach
In a night of horrific scumbagery violence
Rarely seen in this jaded age of ours
EVERYONE WAS GONE IN LESS THAN AN HOUR
In a spasm of horrific scumbagery violence
In just a few short minutes
Nothing more than that
In just a few moments
All 12 victims were murdered
By a disgruntled employee
Everyone he knew was shot
And killed for no reason
Caused by the demons
His soul was so infected
Murderous demonic voices
All in his head
Screaming kill them all kill them all
Screaming no stop violence in his head
All the time
Causing him to start shooting
everyone he saw
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were
Everyone must die
Screamed the demonic
Voices in his head
No one can be left alive
Everyone must die
Virtually all must die
In his internal video game
Everyone must die
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were
DEATH TO ALL HUMANS SCREAMED THE VOICES IN HIS HEAD
As he hunted his victims
Killing as many as he could
Just another day
Gone wrong
All across america
In every town
Nowhere is safe anymore
Virginia Beach Massacre 2
Virginia beach massacre
Just another night in America
An active shooter
Unleashes a night of
Scumbagery violence
rarely seen
In this jaded wild world
Gone in one hour
In a spasm of horrific
scumbagery
In just less
Than 30 short minutes
Nothing more that
In just a few
Short 30 moments
All the victims
Were murdered while
At their daily work
Just at the Wrong place,
At the wrong time
Act of a demotic
a deranged madman with a gun
Voices screaming kill
The voices scream
DEATH
TO
ALL
HUMANS
The voices scream
Oover and over
All must die now
Just another night
In America
Home of the free
Land of the brave
And guns for all
It’s a gun situation, Mr. President
President Trump
You are wrong once again
You said that the tragic events in Texas
And Las Vegas was not “gun situations”
But rather mental health problems
And that in Texas
If there had been
Fewer gun controls
Perhaps fewer people
would have died
President Trump
I know you a smart man
The smartest man in the world
According to you
So please contemplate this fact
According to the latest findings
It is a gun situation
The reason the U.S.
Is number one in gun deaths
Is because we are number one
in gun ownership
We have so many gun deaths
Because we have so many guns
45% of the world’s guns in fact
And 33 percent of the world’s shooters
are Americans killing other Americans
And most of them, the majority of them
Are white people killing other White people
Except for white Cops
They like to kill black and brown people
For some reason
Almost never is it a black person
Or an Asian person
Or a female shooter
No islamic terrorists
Most are in fact
Self-proclaimed
White Suprematist Christians
So, Mr. President
When will you come to your senses?
And do what 90 percent of the public wants
Enact nationwide effective gun controls?
And tell the NRA
They can take their
Blood money elsewhere
When Mr. President
When will you act
When will you take charge
And become a president of the people
Instead of the president of the NRA
Comment: Sent this to President Trump whoa dded me to his suckers email list – I was soon getting hundreds of emails a day from everyone including the NRA telling me that I was a valued member of team Trump and had to donate money to keep the socialist democrats from taking my guns away. End comment
I want to tell you something
The dead don’t want your prayers
the dead don’t care
That you pray for them
They are dead after all
And you and your so-called christian
Are to blame
You refuse to do anything
Anything at all to stop the carnage
In our streets
The U.S. is flooded with guns
And more are sold every day
Millions of people
Don’t have health coverage
Millions are barely surviving
And your answer
Our dear great compassionate speaker
Your answer
Is prayer works
Government action does not
You act as if the gun violence
Plaguing our country
Was like the weather
Beyond our control
So, here’s my prayer for you
and your colleagues
When you die
i pray that god
will send you?
And your friends
Straight to hell
Where satan and his demons
Will use you for target practice
That’s my prayer to you
And as you know
Prayer works
Comment: Sent to Speaker Ryan who never responded, but he did not put me on his sucker email list. End Comment
I don’t get it
Mr. Speaker
I admit I don’t get it
how does prayer
stop gun violence?
Prayer did not work in Texas.
26 people were murdered
While praying.
God if he exists
Does not care
About the poor people
Who died in his church
Because a mad man
Got a gun
And no, they were not praying
To be delivered from death
No one deserves to die like this
So, my prayer to you
Is simply this
Get off your rear end
Rally the country
And do something
About gun violence
That’s a prayer
I hope works
Add house speaker Paul Ryan to the list of republicans offering only thoughts and prayers in the wake of sunday’s mass shooting in a texas church, because taking meaningful action is always off the table with him and his party.
Speaking with Fox News Channel’s laura Ingram last night, Ryan reiterated that the victims and their families need more prayers because “prayer works.”
Prayer doesn’t work.
26 people were murdered while praying. Even Christians ought to admit that prayer doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and their god will do whatever their god wants to do, even if it means letting people die in the church because a domestic abuser got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.
Not that Ryan would ever say that.
Instead, he just blamed the “far secular left” for not getting it.
More guns than people found poem
We don’t have more automobiles
Than people in the united states of America.
we don’t have more televisions than people.
We don’t have more radios than people
We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
Lots more guns
More guns than anywhere else
In the world
45% of all guns in fact
393 million firearms
A population of 326 million.
That means there are 120.5 firearms
For every 100 American citizens,
It’s a sad fact.
If every single person in the United States
Possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm
— even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds
— there would still be 67 million guns left over.
sixty-seven million.
The number of guns
Owned by civilians
Is an outrage,
A profanity,
a sign that this country
This supposed Christian
Peace-loving country
Has lost its collective mind.
But not to the national rifle association it isn’t
The NRA has taken the position
That what we need is more guns, not less.
They say that more guns equal less crime,
You need guns to defend yourself and your property,
These groups tell us.
If more people had more guns,
criminals would be less likely to commit crimes
Because they wouldn’t know who was armed
And locked ready for bear
Ready to defend themselves.
An armed society
is a peaceful polite society
“the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy With a gun”
Said NRA chief executive
Wayne Lapierre
After the Sandy Hook School Massacre
In Connecticut
Had killed 20 children
And six schoolteachers and staff
The good guy theory
Is their rationale
Behind arming teachers
Arming teachers
Is the argument
They have for all
The so-called
Open carry laws
That has been passed.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year
Was stopped by a good guy
With a gun
The NRA
Said an armed civilian
Shot the bad guys
With a gun
In Dayton
It took
66 shots to bring down the killer.
They fired 40 rounds of.45 caliber ammunition,
16 rounds of 233-millimeter ammunition
And one shotgun round
It is madness
Every mass shooting
Proves how mad it is
Can you imagine what
It must have been
Like in the epoch nightclub bar
In Dayton
Or on the street in Odessa?
Guns were going off
People all around you
Were hit wounded, dying
Bleeding everywhere
If you were carrying a gun a handgun,
What would you have done?
Hide get behind someone
Run?
That’s what i would do
That’s what people did
Dayton and Odessa
These mass shootings
Are acts of terror
People are terrorized
Sacred to death.
They are lucky
To be alive
In a country with more guns
Than people
The good guys
With a gun
Myth is obscene
In a country with more guns than people,
the “good guy with a gun” myth
is an obscenity.
It’s a lie.
GUNS DON’T SAVE US
THEY KILL US
Based on the following article
We don’t have more automobiles than people in the united states of America. We don’t have more televisions than people. We don’t have more radios than people. We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
A recent report published by the small arms survey in Geneva, Switzerland, found that there are more than 393 million firearms owned by civilians in this country. We have a population of 326 million. That means there are 120.5 firearms for every 100 American citizens, according to the Washington post. It’s a fact. If every single person in the united states possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm — even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds — there would still be 67 million guns left over. Sixty-seven million.
The number of guns owned by civilians is an outrage, a profanity, a sign that this country has lost its collective mind. But not to the national rifle association it isn’t. Not to the gun owners of America, another major gun lobby organization with over two million members, which is frequently critical of the NRA for being too soft on gun rights. These well-funded lobbies for gun manufacturers and gun owners have long taken the position that what we need is more guns, not fewer. They say that more guns equal less crime, despite FBI statistics that show conclusively that violent crime, and especially crimes involving firearms, is higher per capita in areas of the country with more guns.
You need guns to defend yourself and your property, these groups tell us. If more people had more guns, criminals would be less likely to commit crimes because they wouldn’t know who was armed and ready to defend themselves.
“the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun,” said NRA chief executive Wayne Laprier after the sandy hook school massacre in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six school staff. He said the same thing again after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre, which left 17 students and faculty dead. It has become the NRA’s favorite myth.
The “good guy with a gun” theory is their rationale behind arming teachers. It’s the argument they have for all the so-called “open carry” laws that have been passed. At this point, 31 states allow people to openly carry firearms in public without a license. Another 15 allow open carry with some form of state-issued license. All 50 states allow people to carry concealed firearms with varying forms of restrictions and licensing. The idea is the more “good guys with a gun,” the better.
according to ABC news, “there have been at least 19 deadly mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2019.” There were two mass shootings last month on a single day, aug. 3. The first, in El Paso, Texas, was at a Walmart. Twenty-two people were killed and 24 were wounded. That night in Dayton, Ohio, 10 people were killed and another 17 were wounded in a shooting that happened in less than 30 seconds. On aug. 31, a shooter in Odessa, Texas, killed seven people and wounded 25, including three police officers.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year was stopped by a “good guy with a gun,” an armed civilian. Police shot the “bad guys with a gun” in Dayton and Odessa. In Dayton, it took them 66 shots to bring down the killer. They fired 40 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition, 16 rounds of .233 millimeter ammunition, and one shotgun round. The killer took only 40 rounds to kill seven and wound 17 with his ar-15 style weapon. The alleged shooter in El Paso somehow evaded dozens of responding police officers before surrendering.
Both Texas and Ohio allow open carry of firearms without a license, and yet in neither place was there a civilian “good guy with a gun” to stop the carnage amid panic and chaos. An armed U.S. soldier with a concealed carry license in El Paso drew his weapon before deciding to shuttle fleeing children safely out of the shopping mall.
You have probably heard most of the arguments against these open carry laws. How will cops responding to an active shooter incident know who the shooter is, and who is just a passer-by carrying a gun? What’s going to happen in a crowded store like Walmart when there finally is a shootout between a killer and “good guys with guns?” Won’t a lot of innocent bystanders be being killed? If well-trained, heavily armed police can’t kill an active shooter with less than 66 bullets, how can we expect an armed teacher in a grade school to do it?
It’s madness. Every mass shooting proves how mad it is. Can you imagine what it must have been like in the el paso walmart, or outside the bar in dayton, or on the street in odessa? Guns were going off. People all around you were hit, wounded, dying, bleeding. Even if you were carrying a handgun, what would you have done?
Hide. Get behind something. Run. That’s what i would do. That’s what people did in El Paso, Dayton, and Odessa.
These mass shootings are acts of terror. People are terrorized, scared to death. They’re trying to stay alive.
In a country with more guns than people, the “good guy with a gun” myth is an obscenity. It’s a lie. Guns don’t save us. They kill us.
More guns
every day more guns
gun deaths everywhere
more man men with guns
shooting everyone
you cannot escape
So many deaths
you cannot count
five today
more tomorrow
NRA cries
need more guns
guns for all
More guns
More deaths
Guns
When will this Madness end?
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair
An old man consumed by his own demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 58 people injuring hundreds
In Las Vegas, Sin City
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy?
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid, cry the conservative voices
Guns are the price of our freedom
Guns Don’t Kill People
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy with a gun
An armed society is a polite society
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits
We must confiscate the guns
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be a next time
And another time and time and time again
Until the end of time
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers
Nothing will change
Until we confront the evil
That lurks deep within each of us
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough
Dear Governor Abbot
You say that you are a Christian
Yet you have the gall
to say that the proper response
To the evil acts of the deranged gun man
Who shot up a church
Is to work closer with God
And that evil people will find ways
To commit evil acts
And that there is nothing the government
Can do to stop this madness
It is the price of our freedom
Why can’t you wake up
And see that you can lead
The way out of this madness?
Thousands of people die
Each year from guns in this country
Turning everyone into prisoners
Into their own homes
Afraid to walk outside
For fear that a nut job
With a gun
Will blow them away
In Church, at the store
In traffic
And you and your NRA buddies
Think the answer
Is to arm everyone to the teeth
And I wonder how Jesus
Would react to how
You have so misunderstood his message?
You Sir are not a Christian
And you Sir are going to not like
What God has to say to you
On Judgement day
“We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people, or other terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.”
Texas Governor: Fight Gun Massacres By ‘Working With God’
NOVEMBER 6, 2017 BY MICHAEL STONE
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott claims prayer and “working with God” is the only way to prevent mass shooting events like the recent church massacre in rural Texas.
In a deplorable bit of pandering Abbott said that the proper response to Sunday’s shooting is to confront evil through prayer and forge “a stronger connection to God.”
Governor Abbott said:
We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people, or other terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.
Most reasonable people reject Abbott’s impotent call to prayer and a “stronger connection to God.” In a statement concerning the recent Texas church massacre, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that action was rquired:
We have a solemn obligation to the victims of Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Orlando, Newtown and the many tragic shootings that occur each day to respond not only with prayer and unwavering love, but with action.
As for Governor Abbott, his position as a dangerous religious extremist is well established.
Last June Abbott signed into law legislation allowing publicly funded agencies to deny non-Christians the ability to adopt a child in need.
In addition, in a move meant to shame women who have abortions, the Republican governor of Texas ordered state health officials to add new abortion regulations that would require the burial or cremation of post abortion fetal tissue.
Bottom line: Texas Governor Gregg Abbott is a dangerous religious extremist who believes the proper response to Sunday’s church massacre is prayer and other efforts to forge “a stronger connection to God.”
comment: Poor Governor Abbot does not like me. I sent him a letter asking him to show me where I can find in the bible justification for forcing woman to hold a funeral at their expense for a fetus and how can this be seen as a Christian compansion thing to do? He never answered.
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred and despair
An old man consumed by his own demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 60 people injuring hundreds
In Las Vegas, Sin City
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid cry the conservative voices
And there is nothing we can do
It is like the weather
Bad shit happens
Guns are the price of our freedom
Guns Don’t Kill People
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a gun guy with a gun
An armed society is a polite society
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits
We must confiscate the guns
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be a next time
And another time and time and time again
Until the end of time
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers
We are all responsible here
The negligent parents
The overworked schools
The soulless corporate world
That treats everyone like disposable commodities
The lack of human connection
The TV and movie purveyors
Of pornographic violence
Nothing will change
Until we conflict the evil
That lurks deep within each of us
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough
Two weeks later the greatest mass shooting in a Church occurred in Texas
Driving to the end of the world
The end times approach
Driving through the smoke filled air
North of Mt Shasta
Heart of bigfoot country
End of the world images
Fill my head with dread
end of the world visions
the apocalypse is upon us
The wicked evil as hell
blood red sun
Leers at me
with an evil grin
Screaming at me
What fools these mortals be
Global climate change
Is as real as the smoky fires
That Burn and burn and burn
As our leaders turn away
They Can’t handle the truth
They will sacrifice all life on earth
So the oil and coal barons
The so called masters of the universe
Can make their obscene profits
Sending the rest of us to hell
This is a list of mass shootings in the United States that have occurred in 2020. Mass shootings are incidents involving multiple victims of firearm-related violence. The precise inclusion criteria are disputed, and there is no broadly accepted definition.[2][3]
Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that tracks shootings and their characteristics in the United States, defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people, excluding the perpetrator(s), are shot in one location at roughly the same time.[4] The Congressional Research Servicenarrows that definition, limiting it to “public mass shootings”, and defined by four or more victims killed. It excludes counting wounded survivors.[2]The Washington Post and Mother Jones use similar definitions, with the latter acknowledging that their definition “is a conservative measure of the problem”, as shootings with fewer fatalities occur.[5][6] The crowdsourced Mass Shooting Tracker project defines a mass shooting as “an incident where four or more people are shot in a single shooting spree. This may include the shooter themself, or police shootings of civilians around the shooter.”[7]
As of June 30, there have been 260 shootings that fit this criteria, resulting in 226 deaths and 1,054 injuries, for a total of 1,280 victims.
Stanford University MSA Data Project: three or more persons shot in one incident, excluding the perpetrator(s), at one location, at roughly the same time. Excluded are shootings associated with organized crime, gangs or drug wars.[8]
Mass Shooting Tracker: four or more persons shot in one incident, at one location, at roughly the same time.[7]
Gun Violence Archive/Vox: four or more shot in one incident, excluding the perpetrators, at one location, at roughly the same time.[4][9]
Mother Jones: three or more shot and killed in one incident at a public place, excluding the perpetrators.[6]
The Washington Post: four or more shot and killed in one incident at a public place, excluding the perpetrators.[5]
ABC News/FBI: four or more shot and killed in one incident, excluding the perpetrators, at one location, at roughly the same time.[10]
Congressional Research Service: four or more shot and killed in one incident, excluding the perpetrators, at a public place, excluding gang-related killings and those done with a profit-motive.[2]
Only incidents considered mass shootings by at least two of the above sources are listed below.
Four people were injured shortly after midnight when someone opened fire during the Rude Boyz Annual Trail Ride. The gathering was held at Durango’s Canyon.[11]
One person was killed and three others were injured when a gunman opened fire in a restaurant. The shooter has been taken into custody and has been charged with open murder, three counts of assault with intent to murder and multiple weapons charges.[12][13]
Responding officers to a large gathering in the early morning found a man dead. Three additional victims were transported in private vehicles to the hospital.[14]
Officers responded to I-64 West in the early morning after calls of shots fired by a moving vehicle. They found four individuals shot, with one dead, in a crashed car. A fifth individual was wounded when the car crashed.[15]
Officers responded from a traffic stop after hearing gunfire. They discovered seven people wounded at a large house party after a man armed with a semi-automatic weapon arrived and opened fire.[17]
A seven-year-old girl, a sixteen-month boy and two adults were shot by a passing vehicle while getting out of a car. The girl was declared brain dead at the hospital, causing the shooting to be declared a homicide.[19]
Three men and a woman were injured shortly before midnight. A man was denied entry at a local bar, retrieved an assault-type weapon from his car, and shot into the building.[21]
Two adults were killed and two teenagers, aged seventeen and eighteen, were injured in an early morning shooting. The group were ambushed by two shooters after arriving at an AirBnb house party in a rideshare.[22]
One man was killed and three others injured in the early morning. Officers are investigating if the individuals were a part of an announced party for that night.[23]
A man opened fire and others returned fire at a large party with at least one hundred people in attendance. Four people were injured in the shooting.[26]
Fifteen people were injured, four critically, after a shooter opened fire at people leaving a funeral home in Chicago’s Auburn Greshamneighborhood.[27]
Five people were wounded in the North Lawndale neighborhood. They were a part of people gathered on the sidewalk when a car pulled up and several men got out and opened fire.[28]
One man was killed and four others injured after a fight in a McDonald’sparking lot escalated. One of the injured was an innocent bystander in the Food Lion parking lot across the street.[29]
Thirteen people were injured in an early morning shooting at a riverfront gathering. An argument between two women led to a man firing two shots into the air. This led to multiple individuals opening fire on the crowd.[30]
Two people were killed and three wounded shortly before midnight in Morgan Park on the Far South Side. They were part of a group of people, that were fired upon by an unknown shooter.[32]
Two fifteen-year-olds and two seventeen-year-olds were wounded while sitting in traffic when another car pulled up and opened fire. Four days later, the suspect was shot by police after a pursuit in which he was found holding a gun and died at a hospital.[34][35]
A man was killed and four others wounded after two men opened fire in the early morning in the North Lawndale neighborhood. The men were standing on a street corner.[37]
Four adults were wounded while attending a memorial in Weinland Park. A three-year-old girl was also wounded when bullets struck the home she was in.[38]
Two people were killed and three injured at a large outdoor hip hop concert in which potentially five separate guns were used. An additional three people were injured while attempting to flee, after being hit by cars.[48]
Three women and two men were injured after someone opened fire outside an apartment complex. At the complex there was a large party happening with over 100 people present.[50]
Two men opened fire on a late night cookout at the Raymond Bush Playground in Brooklyn. Three men were injured and an infant sitting in a stroller was killed.[51]
Four men were wounded and one killed in an early morning shooting. The group was standing in the street when a verbal altercation escalated with at least two shooters.[54]
Responding officers to an early morning block party arrived to gunfire. Two wounded individuals were identified at the party and four others were identified at local hospitals.[55]
In a late night shooting, four people were killed and three injured. Officers suspect the shooting was retaliation by people recently released from prison.[57]
Three men waiting at a stop light and were wounded when someone opened fire. Comedian Rickey Smiley’s daughter was a passenger in another vehicle and was also wounded.[61]
A 16-year-old girl and three adults were wounded by gunfire while standing in an alley in the West Side‘s Fifth City neighborhood in the early morning.[62]
Officers arrived at an early morning fight and heard shots being fired. They later discovered a man killed by the gunfire and three others injured.[63]
A man was killed and three others injured in a parking lot, after leaving an event held by rapper Bankroll Freddie. People were leaving the event when someone fired into the crowd.[66]
A large group of people were watching fireworks, when a fight broke out after a car hit a pedestrian. Fourteen people were wounded, of which two were declared dead at the hospital.[69]
A 20-year-old opened fire on a group of six people after getting into an altercation and taking a rifle from his father. Four of the group were injured and the 20-year-old and his father were arrested.[71]
Four people are killed, and at least four more were injured at an outdoor gathering in Englewood when four men opened fire into a crowd. No suspects have been arrested.[81]
A suspected shootout occurred inside the Riverchase Galleria in the afternoon. An 8-year-old boy was killed and two adults and a girl were injured.[84]
A group of five were shot after a man got out of a vehicle and opened fire. Two girls were killed aged 11 and 12-years-old and three adults were wounded.[85]
Shortly after midnight three men and a woman were shot while waiting in a vehicle at a Shell gas station in River North neighborhood. The shooter was in and later fled in a red sedan.[92]
Three adults and one juvenile were wounded, after going to a residence and getting into an altercation. The shooter was a juvenile resident of the home.[94]
A man shot and killed another man in a home, after mistaking it as the home of his intended target. He left and entered the correct home and wounded three others.[96]
Red Bluff shooting. An employee was killed and four injured at a Walmartdistribution center. The perpetrator was later killed in a shootout with responding police.[99]
Officers responding to an early morning ShotSpotter alert found two men wounded and identified two women who arrived at the hospital to be a part of the incident.[100]
A Missouri man traveled to the area for a house party, where a couple got into a physical domestic fight. Shortly after 911 was called in response to that fight the man opened fire and killed his Uncle and two others, and wounded another.[103]
Five people were wounded by a shooter outside a local grocery store. Officers previously thought the incident was a gunfight but later announced it was one shooter.[105]
Three adults and a 14-year-old boy were wounded in the early morning at a gas station. Prior to the shooting, a large crowd of people and cars had been gathered around the gas station.[107]
A man was killed, and two adults and a 17-year-old injured while attempting to make a rap music video. Officers believed the shooting was targeted, as the victims refused to cooperate.[109]
Officers responding to a block party on reports of someone being hit by a car arrived to shots being fired. Three people were killed and six injured by gunfire, with an additional five injured after being hit by cars while attempting to flee.[114]
Four people were wounded early in the morning after an individual opened fire from a vehicle in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side.[118]
Early in the morning a shooting occurred at a house party. Five individuals were shot and one died on the way to the hospital in a private vehicle.[122]
Officers arrived at a large party in a public parking lot after reports of a stolen car was made. An individual opened fire as they arrived and injured nine people including a 17-year-old.[126]
A woman sitting in her car was killed and three others injured in a separate car early in the morning. A shoot-out had occurred in a large gathering nearby.[129]
Five people were shot at a motel after a party in one of the rooms had an argument that escalated. Police believe the shooting was intended to be targeted.[132]
Early in the morning a man was discovered by officers with a gunshot wound. Shortly after transporting the man to the hospital, six other victims were identified at local hospitals to be a part of the same shooting.[135]
Three adults and a nine-year-old child were wounded while standing in an apartment complex parking lot in the Gresham neighborhood. A man walked up and opened fire on the group, resulting in a shoot out.[136]
In an apparent shoot out at a birthday party, one man was killed and two women injured. A second man died in his vehicle while attempting to drive away from the scene with a gunshot wound.[137]
Five people were wounded in the Fells Point neighborhood during a large gathering at Broadway Square with many of the crowd drinking alcoholic drinks.[150]
Shortly before midnight responding officers discovered seven shooting victims. A man and woman later died at local hospitals with five other men wounded.[151]
Early in the morning five men and one woman were wounded after multiple men opened fire on a group in the Tioga neighborhood, causing the group to scatter and run away.[152]
A man denied entry into a bar for being too drunk, stated “Don’t you know who I am?” to the bouncer before leaving. He returned later with a rifle and opened fire injuring five women and three men.[154]
Shortly after midnight responding officers discovered two men wounded by gunfire. Another man and a woman were taken to the hospital in private vehicles.[155]
A mother killed her neighbor, and four children aged 12, 8, and 5-years-old and a 5-month-old infant, before committing suicide in a murder-suicide.[156]
Seven people including two juveniles were wounded in the Trinidad neighborhood of DC. Officers discovered the victims after hearing gunshots in the early morning.[157]
A man shot and killed an individual and wounded an officer, responding officers killed the suspect and three officers were wounded after a short manhunt.[160]
Early in the morning ShotSpotter alerts caused officers to respond to a graduation party. One 18-year-old was killed and with three others wounded.[161]
Just before midnight, a shootout occurred in an apartment complex in the Northern Liberties neighborhood. Six people were wounded and a man was found dead behind some cars near the complex.[164]
A home was shot at first then after police investigated the shooters return and opened fire. Four people were injured in the second shooting including an 18-month-old infant.[165]
Officers responding to a shots fired call discovered four wounded victims. One victim later died at the hospital and the other three are uncooperative with investigators.[168]
Six people between 15 and 21-years-old were wounded in the early morning during an social gathering. A seventh individual broke her leg running from the gunfire.[171]
Three teenagers and two adults aged between 18 and 20-years-old were wounded at a local beach. Officials do not think there is a connection between it and the protests that occurred that night.[177]
Five individuals were wounded in a shooting, including a 10-year-old boy. All victims left the scene for the hospital via private vehicles, while police were called to the scene.[189]
A 17-year-old shooter and others engaged in a shootout at a graduation party, three 15-year-olds, a 16-year-old, and a 17-year-old were all injured along with the shooter.[202]
Five men were wounded outside a Jamaican restaurant in the early morning. All were brought to the hospital by private vehicles and have refused to cooperate with police.[214]
A man shot and killed his pregnant ex-girlfriend and wounded her sister, mother, and boyfriend before committing suicide after being surrounding by police.[217]
Three people were wounded when an individual opened fire at a party that was hosted at a short term rental. A fourth wounded individual was walking her dog near the home.[220]
A mother and her 15 and 12-year-old daughters were shot and killed by her husband who wounded another daughter before killing himself in a murder-suicide. Another daughter was uninjured and ran for help.[222]
Five people were killed in a home, aged between 14 and 41, with a child being uninjured in the violence. Police are treating the incident as a matter of family violence.[241]
Seven people were discovered wounded after police responded to an aggravated assault call. The individuals were wounded in a drive-by shooting after heading to an early morning party.[245]
Three people were killed and one injured in an apartment by two shooters. Due to the lack of forced entry the victims may have known the shooters.[248]
One man was killed and four others injured after multiple individuals opened fire on a backyard gathering before fleeing in a car and continuing to fire.[250]
Police were alerted of shots fired shortly after midnight and arrived to find the suspect had fled and the four wounded had transported themselves to the hospital.[254]
One man and three women were injured after an altercation escalated. A male shooter escaped the scene and a female was arrested for pointing a weapon at one of the wounded.[255]
Police responding to a call of shots fired found one person wounded and an additional three connected to the shooting were found in local hospitals.[256]
One man was killed and three other individuals wounded, including a 5-year-old, after an individual exited an alley way and opened fire on the group. One of the group likely returned fire at the shooter.[258]
One man was killed and four other individuals were wounded in a drive-by shooting in which people standing outside a house and sitting in a car were fired upon.[260]
A man shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend’s relatives before barricading himself with her and their 9-year-old child in the home. During the standoff an officer was wounded along with the ex-girlfriend, while the man was killed by police.[264]
A domestic argument escalated when a man shot and killed his child’s mother, step-father, and sister before abducting his two-year-old child. The shooter was arrested and the child recovered after an Amber Alert was issued.[266]
Five people were wounded at a late night memorial gathering after a man fired into the crowd from half-a-block away. The wounded included a two-year-old, a fourteen-year-old, and an eighteen-year-old.[267]
Four people were wounded in a late night shooting, with two of the wounded under the age of 18. One of the wounded was also showing signs of the COVID-19 virus.[268]
Four people in a car were wounded by shooter in the early morning. Three of the victims had transported themselves to hospitals prior to police arrival. The victim found by officers knew who had shot him, but refused to cooperate with police questions.[270]
Five people were shot by a man wearing all black and potentially a face mask and one individual died at the scene. One of the wounded is a three-year-old child.[274]
A shooter killed four people, including a police officer, and injured two others, including another police officer, before committing suicide at a gas station.[276]
Reportedly a group of young men burst into a home and started shooting early in the morning. They wounded a woman, a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl and killed an adult male.[279]
Police responding to a shooting discovered two 15-year-old boys killed and a third juvenile injured. A fourth wounded juvenile involved in the shooting was later identified at a medical center.[281]
Police responded to reports of a shooting and discovered three wounded individuals, one of whom later died. A fourth victim arrived at a hospital in a private vehicle.[282]
A 13-year-old boy was killed, five others were wounded; a 14-year-old boy and girl, two 12-year-old boys and a 19-year-old man were wounded. The group was shot at in a parking lot after an altercation while attending a Triple Threat Elite Dance event.[285]
Seventeen people were wounded and one killed after a shootout between multiple motorcycle clubs after a fight at one of the club’s headquarters caused many to be thrown out.[286]
Six men and a woman were injured in a drive-by shooting after leaving a house party after a fight broke out in the Greater Grand Crossingneighborhood.[288]
A shooting occurred at a convenience store in the Avalon Park neighborhood where four people were hurt and one person was killed. The four wounded victims were listed in serious-to-critical condition. It was reported that three people, including two men and a woman, exited a vehicle and started firing inside the store. They fled in a white vehicle after the arrival of police. [293]
Seven people were shot at a flea market where a dance event took place with adults and children. A suspect was arrested and charged with assault. None of the injured victims were critically wounded. [295]
Three people were killed and one person was injured in a shooting. A suspect turned himself in to local authorities and was charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. [296]
Two people were fatally shot and three others, including a police officer, were wounded in a shooting at an apartment complex. The suspect was among the dead. [297]
Four men were sent to a hospital after police said there were wounded in a shooting in the street. No information about the whereabouts of the shooter were known. [298]
A shooting occurred in the North Side of the city where four people were injured. Two of the victims were listed in critical condition while the two others were listed in stable condition. A suspect was apprehended and arrested by law enforcement. [300]
One person was killed and four others were injured in a drive-by shooting. The injured victims were transported to the hospital and two of them were listed in serious condition. [302]
Seven people were wounded when an unknown shooter opened fire at a street race after an argument escalated. All were brought to the hospital via private vehicles.[306]
One person was fatally shot and four others were wounded in a shooting. It was initially reported that three victims were injured but a fourth one was discovered later and refused medical treatment. The four victims suffered non life-threatening injuries. [308]
A heated argument turned violent between a man and a woman in front of a house which led to a shooting. Four people were injured as a result of the shooting and were each transported to a hospital. Three of them were listed in serious condition while the fourth was in stable condition. Two of the injured were charged afterwards.[309]
Three people were killed and two others were injured in a shooting at a club. The conditions of the injured are unknown. According to police, one of the victims was found dead inside a car. At least one suspect is in custody.[310]
A 29-year-old rap artist was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting in North Houston. The wounded victims’ conditions are unknown. The suspects are gang members according to the chief of police.[311]
One man was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting outside and inside a home in Waco. Two of the victims were transported to a hospital by ambulance and were listed in critical condition. The third victim self applied to the hospital but his condition was unknown. Police believe that the motive behind the shooting is the sale of illicit drugs gone wrong.[312]
Four people were fatally shot on the Northeast section of the city. The victims are three males and one female and their ages are unknown yet. No suspects have been identified or arrested.[313]
Three people were killed and another was injured in the towns of Machias and Jonesboro. A 63-year-old man has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in the case. [314]
Police responded to a street location where multiple shots were fired. They found four victims, aged 18-45 years old, with bullet wounds. Three of the victims were transported by helicopter to a hospital. It is unknown what their conditions are. Police are trying to locate any suspects in the shooting.[316]
A shooter shot and killed two members of a family and a friend of one of them inside a house. A third fled through a window uninjured and alerted the authorities. The shooter then committed suicide.[317]
One person was killed and four others were injured in a shooting incident that occurred in several locations. One of the injured is in critical condition while the other three are expected to recover. The shooting happened during a memorial gathering for a victim who previously passed away due to a traffic accident.[318]
A shooting occurred at an apartment complex where four teens were injured. All four victims, aged 15-17 years old, suffered non-life-threatening injuries according to first responders.[320]
Four teenagers were injured in a shooting on public streets. Three of the victims are listed in stable condition while the fourth is in critical condition. Police are interviewing witnesses for their investigation.[321]
Four family members were shot at a home. Three of the victims are dead and the fourth victim, a child, is wounded and is in serious condition. The suspect was apprehended and arrested by the police.[323]
Six people were injured by a shooting shortly after midnight, at a local restaurant. An additional three others were treated for non-gunfire related injuries.[325]
A man shot and killed his wife and three children, aged between eight months and four years old, along with the family dog. He then killed himself.[327]
Shooting of Haynie family: Four people were killed and one was injured after a teenager allegedly fired at his family at their house. He was charged with four counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted aggravated murder and five counts of illegal discharge of a firearm.[334]
Three children between 11 and 16 years old were injured along with two adults after two perpetrators fired into a barber shop in the East Garfield Parkneighborhood.[335]
Two people were killed and two injured in a random ambush style shooting. The perpetrator was arrested after arriving at his mother’s house covered in blood.[338]
An argument in a Downtown Cleveland night club’s VIP section led to three people being wounded and a fourth person was shot in the head in the back alley.[343]
A family of four, including nine-year-old twin boys, were shot and killed at their home after celebrating New Year’s Eve. A 16-year-old boy was seriously injured.[345]
The statistics columns for each month are updated after the month ends, in an effort to make sure the correct number of events, individuals affected, and descriptions are accurate. Thus, the number may be incomplete throughout the month until the last day of each month.
^ Jump up to:abcBjelopera, Jerome (March 18, 2013). “Public Mass Shootings in the United States”. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved December 6, 2019. There is no broadly agreed-to, specific conceptualization of this issue, so this report uses its own definition for public mass shootings.
This is a list of mass shootings in the United States that have occurred in 2019. Mass shootings are incidents involving multiple victims of firearm-related violence. The precise inclusion criteria are disputed, and there is no broadly accepted definition.[2][3]
Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that tracks shootings and their characteristics in the United States, defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people, excluding the perpetrator(s), are shot in one location at roughly the same time.[4] The Congressional Research Service narrows that definition, limiting it to “public mass shootings”, and defined by four or more victims killed. It excludes counting wounded survivors.[2]The Washington Post and Mother Jones use similar definitions, with the latter acknowledging that their definition “is a conservative measure of the problem”, as shootings with fewer fatalities occur.[5][6] The crowdsourced Mass Shooting Tracker project defines a mass shooting as “an incident where four or more people are shot in a single shooting spree. This may include the shooter themself, or police shootings of civilians around the shooter.”[7]
There were 434 mass shootings in 2019 that fit the inclusion criteria of this article. This averaged 1.19 mass shootings per day. In these shootings, 1,643 people were injured and 517 died, for a total of 2,160 victims.
There are many definitions of a mass shooting. Listed roughly from broad to specific:
Stanford University MSA Data Project: three or more persons shot in one incident, excluding the perpetrator(s), at one location, at roughly the same time. Excluded are shootings associated with organized crime, gangs or drug wars.[8]
Mass Shooting Tracker: four or more persons shot in one incident, at one location, at roughly the same time.[7]
Gun Violence Archive/Vox: four or more shot in one incident, excluding the perpetrators, at one location, at roughly the same time.[4][9]
Mother Jones: three or more shot and killed in one incident at a public place, excluding the perpetrators.[6]
The Washington Post: four or more shot and killed in one incident at a public place, excluding the perpetrators.[5]
ABC News/FBI: four or more shot and killed in one incident, excluding the perpetrators, at one location, at roughly the same time.[10]
Congressional Research Service: four or more shot and killed in one incident, excluding the perpetrators, at a public place, excluding gang-related killings and those done with a profit-motive.[2]
Only incidents considered mass shootings by at least two of the above sources are listed below.
Five people were wounded by gunfire outside a night club, with an additional three injured by the resulting building damage and chaos. The shooting occurred after an altercation escalated out onto the street.[17]
2019 Jersey City shooting: Four people were killed, including a police officer, and another three were injured in an ambush style shootout by a man and woman who were killed by police. The suspects were Black Hebrew Israelites members and targeted a kosher grocery store.[34]
Two men were killed and three injured at an apartment building. The incident was originally reported as a home invasion, although the account was not confirmed.[36]
2019 Miramar shootout: Four people are dead and one injured after a pair of men rob a jewelry store in Coral Gables, injuring the clerk, then carjack a UPS truck and lead police on a chase that ended in a shootout in Miramar that killed the UPS driver, a bystander, and the suspects.[39]
2019 New Orleans shooting: Ten people were shot in a densely populated area with heavy police presence at a time when tens of thousands of tourists were downtown for the Bayou Classic football game.[46]
Saugus High School shooting: A high school student shot five classmates, two fatally, before shooting himself; he died the next day in the hospital.[63]
An argument escalated and left one man injured and another dead. The shooter then engaged in a shootout with officers injuring two officers before being killed.[70]
Four people were killed and one injured after a neighbor entered their apartment and opened fire. The fifth victim died of her injuries later in hospital. [100]
A man killed his mother then drove to a gas station where he attempted to kidnap a clerk then killed a man and injured the clerk before robbing another gas station and committing suicide.[119]
Responding police officers discovered a car covered in gunshots, and discovered a deceased male and two men and a female injured. One of the injured men later died.[133]
Midland–Odessa shooting: Eight people were killed, including the perpetrator, and 25 were wounded when a gunman opened fire on police and civilians after fleeing from a traffic stop.[151]
Police responding to shots fired at a senior living complex discovered a wounded woman, and two males and a woman deceased. It is believed one of the deceased males was the shooter.[202]
A man killed four people, including his father and brother, and wounded two more at a total of four different crime scenes across the San Fernando Valley.[216][217]
After a dispute over fireworks, a man shot into a crowd and injured a 12-year-old child and a woman, then barricaded himself in his home. Police discovered him and a woman deceased in the home.[240]
Two people were killed and two were wounded in a shooting at an apartment complex. One of the victims later died at the hospital from their injuries.[269]
Police discovered three individuals wounded after responding to a shooting; an additional two were transported via personal vehicles to the hospital.[303]
2019 Virginia Beach shooting: A gunman killed 12 people and injured four others at a city public works building. The gunman died at the scene after being shot by police.[306][307]
A man shot three employees at a local plumbing company, killing one before exchanging gunfire with a sheriff’s deputy, also injuring him before committing suicide.[309]
A woman and three others, including a 4-year-old boy were wounded in what police presume was a targeted shooting. One of the victims later died from their injuries.[330]
Three people were killed and two were critically injured in a shooting at a home. One victim died of their injuries days later, taking the death toll to four.[333]
A person began shooting at an event that was originally reported to be a rap concert and subsequently described as a birthday party. Four people were injured by the gunfire, and a fifth person suffered a head injury after falling.[335]
A shooting was reported near Farragut Elementary School, where two men were discovered wounded, and an additional four were identified at the hospital.[337]
Investigators attempted to make contact with the suspect in relation to another crime, he then began to open fire, injuring three children and himself.[359]
A man killed his wife, two of his daughters, and another man, and injured two people who came to try to help one of the victims. All of the victims were shot, with the exception of one of his daughters who was killed by blunt force trauma.[371]
Police responded to a domestic dispute at a residence; upon arrival, the suspect fired shots at officers leading to a 12-hour hostage standoff. Four people were killed, and the suspect was taken into custody and later died.[419]
Aurora, Illinois shooting: A man opened fire in his workplace, killing five employees, and injuring five police officers and a civilian before being killed by police.[420]
After a fight broke out near a basketball court at a park, multiple people started shooting at each other. Two people were killed, and two were wounded.[421]
Two people were found with bullet wounds in front of a residence, and two more arrived at a hospital with gunshot injuries from the same shooting.[435]
A man killed two people and injured one inside a local bar, then drove away and broke into a home and killed the homeowner before killing himself.[438]
2019 Sebring shooting: At least five people were killed in a hostage incident and shooting at a bank. The suspect was taken into custody by police.[440]
A man was killed and five other people were injured in a shooting. The Mayor of Jacksonville described the shooting as gang-related, although this characterization has been disputed by the sister of the deceased man.[448]
An argument over a gun inside a local ice cream shop led to a shooting. One man was killed and four others, including the suspected shooter, were injured.[450]
An argument at the Torrance bowling alley escalated into a fight and three people were killed by gunshots, at least four others were wounded. A suspect who was out of prison on parole has been arrested.[455]
The statistics columns for each month are updated after the month ends, in an effort to make sure the correct number of events, individuals affected, and descriptions are accurate. Thus, the number may be incomplete throughout the month until the last day of each month.
According to data compiled by the Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University, the year 2019 saw the highest number of mass killings recorded to date: 211 killed in 41 incidents. Thirty-three of these mass killings, defined here as four or more people killed excluding the perpetrator, involved firearms.[460]
^ Jump up to:abcBjelopera, Jerome (March 18, 2013). “Public Mass Shootings in the United States”. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved December 6,2019. There is no broadly agreed-to, specific conceptualization of this issue, so this report uses its own definition for public mass shootings.
Unfortunately mass shootings have become so common in the U.S. here are my “gun” poems written over the last few years. A few have been published.
I hope and pray that our political leaders will do something to solve the problem. the NRA’s position seems to be more guns for everyone is the solution. They are so wrong. the widespread availability of super lethal weapons is the problem. You simply can’t kill on a mass level with knives, or hammers, you need a high powered weapon designed to kill as many people as possible in the shortest time possible and you need to be so deranged that you want to kill as many people as possible in the shortest time possible.
universal background checks would help, treating guns like we treat cars would help. red flag laws would help. Guns should be registered, and owners should have to buy liability insurance. the Federal government should spend time and money studying the causes and prevention of gun violence. Buying back assault weapons would be a good idea as well.
I do agree with the NRA on one point, we should prosecute people who use guns in the commission of a crime and enforce all existing laws.
The beginning of tyranny
If only the Jews had guns
The holocaust would not have happened
Jesus would want us all
to be armed with machine guns
To protect us against the evil doers
It is the Christian thing to do
To blow away evil doers
With heavy arms
In America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
We can’t do anything
At all
About the mass carnage
Unleashed by madmen with guns
Who walk among us
Searching for their next victims
Any restriction of the right
To bear arms
Is tyranny at its worst
The nanny state run amuck
Talking about gun control
After a tragic event Is
just not the appropriate time
We only need prayers
and meaningless thoughts
Universal background checks
Too onerous
Registering guns
Too burdensome
Researching gun violence
waste of tax payer money
banning military style assault weapons
restricts my right to blow away
Bambi the deer
with a M16
the NRA will keep talking
talking and talking
preventing anything
from being done
and we will have another
Mass shooting event
Before the day is out
So my plead
This day
To the NRA A
and their stoogies
Talk is cheap
Your comments
Are not helping
If you can’t
Be a part of the solution
Just stop talking
Please stop talking
And let the rest
Of us figure out
How to stop
The madness in the streets
And stop the carnage
So NRA
Please just stop talking Now
More Guns for Everyone in the World
The NRA has decided
That the best solution to global problem
Of rampant violence and crime everywhere
Is for the rest of the world
To become like the U.S.
Where anyone can buy a gun
As an armed society is a polite society’
And so the President is about to announce
A global campaign against gun control restrictions
As these restrictions are an undue burden
On the rights of the US arms manufactures
To sell their guns everywhere in the world
As everyone wants what we have to sell
The best weapons in the world
Instead of trying to limit the damage
That unrestricted gun sales
Have done to the U.S.
Our President, our great leader
Wants to sell more guns
Everywhere in the world
And there are eager buyers
Lining up around the world
Eager to buy the best guns
The world has ever seen
We want to export
The gun madness
That has infected our society
Leaving behind so many dead bodies
The dead were not consulted
For they remain dead
They do not vote
They have no voice
For the guns silenced
them for good
just as the guns intended
Just doing their gun thing after all
Humanity has evolved
From stones to arrows
To guns
To nuclear, biological weapons
And the U.S.
While proclaiming itself
A champion of Human Rights
Remains nothing but a country
Of gun runners
Merchants of death
And destruction
Trump Administration Advances Plan to Relax Gun-Export Rules
The Trump administration on Monday advanced a long-sought-after plan to relax export rules for American small arms, including semiautomatic rifles, handguns, and sniper rifles.
In a private briefing with members of Congress, State Department officials outlined a proposed rule change that would transfer oversight of gun exports to the Department of Commerce. The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register later this week, where it will be subject to public comment for 45 days. While it is unlikely, Congress could block the change using powers under the Congressional Review Act.
The shift, which was first proposed by the Obama administration in 2012, is championed by gunmakers who say it will make them more competitive in the international market. Critics argue an export policy that favors commercial interests could put the national security of the United States at risk or harm diplomatic efforts.
“Weakened Congressional oversight of international small arms and munitions sales is extremely hazardous to global security,” said Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in an emailed statement. “This decision is also politically tone-deaf as our nation reckons with a gun violence epidemic.”
A State Department spokesman said that the change would ease the regulatory burden on American gun makers and allow them to compete better globally.
Currently, the Department of State monitors exports of nearly all weapons through the U.S. Munitions List. Since 2002, the department has been required to notify Congress of overseas sales of firearms worth more than $1 million.
In 2016, the State Department alerted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to a proposed sale of more than 26,000 rifles to the Philippines. Cardin at the time objected to arming the regime of PhilippinePresident Rodrigo Duterte, who had inaugurated a wave of thousands of extrajudicial killings as part of a crackdown on drugs. The weapons deal was canceled as a result.
The proposed rule change would transfer control over the sale of small arms to the Commerce Control List, and Congress would no longer be notified of large purchases.
Some arms control experts say reduced oversight could provide criminals, terrorists, or hostile states an opportunity to purchase American weapons.
Under Department of Commerce weapon-export rules, “companies aren’t required to provide as much information about brokers or shipping” as they must under State Department supervision, said Colby Goodman, who examines American weapons exports as director of the Security Assistance Monitor program at the Center for International Policy in Washington. “The world of firearms exports is full of questionable, dubious characters.”
The rule change has been long in the making. It was first proposed in 2012 by the Obama administration, but abandoned shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. At the time, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security criticized the change because it could make it easier for transnational criminal organizations or terrorists to get American-made guns.
In September, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was interested in reviving the rule change to encourage more international arms sales. With the formal commencement of the public comment period, the preparation has become a policy reality.
In April, the Trump administration said it would now consider economic factors in addition to security when it comes to selling American weapons overseas.
The Trump administration has argued that the change would aid the domestic gun industry by cutting down on export regulation. American consumer sales of firearms have suffered since the 2016 election. After years of elevated sales in anticipation of possible new gun-control measures imposed by Democratic lawmakers, domestic demand subsided as Republicans took full control of the federal government.
– ALEX YABLON
Virgina Beach
In a night of horrific scumbagery violence
Rarely seen in this jaded age of ours
Gone in one hour
In a spasm of horrific scumbagery violence
In just a few short minutes
Nothing more than that
In just a few moments
All 12 victims were murdered
By a disgruntled employee
Every one he knew was shot
And killed for no reason
Caused by the demons
His soul was so infected
Murderous demonic voices
All in his head
Screaming kill them all kill them all
Screaming none stop violence in his head
All the time
Causing him to start shooting everyone he saw
Regardless of who they were or where they were
Everyone must die screamed the demonic voices in his head
No one can be left alive
Everyone must die
Virtually all must die in his internal video game
Everyone must die
Regardless of who they were or where they were
Again just another day
Gone horribly wrong
All across America
In every town
No where is safe anymore
Virgina Beach massacre
Virgina Beach massacre
Just another
Average night in America
An Active Shooter
scumbagery violence
Rarely seen
in this jaded wild world
Gone in one hour
In a spasm of horrific
scumbagery
In just a less than 30 short minutes
Nothing more than
In just a few short 30 moments
All the victims
were murdered while at their daily work
wrong place wrong time
act of a demotic deranged madman
voices screaming Kill
The voices scream death to all humans
All must be killed
The voices scream over and over
All must die now
Just another night in America
Home of the free
It’s a Gun Situation, Mr. President
Mr. President
You are wrong once again
You said that the tragic events in Texas
And Las Vegas were not “gun situations”
But rather were mental health problems
And that in Texas if there had been gun controls
Perhaps fewer people would have died
Mr. President
I know you a smart man
The smartest man in the world
According to you
So please contemplate this fact
According to the latest findings
It is a gun situation
In fact, the reason the U.S.
Has so many gun deaths
Is because we have so many guns
45% of the worlds guns in fact
And 33 percent of the world’s shooters
Are Americans killing other Americans
And most of them the majority of them
Are White People killing other people
Not Islamic terrorists
Most are in fact
Self-proclaimed Christians
So Mr. President
When will you come to your senses
And do what 90 percent of the public wants
Enact nation wide effective gun controls?
And tell the NRA
they can take their blood money elsewhere
When Mr. President
When will you act
When will you take charge
And become a President of the people
Instead of the President of the NRA?
I want to tell you something
The dead don’t want your prayers
The dead don’t care that you pray for them
They are dead after all
And you and your so-called Christians
Are to blame
You refuse to do anything
Anything at all to stop the carnage
In our streets
The U.S. is flooded with guns
And more are sold every day
Millions of people don’t have health coverage
Millions are barely surviving
And your answer
Our dear great compassionate Speaker
Your answer
Is Prayer works
Government action does not
You act as if the gun violence
Plaguing our country
Was like the weather
Beyond our control
So here’s my prayer for you
And your colleagues
When you die
I pray that God
Will send you
And your friends
Straight to hell
Where Satan and his demons
Will use you for target practice
That’s my prayer to you
And as you know
Prayer works
I don’t Get It
Mr. Speaker
I admit I don’t get it
How does prayer
Stop gun violence?
Prayer did not work in Texas.
26 people were murdered
while praying.
God if he exists
Obviously does not care
About the poor people
Who died in his church
Because a mad man
Got a gun
And no they were not praying
To be delivered from death
No one deserves to die like this
So my prayer to you
Is simply this
Get off your rear end
Rally the country
And do something
About gun violence
That’s a prayer
I hope works
Add House Speaker Paul Ryan to the list of Republicans offering only thoughts and prayers in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting in a Texas church, because taking meaningful action is always off the table with him and his party.
Speaking with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham last night, Ryan reiterated that the victims and their families need more prayers because “prayer works.”
Prayer doesn’t work.
26 people were murdered while praying. Even Christians ought to admit that prayer doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and their God will do whatever their God wants to do, even if it means letting people die in church because a domestic abuser got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.
Not that Ryan would ever say that.
Instead, he just blamed the “far secular Left” for not getting it.
Today I was inspired to write some poetical rants about Guns, and God. America s a strange country, especially to an atheist like me. I grew up in Berkeley, California in an atheist household so I just don’t get people like Michelle Bachman at all. And especially how she and her ilk are so convinced that God wanted Donald Trump, the most ungodly of all recent politicians to be president.
I also don’t get the NRA and their insistence especially on days like today that the solution to the mass carnage in our society is more guns for everyone. There is a sickness in our society that the gun violence is merely a symptom.
I don’t have any answers to any of this just lots of doubts and questions about why if there is a God and God is all knowing and loving he permits such acts of evil. This is one of many reasons I am not a Christian believer.
Can we please enact some sane gun control laws????
Before getting to my rants on Guns and God, I’d like to offer my thoughts on a sane gun law policy. If Australia could do it and New Zealand could why or why can’t we do it?
My proposal would be to require all gun owners to be licenses and insured just like we require for all drivers. If someone is involved in a fire arm offense they would be sent to prison for ten years. If someone is charged with domestic violence offenses they would be banned from owning a gun. There would be universal background checks of course as well and military assault weapon bans. And the CDC and others would conduct studies into how to prevent gun violence.
90 percent of the public support these positions. So why do we tolerate such nonsense anymore?
Any time the NRA makes an stupid statement like “Guns Don’t Kill people,” the public will simply say to the NRA -STFU and offer real solutions otherwise go to hell with your prayers for those shot by the guns you promote. Just STFU..
That’s it in a nutshell. If you disagree that is fine with me. It is still a free country after all.
Now to the rants!!!!
Another Day Another Shooting
another day in paradise
just another day in America
land of the free
Home of the brave
and guns
lots of guns
more guns for all
cries the NRA
yes another day
another gun battle
another white man
who just wants to kill
the President sends his condolences
Thanks the law enforcement
for an incredible job well done
It was horrible
Hate has no place
in our country
and we will take of it
and do what ever we can do
condolences
nothing but false words
empty words
lots of things to do
it is mental illness problem
but he fails to mention
the words gun at all
not at all
and tomorrow and tomorrow
but he at least finally said
hate has no role in country
nothing but prime BS
in my humble opinion
he did not mention
white supremacy
his rhetoric had nothing
nothing to do about this at all
and so tomorrow
I will turn on the TV
and we see
nothing at all
and the dead
will remain dead
the guns will fire again
nothing will be done
welcome to America
land of the free
home of the brave
Mr. President Words Matter
Mr President
Words matter
your words matter
your words of hate
your words of division
your words
calling fellow human beings
scum, vermit, flith
invaders, animals
matter
they matter a lot
and is it little wonder
that people listen
to the hate you sprew forth
and some deranged people
take action
on your call
for action
against the invaders
on the border
they march to the border
to kill the invaders
your words matter
Mr. President
and your false words
of regret
fool no one
the damage has been done
the hate has been spread
just as you intended
and you
have the gall
to call yourself
A Christian
you are the anti-Christ
you are not a Christian
so please quite pretending
to be what you are not
please man up
accept your responsibility
set things right
apologize
the dead though
don’t need your prayers
they need action
they need leadership
and you are the president
so please start acting
like you give a damn
and if you do so
perhaps
you will find
people will follow you
but please
quite the words
of hate
the words that hurt
and quit calling immigrants
invaders and vermin
they are human beings
they are deserving of respect
this I ask of you
In Jesus’s name
even though I am not a Christian
Chief of Staff
You are absurd
the President’s chief of staff
said the other day
it was absurd
to suggest that the president’s words
had anything to do
with recent mass shootings
yet is it absurd
to see the lengths
to which the President’s supporters
will twist and turn
spinning away
the inconvenient truth
President Trump
is a racist bigot con man
who somehow
conned his way
to become President
he calls immigrants
criminals, vermin, animals
invaders
infesting the country
the El Paseo shooter
said that he went to the border
to shoot the invaders
and said
that he was a big Trump fan
it is not absurd
to connect these two huge dots
the President’s words
has real-world consequences
Yes Mr. Trump is a racist pig
and his supporters
are being absurd
to suggest otherwise
Another Mass Shooting at Shopping Center
the Frank Zappa Song comes to mind
as I contemplate the shopping scene massacre
in El Paso
Sadly, just another day
in America these days
You leave your house
and enter a war zone
with people
who want to do you in
because the color of your skin
just does not agree with him
And the Texas attorney general
says that there is nothing they can do
to prevent these outbreaks of mass violence
just like the weather
almost as if these things
are like the proverbial acts
of God
but what kind of demented god
would permit these daily outages
these daily manifestations of evil?
what is wrong with this country
that we just accept
that there is nothing we can do
to stop the carnage in our streets?
as more trouble comes every day
Is there really nothing more to be done
than to pray
to a non-existent man in the sky?
from relief
from these trouble
coming every day
every day
the same old story
a man with a gun
who shoots up a school
a church a mosque
a shopping mall
a place of work
and why
why are they so consumed
with hatred
for their fellow humans
that they can do this
just start shooting people
for no reason
just pull evil
came to town
that day
is there a god
that we can pray to
for relief from such evil?
or has Satan
come to rule
us ?
a thousand year of tribulation
is this the beginning
of the end of days?
I have no answers at all
other than that tomorrow
will be another day
of carnage
another day of evil
and there is no way
to delay
that trouble coming every day
It’s a Gun Situation, Mr. President
Mr. President
You are wrong once again
You said that the tragic events in Texas
And Las Vegas were not “gun situations”
But rather were mental health problems
And that in Texas if there had been gun controls
Perhaps fewer people would have died
Mr. President
I know you a smart man
The smartest man in the world
According to you
So please contemplate this fact
According to the latest findings
It is a gun situation
In fact, the reason the U.S.
Has so many gun deaths
Is because we have so many guns
45% of the worlds guns in fact
And 33 percent of the world’s shooters
Are Americans killing other Americans
And most of them
Are White People
killing other white people
Not Islamic terrorists
Most are in fact
Self-proclaimed Christians
Many of whom
support you
Like the killer
In El Paso
Texas
who says
he is a big fan
So Mr. President
When will you come
to your senses
And do what
90 percent of the public wants
Enact nationwide effective gun controls?
And tell the NRA
they can take their blood money elsewhere
When Mr. President
When will you act
When will you take charge
And become a President of the people
Instead of the President of the NRA?
I want to tell you something
The dead don’t want your prayers
The dead don’t care
that you pray for them
They are dead after all
and yes Guns killed them
shot them dead
And you
and your so-called Christians
Are to blame
You refuse to do anything
Anything at all to stop the carnage
In our streets
The U.S. is flooded with guns
And more are sold every day
Millions of people don’t have health coverage
Millions are barely surviving
And your answer
Our dear great compassionate Speaker
Your answer
Is Prayer works
Government action does not
You act as if the gun violence
Plaguing our country
Was like the weather
Beyond our control
So here’s my prayer for you
And your colleagues
When you die
I pray that God
Will send you
And your friends
Straight to hell
Where Satan and his demons
Will use you for target practice
That’s my prayer to you
And as you know
Prayer works
I don’t Get It
Mr. Speaker
I admit I don’t get it
How does prayer
Stop gun violence?
Prayer did not work in Texas.
26 people were murdered while praying.
God if he exists
Obviously does not care
About the poor people
Who died in his church
Because a mad man
Got a gun
And no they were not praying
To be delivered from death
No one deserves to die like this
So my prayer to you
Is simply this
Get off your rear end
Rally the country
And do something
About gun violence
That’s a prayer
I hope works
Add House Speaker Paul Ryan to the list of Republicans offering only thoughts and prayers in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting in a Texas church, because taking meaningful action is always off the table with him and his party.
Speaking with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham last night, Ryan reiterated that the victims and their families need more prayers because “prayer works.”
Prayer doesn’t work.
26 people were murdered while praying. Even Christians ought to admit that prayer doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and their God will do whatever their God wants to do, even if it means letting people die in church because a domestic abuser got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.
Not that Ryan would ever say that.
Instead, he just blamed the “far secular Left” for not getting it.
You say that you are a Christian
Yet you have the gall
to say that the proper response
To the evil acts
of the deranged gun man
Who shot up a church
Is to work closer with God
And that evil people
will find ways
To commit evil acts
And that there is
nothing the government
Can do to stop this madness
It is the price of our freedom
Why can’t you wake up
And see that you can lead
The way out of this madness?
Thousands of people die
Each year from guns in this country
Turning everyone into prisoners
Into their own homes
Afraid to walk outside
For fear that a nut job
With a gun
Will blow them away
In Church, at the store
In traffic
at the neighborhood Walmart
And you and your NRA buddies
Think the answer
Is to arm everyone to the teeth
And I wonder how Jesus
Would react to how
You have so misunderstood his message?
You Sir are not a Christian
And you Sir are going to not like
What God has to say to you
On Judgement day
We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people, or other terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.