For the Children of Sandy Hook

I live in a great, wide open land

At the other end of the earth,

But the TV News and the Devil’s views

Are beamed to my own home hearth,

And often I think to turn my head

As the joy of life’s undone,

Back in that great democracy

At the point of a loaded gun.

 

We learnt our lesson and banned all weapons

When we took time to choose,

After a madman ran amok,

So why don’t you do it too?

For now the parents are bent in grief

For their lost young daughters and sons,

I couldn’t do anything else but weep,

Please God, get rid of the guns!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Van]

hah... I really doubt that the world can get rid of all its firearms now that they've become so entrenched in human society... still, one can hope. The children deserve a better world.

On a different note:
As always, I love the way your rhymes flow. Thank you for sharing this piece! :)

[Richard Morimanno]

nicely written and all condolences to those families..

i would agree. if God would be able to get rid of the very existance of guns.. but if the government "outlaws" guns then we would have no protection from criminals or anything.. seeing as how they ALREADY own them illegally.. what is going to stop them from continueing to own them? nothing...... but this is a very nice poem =) 100/100

[Tate Morgan]

They have no protection from them on Australia and they just keep living happy lives without them by the millions. This attack was the 7th mass murder this year alone involving the death of over 4 people.

[EmpressPoetess]

Very creative and so touching, really. You Know I love your talented hand. But, it's not the guns themselves, it's the people who own them, We need Go's to teach people to have higher moral standards: If we all at least _TRIED to adhere to God's standards, LISTEN to His counsel and heed His warnings, these things wouldn't happen. Who else can teach society to cherish all life and respect all creation as belonging to a Higher power??....ISAIAH 48:18. The scriptures are not just for Christians, and they are not just for reading, they are for us all, to apply in our everyday lives. Proverbs !:1-33

[michael.c.m]

A nice piece, David. So sad.

[Lena M. P.]

Having a son and daughter-in-law who are both teachers and 3 grandchildren, the loss in Connecticut hit me hard and still has me reeling. Thank you for your heartfelt poem to all those who lost so much.

[Baby Ricochet]

Ever been to a gun show Paget? I have. Several of them in fact. Ohyou meet the most interesting people at gun shows. See here's the thing with banning guns in the USA. Politically and culturally we tend to lean to the left here. An attempt to ban guns is going to be seen as some sort of alqida terrorist communist homosexual liberal satanic antiamerican attack on the very foundation of the constitution that made this nation great by half the population with quite a number of them being heavily armed with an impressive military history and would know how to launch an insurgency against whoever had the task of rounding all the weapons up. That's the first thing. The idea of handling such a task by military forces would be ordering many young men and women, many who came from very backgrounds that would cherish the right to bear arms enough to fight for it, to turn against their own kind. I was in the us military Paget and do you know what would happen? We'd mutany and overthrow the government. That's what would happen. Because if they want to take away American right to bear arms next is freedom of a free press and we Americans know that because we live here. This his is America, not Australia. Our culture and values aren't the same. Your a fine poet Paget but personally I couldn't care less what your options are about gun control or the country loved enough to serve in the united states Marine corps. A corps that would defend its own people over a regressive government so stick to your poetic story's old man.

[Baby Ricochet]

Sorry about all the typeos. Goddamn smartphone.

[Baby Ricochet]

Having reread this i believe there's a few errors. Insurgency is the wrong word. Armed populist uprising would be a more appropriate term. Seriously paget, If you got any ideas on how to get weapons away from people that don't want to give them to you i think I speak for every American on this Site when I post we would love to know about it. If you do know why did you keep it a secret when we were up to our asses with pissed off heavy armed young Arabs in Iraq. We could have used that information.

[Marie]

Easy does it Baby Richochet. David is not going to come over here and take away your guns, and if he trys it I'll stop him myself.

[David Lewis Paget]

No Marie, I'm sure you'll all push your own self-destruct buttons without any input from me.

[Baby Ricochet]

I'm just pointing out a few real life practicalities about gun control and America like how or who is going to get all those weapons without the situation degenerating into an urban guerrilla war that would destroy the country. Never mind what your personal view is one way or another. People don't think about the practicalities behind they're statements sometimes

[Marie]

I entirely agree with you. Especially because I live in Texas. But we should all play nice.

[Baby Ricochet]

See paget that's not a logical argument. That's just a statement to make you seem righteous and anyone who disagrees with you some kind Rube. I'd like to think you're smarter than than that. So tell me your plan on how to get weapons from people who don't want to hand them over without killing them. I would love to know.

[David Lewis Paget]

Well, it was managed pretty well in Australia 12 years ago when the law was changed after the Port Arthur massacre. About 70,000 weapons were handed in to local police stations, and the owners were reimbursed by the government for the value of the guns. Most people are law abiding, and although there was a bit of bitching and moaning, there was no insurrection, no violence. Unless you're all suffering from galloping paranoia, I don't think Americans are all that different to Australians, deep down.

[David Lewis Paget]

(PS - That should have read 700,000 weapons).

[Lena M. P.]

Sorry you too but David has a right to his opinions also. Remember that is what makes USA great. You said so yourself. I too am from Texas and I know how much Texans love their guns. I personally don't disagree with having guns, I just feel there are certain types of guns that need special licenses to own and these persons should be included on our watch lists. You do not need an AK47 to hunt deer. But my point here is get off his back and realize he has his rights to his opinions just like you do. We all have the RIGHT to WRITE.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you for your come back paget. That's great a gun buy back program worked well in Australia. That speaks well of the Australian people. Gun by backs have been tried here in some crime ridden cities. While they did collect a lot of weapons unfortunately it did little to curb violent crime because the people committing all the crime got better guns with the money they got from the gun by back or kept there own. That's a supply and demand issue. Australia doesn't have any boarders for weapons to flow over like the us does. Our government has failed miserably at keeping drugs out of the country and it would surely fail just as miserably keeping weapons out. I do agree with you about Australians and Americans being no different deep down. Deep down all people have the same drives and motivations. Maybe if we thought about that more we Wouldn't hurt each other so much. The right to bear arms is so deeply ingrained into the collective American psyche for any political figure to even so much suggest it would be suicide for his career. This nation is one of the biggest producers of fire arms in the world. For better or worse its just a fact. Firearms and America are forever joined at the hip. Do I think the world would be better with out fire arms? It's tempting to say yes but we might as well be wishing for unicorns

[Baby Ricochet]

I never said paget didn't have a right to his opinions. We're just having a friendly argument. It's not a real argument if there isn't some growling and he did have a good reply eventually.

[Baby Ricochet]

I say eventually because he's not much on commentating. Presumably he has better things to do. Like write really good poetry which he does brilliantly.

[Tate Morgan]

I will; tell you this on Daves behalf he is a great man He like you and I wants to see this end.He sees so much less violence in Australia since they threw down their guns There has to be a answer because it worsens every year This is the 7th mass murder this yr in the states.of 4 or more people.This has to stop uor nature is becoming too violent to control The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step One must see the difference between the idea of war and that of a lone gunman slaughtering children all 6 and 7 my god the youngest shot 11 times Ric you would have dished out justice had this hapopened over seas we need something to be done these were someone s babies hopes and dreams

[Baby Ricochet]

Do you know what people do when you want them to hand over their weapons and they don't want to? They fire them at you. I'm a pragmatic kind of a guy so if You got any realistic ideas on how to get fire arms away from, say, tea baggers or the NRA i would love to know them.

Sorry to poke my nose into this , but I just wanted to say something .

I am deefly affected by the Sandy Hook incident and I am very sad about what happened .
Now personally, I do not have anything against guns .. in fact , few years back I even used to like them a lot but what is wrong here is sick people who mistakes bullets as pills for their ailment . Now if they do think so , they should be filling themselves up with lead instead of putting it in others and destroying lives .

[Marie]

Speaking to Baby Ricochet's question: you shoot them.

[Eve]

I love this poem, but I have to say imho, that if we put a ban on guns, then the only people with guns will be the bad guys, and the Popo can not be everywhere at the same time at all times to protect us. The bad guys will still find a way to get them, just like drugs.

[bob, small b. aka invs]

lest we think this insanity is an American phenomenon, in china there have been a whole series of attacks on schools and school children. in fact within one day of the shooting in sandy hook, there was an attack in leizhou china that left 15 children and a teacher injured. you'll notice I said injured. the difference between the attacks there and here? when people go berserk in china, they attack with knives. the results can still be deadly (as many as 7 or 8 have been killed in the worst of these attacks). but that's a far cry from 20 shot multiple times by automatic weapons. the gun lobby will often say that if a person is bent on attacking someone, they will find a way to do so, be it gun or knife or bare hands. that may be true, but guns just make it sooooo much more effective and deadly.

[patricia]

I totaly agree David. It was a shock to watch the news and learn of this. Like Obahma said...this has happened too many times!

Glad you are voicing your opinion...standing up to be counted and sharing like this gives others a platform to voice theirs too.

Bye for now.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

David this very salient poem made me go cold with fear and rage. You have it so, so right!!!

[Tate Morgan]

Here hear i second that motion.What is wrong with people are you all so afraid you wont have a warm gun to sleep with lol ?