Bringing Down Goliath

The news crests in waves

its burden grows,

its burgeoning weight unfolds

as the story is told

 — again and again.

New, yet old, we’ve been here before…

the victims, the heroes, the rescues…

and the underlying, the incident defining,

the never-ending question—

        “Why?”

What is the common thread

that weaves through these events?

Columbine, Aurora, Sandy Hook, 

Virginia Tech, Miami, Las Vegas, Parkland...

“Guns don’t kill people, people do.”

“If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns”

Did our forefathers foresee automatic weaponry

when they constitutional-ized the right

to “Keep and bear arms?”

How many innocents must be lost?

How many children must die?

How many husbands, wives, fathers, mothers,

brothers, sisters, friends, loved ones?

If now is NOT the time to address this, then when?

Tired of the “bought and paid for’s“

sweeping it under the rug.

This isn’t about the rights of the hunters

to keep their rifles—though the NRA

will make surely make it seem that way.

It is about the ease at which anyone

with money and an i.d. can by a gun.

It is about how one person can amass

an arsenal, an armory, and go on a shooting spree—

while there is no accountability,

no central data base, no red flag  

to track the would-be crazies.

“The people have rights.”

What about the rights of all citizens

to go to school, to go to church,
to go out for an evening,

without fear of never returning home again?

Accountability starts with us—

 you and me— speaking out.

If enough Davids take on Goliath

he will fall,

and maybe, just maybe, mass shootings

will cease to be so commonplace,

maybe, just maybe, we can feel safe again,

and maybe, just maybe,  we won’t have to hear the words

“the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history”

   … again.

© Ginny Brannan 

Image: Bierberg, conceptart.org

Full credit to Bierberg who conceptualized the perfect image of a modern day Goliath. Link with image, above.