More schoolchildren killed; do we value guns more
Than lives of our children? (A thought to abhor.)
The data are clear; more guns mean that more die. (1)
Restrictions are spotty; and not all comply.

The courts say “the people” may keep and bear arms.
Will our schools be safer if we arm schoolmarms? (2)
The Second Amendment grants rights to each state
To have a militia; arms proliferate.

“The people” should read as a collective noun,
Like “We the People,” not a king with his crown. (3)
It seems we’ve misread and mismanaged this right.
Just too many guns; when will we see the light?

Do we value guns more than our children’s lives?
It seems that we do, if so, what motive drives
Protection of gun rights above everything?
They have holy status within our Right Wing.

We’ve proven that guns don’t make our country safe.
Instead, our nuts use them more often to strafe
Our classrooms and shoppers and crowds every year,
Assault rifles are not used for hunting deer.

So, is there a chance that we’ll wake up, at last,
Admit that, through history, as time has passed,
We’ve learned that our guns threaten both life and limb?
Our chances for rational action are slim.

So, deaths will go on, forty thousand per year, (4)
Republican’s quiet indifference is clear. (5)
The gods of the firearm demand sacrifice,
Just like Moloch of old, our children, the price. (6)

(1) David Hemenway, Am. J. Lifestyle Med. 2011: 5(6), 502-511
(2) National Education Association report on suggestions by right wing politicians, April 2019
(3) The first three words in the Preamble to the Constitution.
(4) There have been over 40,000 gun deaths per year since 2020.
(5) JD Vance, said that school shootings were a fact of life in a speech in Phoenix, AZ, September 5, 2024
(6) Moloch was a Canaanite god mentioned in Leviticus, 1st and 2nd Kings, and Jeremiah, who demanded child sacrifice.