After Columbine, after Virginia Tech, after Fort Hood, after Tuscon, after Aurora, after Sandy Hook, after San Bernadino, and now, after two horrifying shootings over the weekend in Orlando, I have finally learned the words I need to say.
I started writing this song after the massacre in San Bernadino last December, but I couldn’t really figure out how to finish it. The second verse came to me with startling clarity in April, on a day when gun violence had temporarily receded from the front pages. The performance here is the first time I sang the song in public, at SubCulture on April 23.
A Song About Your Gun
Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
April 18, 2016
Who’s gonna sing a song about your gun?
Who’s gonna sing a song about the way you feel protected
When you hold it in your arms when day is done?
Who’s gonna sing that song, sir?
Who’s gonna sing a song about your gun?
Who’s gonna tell the world that you feel grounded and connected
When you wrap your hands around your Remington?
Who’s gonna sing a song about your gun?
All those people at the rodeos and ranges
Putting Freedom First and nothing else above –
Surely one of them could play a couple changes
And then write a verse in praise of what you love.
Someone’s gotta think it would be fun
To sing a little song about your gun, sir.
I can’t sing a song about your gun.
I’ve got twenty-seven other jobs that I’ve neglected,
And in fact, right now I kinda gotta run,
So I can’t sing a song about your gun.
See, I’m too busy singing songs about my daughters
And the news I have to hide from them today.
I’m too tired from reading stories about slaughters
In some little town a half an hour away
By some kid who looks a little like your son,
So I can’t sing a song about your gun, sir.
I’m not interested in your justifications
Or the patriotic sermons that you preached.
Pardon me, sir, but I ran right out of patience
Sitting waiting for consensus to be reached.
So honestly, the odds are one-to-one
That I don’t give a shit about your gun, sir.
Who’s gonna sing a song about your gun?
Who’s gonna tell the world you’ve been maligned and disrespected
And you’re never understood by anyone
Who wouldn’t sing a song about your gun?
Copyright 2016 Jason Robert Brown
All rights reserved.