The recent shooting rampage in Arizona has me tuned in more than most current events stories tend to do. The fact that the 9-year-old granddaughter (same age as my youngest boy) of one of the most iconic figures in Philadelphia Phillies history, 1980 World Series manager Dallas Green, was shot and killed by this sick, young man especially brought the story home for me, but I’d already found too much troubling regarding our lax handgun laws and stores like Walmart, which are cool selling ammunition for semi-automatic handguns but won’t sell Eminem CDs with the dirty bits left in, not to mention those who choose to use handguns for reasons other than official police and military business.
My goal with this potentially inflammatory Last Man Standing is not to get on my soapbox and pound my fist over my particular opinions on gun laws and usage but to share songs and lyrics—from any angle of this debate—that might at least help someone think about these issues. Likewise, this is not the space to get on your soapbox and pound your fist. I am confident we can let the songs do the talking and let the tunes carry whatever messages they may for any of us as we eventually mount our particular soapboxes in venues that encourage such activities. There’s room for the full spectrum of views on these issues, but I also encourage you to stick to songs that resonate on some meaningful level. Resist, if at all possible, being a wiseass and simply posting songs and song lyrics that justify gun laws based on the need to rid the world of Don Henley, you know what I mean?
I’ll start with Neil Young’s impressionistic “Powderfinger.” I’m never sure exactly what’s going on in this song, but this verse in particular gives me a sense of what it might feel like to shoot a gun for the first time.
Daddy’s rifle in my hand
felt reassurin’
He told me,
Red means run, son,
numbers add up to nothin’
But when the first shot
hit the docks I saw it comin’
Raised my rifle to my eye
Never stopped to wonder why.
Then I saw black,
And my face splashed in the sky.
