{"id":1110,"date":"2013-10-05T14:31:33","date_gmt":"2013-10-05T19:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2013-10-05T14:32:23","modified_gmt":"2013-10-05T19:32:23","slug":"poem-smoking-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/05\/poem-smoking-guns\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Smoking Guns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smoking Guns<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Gun control is their aim<\/span>
\nBringing a bout<\/span>
\nSad states<\/span>
\nAnd a stag nation<\/span>
\nWear points are sported<\/span>
\nBig bucks are the game<\/span>
\nTriggering depression<\/span>
\nBeyond one’s cope<\/span>
\nLooking down<\/span>
\nThe business end<\/span>
\nOf a gun shaking<\/span>
\nAs one’s head<\/span>
\nWorse than beating<\/span>
\nAgainst the wall<\/span>
\nSteadied boots<\/span>
\nQuaking again<\/span>
\nMourning posthumous convictions<\/span>
\nOf scofflaw abiding citizens<\/span>
\nAccost paid<\/span>
\nWrapped in flags<\/span>
\nUntil free at last<\/span>
\nLike taking life<\/span>
\nMost like one own<\/span>
\nOr another<\/span>
\nLike black male<\/span>
\nAgainst one’s will<\/span>
\nNo more amendments seconded<\/span>
\nIn this ultimate bill of rites<\/span>
\nPain in full<\/span>
\nCoffin at the price<\/span>
\nHigh as a kite<\/span>
\nAnd nonnegotiable \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>
\nHostage too smoking<\/span>
\nGuns unlocked<\/span>
\nAnd loaded<\/span>
\nStill packing<\/span>
\nIn their sleep<\/span>
\nDreams of night stands<\/span>
\nAnd steel pillows<\/span>
\nLeaving red necks<\/span>
\nAnd faces<\/span>
\nLike a smothers love<\/span>
\nTaking homicides<\/span>
\nAs common ground<\/span>
\nAll the wile<\/span>
\nShooting off their mouths<\/span>
\nMaking impossible Glock suckers<\/span>
\nDeceasing and desisting<\/span>
\nThe Man<\/span>
\nBehind the curtain<\/span>
\nFiring the lynch pin<\/span>
\nFor all times<\/span>
\nAs smoking guns<\/span>
\nDon’t prove anything<\/span>
\nSo says anyone with half a brain<\/span><\/p>\n

The title of this poem, “Smoking Guns,” is at least a triple pun.\u00a0 The first meaning, most literal, is a gun just fired.\u00a0 The second meaning refers to a quest for direct evidence of something (like a gun being fired!).\u00a0 The third meaning is a bit more nuanced and fleshed out in the poem: literally smoking a gun by holding it in one’s mouth and committing suicide by firing it and blowing one’s brains out.\u00a0 While this may seem more crude than nuanced, it is referencing an oft overlooked reality about guns and public health and safety: guns kill more Americans by suicide than murder.\u00a0 The bizarre notion that guns offer some great protection in a dangerous world is negated by the frightening reality that someone possessing a gun is more likely to shoot and kill themselves, then kill another.\u00a0 Now, this may be some bizarre karmic feedback to those with guns, but it can’t get much stranger — another loaded pun!\u00a0 If someone possessing a gun manages not to kill themselves, they are far more likely to mistakenly kill a family member than a truly threatening stranger.\u00a0 Of course, this leapfrogs over the tragic reality of purely unintentional deaths from accidental discharges, most often of a gun owner’s family members or friends!\u00a0 Only when guns are outlawed will outlaws accidentally shoot their kids!\u00a0 So much for protection.<\/p>\n

The reality is guns are lethal consumer products that have escaped safe, commonsense regulation — unparalleled by any other consumer product with such inherent lethality.\u00a0 Guns and suicide are the perfect example of this public health problem.\u00a0 Guns are a very effective means of killing oneself that doesn’t take any special knowledge or training.\u00a0 Very few people “fail” when trying to kill themselves with a gun.\u00a0 Combined with the nature of suicide attempts, guns become particularly lethal.\u00a0 Firearms are involved in over half of all suicides<\/a>.\u00a0 Most suicide attempts are by people depressed or distressed who experience an acute episode of severe suicidal thoughts.\u00a0 These episodes are most frequently minutes or hours.\u00a0 Without easy access to lethal means, most suicidal episodes are survived.\u00a0 The choice of suicide methods is key. Moderating easy access to firearms is the most effective means of reducing suicides.\u00a0 For example, compared to men, women are about three times more likely to experience depression, twice as likely to attempt suicide, yet only about a fourth as likely to “successfully” complete suicide.\u00a0 This is largely related to the suicidal methods chosen.\u00a0 Simply put, women use guns much less frequently in suicide attempts.\u00a0 Women are only about a third as likely as men to own a gun, and are less likely to live in households with guns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The main alternative approach to preventing suicides is having an excellent mental health system.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this approach is at least as complex, and perhaps similarly intractable, as altering easy gun access.\u00a0 Plus, building and maintaining an excellent mental health system is surely more financially expensive and less cost-effective than sensible regulation of firearms.\u00a0 Of course, pursuing both would have definite payoffs, reducing suicide and much more!<\/p>\n

Having worked in public health for many years, I see the parallels in the battles to bring both tobacco use and guns into a reasonable place in protecting the publics health.\u00a0 Frankly, I see gun right’s nuts as even crazier than tobacco company executives lining up in front of congress and saying that they don’t believe that nicotine is addictive.\u00a0 It’s difficult to think of another area of public policy and public health where the political and societal realities are so divorced from science and reason.\u00a0 May we escape the ideological traps that threaten the public’s health and well-being.\u00a0 After all, guns don’t die, people do!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smoking Guns Gun control is their aim Bringing a bout Sad states And a stag nation Wear points are sported Big bucks are the game Triggering depression Beyond one’s cope Looking down The business end Of a gun shaking As … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,9,15],"tags":[512,675,196,341,105,385,307,393,428,589,451,450,63,157,359,273,486,452,509,454,379,17,43,601,390,394,186,453,287],"class_list":["post-1110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-business","tag-citizens","tag-congress","tag-control","tag-crude","tag-death","tag-depression","tag-dreams","tag-experience","tag-family","tag-firearms","tag-guns","tag-kids","tag-law","tag-life","tag-love","tag-meaning","tag-mental-health","tag-mourning","tag-murder","tag-nature","tag-political","tag-public-health","tag-reality","tag-science","tag-sleep","tag-state","tag-suicide","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: Smoking Guns | Health, Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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