Kim Ports Parsons: I Can’t Write a Poem with a Gun
a fox steps lightly into the yard,
and shakes off the dew from the meadow,
and cocks her head, nose quivering
Matthew J. Parker: The Era of Idiocy
I did over a decade in jails and prisons because a squad of Pence-like puritans felt it immoral of me to get high on anything other than the drooling drunkenness of alcohol, an endeavor not only baldly hypocritical but so too borderline absurd; a worldwide farce manifesting in the militarization of both the cartels and the police, all of which, of course, was and is more great news for arms dealers.
Nancy Krygowski: “Here’s a Partial List of Mass Shootings in the United States So Far This Year”
Here’s the full list of the people the murdered have kissed.
Here’s a pair of slippers made of birds’ beaks, ear plugs made of screams.
Matthew J. Parker: MMPI-5
It’s obvious to all (or damn well should be) that the background checks designed to prevent criminals and/or deeply disturbed individuals from purchasing weapons are pathetically deficient.
Derrick Z. Jackson: Scientists and Public Health Professionals Are Mobilizing Against Gun Violence
A report this spring by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health University said the nation has lost 1,357,000 victims to firearms in the last 40 years. That exceeds the number of soldiers killed in all the wars in which the United States has fought.
Andrea Germanos: 4th Grader Who Survived Uvalde Massacre Testifies How Shooter Told Teacher ‘Good Night’ Before Killing Her
Asked if she thought such a shooting was going to happen again at her school, Miah Cerrillo quietly nodded her head.
Ellen McGrath Smith: An American Dream
I dreamed I bought a gun. At a Rite-Aid.
It was heavy, brightly colored, a girl-gun.
Baron Wormser: The Mythos of the Gun 
Beneath the easy-going, have-a-nice day American exterior is some serious anti-social feeling that does not wish anyone who is somehow different a nice day, that wishes them a bad day, a you-shouldn’t-exist day, an I-would-kill-you-if-I-could day.
Abby Zimet: Small Bodies Drop
The U.S. has 4% of the world’s population, and 46% of its guns; its gun violence is soaring, with over 45,000 dead in shootings in 2020, an increase of 35%; gun violence is now the leading cause of death among young people; there have been two dozen school shootings so far this year.
Lisa Arrastia: Letter to My Student Teachers on a Day of Yet Another School Mass Shooting in America
While some will call for greater discipline, more resource officers, and paying for “threat assessments,” I will call for love and uplift you, the teachers in public pre-k-12 schools.
Abby Zimet: So The Whole World Will Listen To Joaquin
On the fourth anniversary of his son’s murder, Manuel climbed a 150-foot crane in the early, gusty morning – “A father’s job never ends” – so “the whole world will listen to Joaquin today.”
Abby Zimet: These Are Not the Best of Times
On the vital, longtime, increasingly bonkers battleground of culture wars that are our schools and our kids and what they can learn, it keeps getting worse. A new report finds … Continue reading
Abby Zimet: Teach Your Children Well
Four days before the massacre, they bought their 15-year-old son Ethan an early (and, as a minor, illegal) Christmas present: a 9mm Sig Sauer handgun.
Michael Simms: Tree of Life
God, like a lazy cop,
Never seems to be around
When you need Him
Vox Populi 