Good Morning America.

Good morning America,
how many innocent people will be shot today?
Only a few school children
absentmindedly,
ordinarily,
unconsciously,
they walk to another day of school –
no, sorry, their last day of school.
They won’t be coming back tomorrow.
I guess Olivia’s happy,
no more calculus homework for her.
Bonus; a jackpot for the non-living.

Good morning America,
did you sleep well?
While everyday people of your country are
dying, crying, sighing
as they take their last breath at the barrel of a gun.
All I see is you wiping your eyes,
wiping away the drowsiness that obscures your vision.
It was probably just a dream.
Just get out of bed
and join the long line of sleepwalkers.
After all real is such a messy word.
Isn’t playing pretend much more fun?

Good morning America,
Where in ink does it say another has the right,
the right to go hunting for humans?
Your “constitutional right” is irrelevant,
now people are dying.
Oh, America –
the land of the captive,
and the home of the cowardly.
It’s time to stop seeing individuals
and start seeing people,
a collective of cultures and creatives.
We are all one big civilisation.

Good morning America,
This is not a war zone.
This is not a frontier.
This is a country,
and it’s time to wake up.

~

Yesterday Christina Grimmie was shot at a signing, after her concert in Orlando, by a man with a gun. After the murder of Christina Grimmie (which is exactly what it is), all I could hear in my head was, “good morning America, it’s time to wake up” and I wrote this poem. I wasn’t a huge fan of her music or knew much of her stuff but my heart is broken. I find it hard to believe that such a horrific thing could ever happen and so easily too. I’ve had enough, America, things need to change and fast. At the moment federal law states that if you are under 18 a licensed firearms dealer cannot sell you a rifle or shot gun or hand guns to anyone under the age of 21. However, some states have different laws to impose the federal law. For instance, in places like Vermont it’s legal to sell a hand gun or rifle to 16-year-olds. It is legal to sell a riffle to a 16-year-old in Maine, Alaska, Minnesota and New York. And, believe it or not, the legal age in Montana is 14-years-old. The fact that states can make their own laws means that the federal law can be almost always avoided.

As well as the age limit being ridiculous, guns are available to buy almost anywhere in America, including big chain places like Walmart – a supermarket. A place where families go all the time and you can buy a gun there. It infuriates me. Not to mention the countless number of gun shows you can attend every weekend, nationwide. When buying a gun there is a background check made by the FBI, which checks if you have a criminal record and is basically completed in a matter of minutes. Although, this only happens with in store purchases. Even at gun shows there is no background check made. Hmm, sounds a little bit like there’s a definite loop hole – go America!

And I know that the amount of guns in American households have decreased from around 50% to 35% from 1997 to 2009, but, it is still estimated that the US has an estimated 283 million guns in civilian hands. 283 million guns. That’s a lot of guns. And more than 30,000 people killed by firearm each year. That is more than 30 people shot or murdered per day. PER DAY. If that doesn’t scream insane to you then you are a lost cause. Lets compare it to another country, Canada for example. The estimated total number of guns (both licit and illicit) held by civilians in Canada is 9,950,000 and yet in 2012 only 172 people were killed by the gun. In 2012 America suffered 8813 murders and deaths by gun. So many other countries have guns and yet all their deaths/murders by it are significantly smaller than America’s (which can be seen in the documentary mentioned below). There is something severely wrong and it is time the laws changed. This is no longer a person’s “constitutional right” because people are dying by gun every single day. More than 30 to be exact.

We are all people. We are stronger united than we are apart. We are all earthlings.
Good morning America, it’s time to wake up.

From Brecon
Stay Gracious x

To watch:

Bowling for Columbine, by Michael Moore (documentary). 
It is available on Netflix and I definitely recommend it. I watched it in my Media class at school and it opened my eyes to the large amount of fear in America regarding guns. How it is such a vicious cycle of people buying guns to protect themselves because they are afraid of others who may also have guns. It also explains everything in an easy way to understand and it will make you so angry, like it made me. But definitely give it a watch if you’re interested in learning more.

Research:

– http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/7_craziest_gun_laws_in_america/
– http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/19/news/guns-background-checks/
– http://heedinggodscall.org/content/pfctoolkit-10
– http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/canada
– http://www.nationalobserver.com/2015/12/04/news/how-american-gun-deaths-and-gun-laws-compare-canadas