While we sit and point fingers at each other
Over whose fault
Mass shootings are
Can we start by addressing the extremes
Can we make space to rethink different beliefs
and go from
If you believe differently than me you are wrong to
If you believe differently than me then just maybe
You’ve had a different experience
And I’m curious to hear what that is
Can mental health advocates, gun advocates, and anti-hate advocates find common ground
Wherever our views fall
On these complicated issues
Can we agree that
Most people with mental health issues are not murderers*
Most gun owners are not murderers**
And whether it’s born into people
Or groomed and grown
Hatred is not welcome here
Holy hate included
Can we acknowledge
That danger grows unchecked and fastest
At mental health, gun ownership, and hatred’s
Extreme edges
That the waters get murky
When we talk about
The plight of un-hospitalized people with psychosis who need help but can’t get admitted
Who can own Assault Rifles, and if it’s everyone, how young is too young
The otherwise mentally stable people living among us who are steeped in hatred
Can we start on the fringes
Expand mental health treatment
For those begging for care
Pause gun ownership
For those who the majority
On both sides agree
Shouldn’t own one
Pilot reasonable changes
On both edges of fringe
And see if there is any improvement
And however many guns we own
Whatever our mental status
Can we decide that
Hatred doesn’t serve us
Can we disagree with each other
Rather than demolish each other
This problem
We can’t seem
To agree on
Keeps changing
All of our lives
For the worse
So please can we start
Please can we do something
Because if we don’t start somewhere
This thing
That none of us wants
Won’t end
But sadly
Many more lives
Will
*There are currently 50 million Americans taking
medications for mental health issues (and
100K first cases of psychosis each year)
**Americans own an estimated 20 million Assault
Rifles which are part of the 393 million guns
overall owned by Americans