Bullets and Burgers--2 Poems

Is 9 Years Old Too Young to Shoot a Machine Gun?

(from a headline, after a young New Jersey girl killed her instructor with an Uzi at an Arizona shooting range)

Is 9 too young to be wielding a weapon of war?

Will Suzie’s  parents ever get over this senseless tragedy?

Will the instructor’s family and friends get over this?

Will it affect the little girl for the rest of her life?

When is the right age to be shooting a machine gun in America?

I hear, over and over, the refrain from Bob Dylan’s old song,

“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,

The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”

Bullets and Burgers at “Last Stop Gun Range”—A Great American Adventure

On your Arizona trip,

Don’t forget to come to Last Stop Gun Range!

For a measly $200 we will pick you up at your Las Vegas hotel,

Drive you over Hoover Dam, a wonder of the world,

Show you Lake Mead

And bring you to Last Stop.

There you can fire the weapons of your dreams, even if you are only 9 years old:

Machine guns, sniper rifles, grenade launchers—your choice!

Hamburger lunch included.

Helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon optional.

Hurry, before all slots are filled,

To our gun range, Last Stop.

[Bob Coughlin / August 28, 2014]