Posted on June 16, 2016 at 12:06 am

After Columbine, after Virginia Tech, after Fort Hood, after Tuscon, after Aurora, after Sandy Hook, after San Bernadino, and now, after two horrifying shootings over the weekend in Orlando, I have finally learned the words I need to say.

I started writing this song after the massacre in San Bernadino last December, but I couldn’t really figure out how to finish it. The second verse came to me with startling clarity in April, on a day when gun violence had temporarily receded from the front pages. The performance here is the first time I sang the song in public, at SubCulture on April 23.

A Song About Your Gun

Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown

April 18, 2016



Who’s gonna sing a song about your gun?

Who’s gonna sing a song about the way you feel protected

When you hold it in your arms when day is done?

Who’s gonna sing that song, sir?

Who’s gonna sing a song about your gun?

Who’s gonna tell the world that you feel grounded and connected

When you wrap your hands around your Remington?

Who’s gonna sing a song about your gun?

All those people at the rodeos and ranges

Putting Freedom First and nothing else above –

Surely one of them could play a couple changes

And then write a verse in praise of what you love.

Someone’s gotta think it would be fun

To sing a little song about your gun, sir.

I can’t sing a song about your gun.

I’ve got twenty-seven other jobs that I’ve neglected,

And in fact, right now I kinda gotta run,

So I can’t sing a song about your gun.

See, I’m too busy singing songs about my daughters

And the news I have to hide from them today.

I’m too tired from reading stories about slaughters

In some little town a half an hour away

By some kid who looks a little like your son,

So I can’t sing a song about your gun, sir.

I’m not interested in your justifications

Or the patriotic sermons that you preached.

Pardon me, sir, but I ran right out of patience

Sitting waiting for consensus to be reached.

So honestly, the odds are one-to-one

That I don’t give a shit about your gun, sir.

Who’s gonna sing a song about your gun?

Who’s gonna tell the world you’ve been maligned and disrespected

And you’re never understood by anyone

Who wouldn’t sing a song about your gun?

Copyright 2016 Jason Robert Brown

All rights reserved.