Beyond Armed Right

Examining the right to bear arms.

I do not think our founding fathers
had in mind today what stuns;
once more the living are assailed
from semi-automatic guns.

Back in the days of Washington,
from Valley Forge to Delaware,
if AK-47’s were,
I wonder if that right would bear.

The right to bear arms, commonly,
to test our mettle, be the need;
yet how could they envision that
that right could cause such horrid bleed?

I dare say they would think it nuts--
foolhardy to provide a fuse;
for knowing vile hearts of man,
such fire power sees life lose.

In revolutionary times
the bulwark was defense of dwell;
but muskets are a whole lot less
than guns today that shoot like hell.

I have an image in my mind
of Jefferson and Thomas Paine,
considering gun laws today
and wondering if sense is sane.

It is conjecture on my part
to pour the past and give a stir;
I have to wonder what they’d think
of massacres that now occur.


[SR: 8] (Lines: 28)
Hawk’s Vocabulary Contest: July 2012

5 words used:
assailed, mettle, foolhardy, bulwark, conjecture