A good honest write there not sure about poetic strength but neutral strength it can't be beaten,
Yours Ian.T

Reckon I must have touched a nerve . I expect we'll never agree on this subject but at least there is a dialogue under way. I agree with you that Nobody unfamiliar with a gun should own one. And if we were starting from a zero point, gun controls Might be part of the answer. But the guns are already out here and to think that criminals and deranged people will follow any new laws which are designed to decrease the number of guns available is a bit naive in my opinion. But on to the poem. I liked the subtle rhyme as well as the internal rhyme displayed throughout this. It might read a bit better if put into stanzas but that may well be me wanting to force it into my own preferences lol. Hmmm....... "hauler" ....I think you meant holler. and "anger to" I think you meant anger too.
I like the way you put this from the perspective of a child killed by a gun. Also think that Not stating whether the shot was on purpose or an accident adds a bit of power...........................stan

A few years ago I belonged to a poetry cafe and one of the members was a young student and this is what she wrote and as usual I keep everything lol:-

Terror in the Halls

What if tomorrow the world stops in spin
And the ones that were hated dared to win
Whist if someone goes crazy like times before
and an unnoticed child brings hell through the door
Will tomorrow be our last
ending in our death
Pleading for our lives as we take our last breath
Eight school shootings in the past two years
What were once nightmares have become daily fears
Silent halls turn into blood baths in action
As the killers move on with a new satisfaction
What happened to security and tightly locked doors
What drove these kids looking for so much more
The little mysteries we may never understand
So many lives taken by barely a man
We shouldn't have to worry when we go to school today
For someone's life is shatters causing the innocent to pay
How did these kids get so easily inside
Without any purpose or reason to hide
Well today I stand up, and I stand up tall
And I vow to stand against any more terror in the hall

Toflyami

Yesterday cannot be changed, and as Stan says it is far too late to change what has been there for hundreds of years.
That we have started debating it and writing about the good and bad of it all will eventually bring about a solution that will help everyone.
There are far too many films that glamorize killing pushed into our eyes every day for us to say it is going away.
I am marksman with the Bren Gun, the Lee enfield 303, at 14 also the SLR at 15. use to fire a 410 shotgun at 14 years old.
And did at one time fire an automatic pistol in a competition but I would find it hard to own a gun.
It to me is so easy just to pull the trigger (OK Squeeze) and I found the complete absence of feelings of what happens after the weapon is fired a great burden in space and time they were so disjointed,
Yours Ian.T