My Favorite Songs: “Big Red Gun” by Billy Talent
Cover art for Billy Talent’s “Big Red Gun.” Image taken from Spotify.
Billy Talent, a musical quartet hailing from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada (the city that looks like a giant office park from the air), have been one of my favorite bands for several years. And yes, in this case, several does mean seven - long live David Jelinsky!
In all seriousness, Billy Talent’s lyrics very often tackle difficult topics. They’ve got tunes about unrequited love, trophy wives, and plenty of political songs in case you weren’t sure if they were a punk band or not. One of their most aggressive songs is the first track off their 2016 album Afraid of Heights, which is titled “Big Red Gun.”
If you care to listen to the lyrics as you read this blog post, make sure you have headphones. The song is very loud, and you don’t want any passers-by to get the wrong idea if they hear you listening to it. Especially if you live in America.
Brothers in arms who share my fears,
Time to protect what you hold dear.
This line refers to the “camaraderie” between gun owners, particularly those who are in the National Rifle Association. To be clear, polling in recent years has suggested that even a majority of gun owners support gun control , but Billy Talent was obviously aiming for a caricature. And who can blame them? Second Amendment fanatics claim to own firearms for protection despite research suggesting that these weapons are more likely to kill a friend or family member than an intruder.
There's been a rise in new ideals,
Threatening to change the way we live.
This is how the “Second Amendment People” react to any attempt to tighten America’s gun laws. In reality, there hasn’t really been a rise in “new ideals”, because the gun control debate ended when nothing was done after Sandy Hook. I’ve said it before, but if you were going to write about a fictional event that would make Americans support gun control, you couldn’t do much “better” than Sandy Hook. Instead people embraced conspiracy theories and ensured that nothing would ever be done.
Who knows what trouble's found a way,
Found a way to your door today?
Who knows what trouble's on its way,
On its way to intimidate?
The Republican Party always loves to push a bogeyman, because that’s the main way they win (besides voter suppression, that is). In 2018 it was the migrant caravan that mysteriously vanished after that year’s midterm election. Actually, migrants from the southern border with Mexico are always a scapegoat. Because you can never know what’s going to come next, it’s best to have a gun at all times. At least, that’s what they say.
All I want is a big red gun!
(Oh, yeah, yeah, oh)
I'm gonna shoot, shoot, shoot at the setting sun!
(Oh, yeah, yeah, oh)
And all I want is a big red gun,
I'm gonna shoot, shoot, shoot 'till the thrill is gone!
This is the first part of the song’s chorus, which brings to mind a Western film in which an outlaw fires a pistol at the approaching dusk. I mean, that’s literally what the narrator says he’ll do. The narrator isn’t using his gun for any practical purpose either (not that they’re good for anything but hunting and killing) - he’s just firing away for the fun of it. This fits in with the gun culture we see in the United States; I mean, a sitting Congresswoman used to own a restaurant where “open carry” has nothing to do with takeout. It’s totally cringe-worthy.
'Cause this is my right no matter the cost.
Get outta my sight when baby's got a big red gun!
(Oh, yeah, yeah, oh)
Baby's got a big red gun!
(Oh, yeah, yeah, oh)
It doesn’t matter whether the shootings happen at a concert, a nightclub, a university, an elementary school, or a house of worship. Second Amendment fanatics keep insisting that it’s their right to own weapons of war, no matter how many people must die in places that are supposed to be safe. In terms of the “baby” line, we keep hearing those stories of 2-year-olds who accidentally shoot themselves with their parents’ weapons. And then there’s Congressman Thomas Massie’s infamous Christmas card.
Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) posing with his family and their weapons for a Christmas card. Image taken from the BBC News website.
Pride is a weapon in your hand.
Freedom awards the faithful man.
I hear the message loud and clear,
Straight from his lips into my ear.
And lord I just can't walk away,
Walk away from the enemy.
The law will never disagree,
On the target of my insecurities.
We constantly hear about how proud gun owners are to be gun owners; this is hardly ground-breaking. “Freedom awards the faithful man”...yeah, well, I want to be able to walk around in public without the fear of being randomly shot. The part of this verse that resonates most with me is “the law will never disagree on the target of my insecurities”. The narrator of this song wants a big red gun so that he feels strong and powerful. No matter how high-caliber his weapon may be, however, he’s still just a pathetic, insecure human being who wants to project bravado.
We call them twisted and deranged,
(Baby's got a big red gun!)
But we gave them the keys to annihilate!
(Baby's got a big red gun!)
How long before the next one's in the ground?
(Baby's got a big red gun!)
After every high-profile mass shooting, the right-wing calls the perpetrator a twisted, deranged man (because it’s almost always a man). However, the pro-gun policies pushed by a certain political group ensured that this twisted, deranged man had access to the assault weapon of his choice to mow down many people at once. How long before the next one’s in the ground? Well, probably less than a day.
So proud of all your history,
But history made a big mistake.
(Baby's got a big red gun!)
The judge and jury stand before you now.
(Baby's got a big red gun!)
The United States Constitution, which the right-wing loves to extoll even as they trample all over parts of it (like the Fourteenth Amendment, the one that prohibits those who have incited insurrection from holding political office), is notoriously difficult to change. This stands in stark contrast to countries like France, where the Constitution is a living document that changes with the times when it’s warranted. If I had to guess, I think it’ll be at least fifty years before the Democrats and Republicans agree on something important enough to warrant another amendment.
Furthermore, the people who wrote the Second Amendment also believed that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote and that it was okay to own black people as property. We shouldn’t treat what they say as gospel, and yet our archaic “legal” system ensures that it will forever be that way. What a sick, depraved country we are.
'Cause baby's got a big red gun!
Baby's got a big red gun!
Baby's got a big red gun!
Oh Momma what have I become?
That last line is just perfect. When various other countries have issued travel warnings against you, when your society has very little internal trust at all, and every community is touched by gun violence at some point, there’s only one question that really needs to be asked: What have we become? What sick, twisted society allows schoolchildren to be slaughtered in their classrooms? Do we really have any moral high ground to criticize any other nation?
I don’t think so. The United States is the worst country in the world, and that’s why Billy Talent’s “Big Red Gun” is an amazing song.
