Buy a Gun for You Son - Tom Paxton

Hallelujah, Dads and Mommies

Cowboys, rebels, Yanks and commies

Buy yourselves some real red-blooded fun

If you want to make the grade

You’ve got to have a hand grenade

And a fully automatic G.I.

gun

So buy a gun for your son right away, sir

Shake his hand like a man and let him play, sir

Let his little mind expand, place a weapon in his hand

For the skills he learns today will someday pay, sir

Pound that kid into submission

'Till he’s mastered nuclear fission

Buy him plastic warheads by the score

Once he’s got the taste of blood

He’s gonna sneak up on his buddies

Starting his own thermo-nuclear war

So buy a gun for your son right away, sir

Shake his hand like a man and let him play, sir

Let his little mind expand, place a weapon in his hand

For the skills he learns today will someday pay, sir

Buy him khakis and fatigues

And sign him up in little leagues

Give him calisthenics as a rule

Once you’ve banished fear and dread

Then pat his seven year-old head

And send him off to military school

Oh buy a gun for your son right away, sir

Shake his hand like a man and let him play, sir

Let his little mind expand, place a weapon in his hand

For the skills he learns today will someday pay, sir

Once he’s grown to be a man

He might get tired of blasting Granny

Then you’ll see a crisis coming on

Don’t get worried, don’t get nervous

Send that kid into the service

Let him rise into the Pentagon

At the Pentagon he’ll rise

The President he will advise

His reputation growing all the while

With your picture on the wall

He’ll get that long-awaited call

And press the firing buttons with a smile

So buy a gun for your son right away, sir

Shake his hand like a man and let him play, sir

Let his little mind expand, place a weapon in his hand

For the skills he learns today will someday pay, sir