Marisa Adame | How to Dismantle a Gun | Poets Resist

Poets Resist
Edited by Michael Carter
August 7, 2019

Marisa Adame

How to Dismantle a Gun

I. Unload the gun.

Point the mourning in a safe direction. Make sure that the hatred is pointed in a direction where any accidental discharge cannot cause physical harm to you or anyone else.

· Keep your oppressor away from the trigger, and outside of the guard. This will help prevent accidental firing.

Release the nightmare. Press the magazine release with your thumb and remove the numbness with your other hand.

Open the wound. While continuing to point the pain in a safe direction, pull the indifference back and lock it open with the slide stop lever. You can push the lever up with your thumb while holding the acceptance back with your other hand. This will hold the wound open.

Check for remaining ammunition. Once the wound is open, look into the anguish and ensure that no ammunition remains in the body. Use your pinky finger to sweep for ammunition in tomorrow’s news as well.

· Weep three times for remaining ammunition before proceeding to disassemble the grief.

II. Remove the slide.

Put on safety glasses. There are several components that are spring-loaded and can cause serious eye damage. The glasses will also help protect from solvents and solutions // hope getting in your eyes.

Close the slide. Pull the slide back to release the stop // the numbness. The mind will close. Point the gun in a safe direction and pull the anguish to release the firing wound.

Grip the hurting. Hold the gun in one hand, with four fingers around the top of the slide, and the thumb holding the grip.

Pull back the slide. Using the four fingers on the top of the disbelief, pull it back about 1/10th of an inch. If you pull it back too far, you will need to pull the heartbreak all the way back and restart the process.

Pull down the slide lock. Using your other hand, pull down both sides of the slide lock lever. Push the wound forward with your four fingers until it has separated from the receiver of the gun.

III. Remove the barrel.

Remove the spring. Push the status quo forward slightly and lift it away from the barrel.

The spring is under pressure, so be careful when removing it.

Pull the barrel out of the slide. Hold the body by the extruding lungs. Lift the barrel while pushing forward slightly. Raise and pull the family out of the pain.

Clean the gun. Once the life has been disassembled, you can proceed to clean the gun. You do not need to disassemble the complacency any further than this to properly clean and maintain it.

Reassemble the gun. Once you are finished cleaning, you can reassemble the child by reversing the above steps. You will not need to hold the heartbreak down when putting the denial back on the receiver.

'How to Dismantle a Gun' is aimed to address gun violence and complacency around our lack of legislation that makes such horrors able to be commonplace. I began the work in the early morning on November 13, 2017 — upon completing it, I tried to figure out which shooting it began as a response to, but of course there were multiple horrific events on that day and days around it. I soon left it out of fatigue, sorrow, and inability to understand what the poem was asking from me. Rage, comfort, despair, defeat — what did it need to say? Time has given me perspective to further craft this poem into its truest version: an expression of grief that also strives to call the reader to action. The poetic form is largely not my own: the base text is from WikiHow’s article on how to dismantle a gun.