[Verse 1]

This is a drill, right? This isn't actually happening!

Why is everybody pushing and shoving inside the class again?

"Mrs. McKree, look at me, tell me why you're panicking?"

She said, "Turn the lights off, and hide behind that cabinet!"

That's when I heard four loud pops and then a crank

A couple kids laughed and said that it's probably a student's prank

Then my teacher mouthed the words, this is a live shooter

Now he's blasting through the walls, gun shots cracked my computer

I text my mother bye, preparing myself to die

My little brother's down the hall, he calls, we both cry

Thе call drops, six more shots, I play dead

When I finally look around, thе blackboard's covered in red

I cover my head in disbelief, praying for penance

There's ninety seconds of silence, okay, maybe he's finished

Then a stampede of feet and a voice forms in the light

"If there's any survivors still here, run for your life!"

[Chorus]

Run for your life

Run for your life

Dead bodies, frustrated youth

Generational gaps, perhaps traumas acute

Don't shoot

[Verse 2]

Was a beautiful night in Charleston and God is shining on us

There to study scripture, [?] bible on us

Less than an hour span before the shooting began

Bullets flying in all directions, my husband can't even stand

I shake his lifeless body, coughing the blood bubbles

Then my son runs over, gets shot and crawls through a puddle

I huddle over the child, becoming a human shield

Nearly did suffocation, no supplication can yield

I kneel behind the pews, my grandbabies confused

I lay out flat on the stomach, the gunman's comin', don't move

He shoots, just make belief that we're playing hide and go seek

Then I hear his Timberlands creek, stops and then speaks

"If there's any survivors, you can stay here as you grieve

Just remember to tell my story", then he casually leaves

The operator relays, "He might return out of spite!

Grab your grandbaby right now and run for your life!"

[Chorus]

Run for your life

Run for your life

Dead bodies, frustrated youth

Generational gaps, perhaps traumas acute

Don't shoot

[Verse 3]

Dead bodies, frustrated youth

Generational gaps, perhaps traumas acute

Epigenetics are embedded close to home

Inherent violence to find has passed on through chromosomes

The right and left side invest time in politics

Through poli-tricks, and skip when the actual problem hits

If the shooter's white, we weep, and wonder where the parents is

If it's an Arab, label that perpetrator a terrorist

How are you unaware of this? Where is the caution geared?

Media punts publicly benefit from my fear

Is it more gun laws, or is mental health the theme?

My guess is that the answer is somewhere lying between

We are a nation filled with Cowboys and Indians

Cops and robbers, an obnoxious father to paint us in the inn

We paint ourselves in the corner and limit truth

Is it an epidemic or chickens coming to roost?