Songfacts®:

• Lumineers frontman Wesley Schultz found the inspiration for "Gun Song" in his father's sock drawer. Soon after losing his dad to cancer in 2007, Schultz was running late for his job as a waiter and realized he didn't have any clean black socks, so he searched his dad's dresser and found a pair - along with a gun. The find shocked him, and he spent his work shift contemplating the weapon he never knew his father had.
  
  "I was disappointed I couldn't ask him about it," he told Colorado Public Radio in 2016, "and what else did I not know about this person that I supposedly so close with."
• Schultz listened to an interview with singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright about the power of motion in the creative process, which he found to be true during the genesis of "Gun Song." He came up with the lyrics while he was walking his mom's dog in the woods.
• Each verse sets up an expectation for the listener and then defies it. "I liked the idea of having a twist in the verse, taking them where they think they're going and then just changing it just by a few words," Schultz told the Sodajerker podcast in a 2016 episode. For example, the first verse conjures an ominous image of a person holding and pointing a gun, perhaps at the singer, but the supposed attacker turns into the defender:
  
  I don't own a single gun
  But if I did, you'd be the one
  To hold it, aim it, make all of the bad men run
  
  In the second verse, Schultz claims he doesn't have a sweetheart yet, but he'd probably break his neck if he did. But he's not talking about literally hurting himself; he only means he'd do whatever it takes to make her happy:
  
  And I don't have a sweetheart yet
  But if I did, I'd break my neck to please her
  Make her want to stay in my arms, she'd rest
• The "Ho Hey" hitmakers were thrust into fame alongside other alt-folk acts of the early 2010s, including their Brit counterparts Mumford & Sons - although Schultz prefers comparisons to Tom Petty: "This is concise, minimal music with emphasis on melody." With their second album, Cleopatra, they explored more mature themes - like Schultz's grief over losing his father ("Long Way From Home" and "Gun Song") and the harsh reality of living in the spotlight ("Ophelia") - while maintaining their signature spare sound.
  
  "It's a heavier record," Schultz told Entertainment Weekly in 2016. "A lot of the records that I grew up on were about being transitory - never being stuck... This lifestyle can make you crazy. But it suits a personality like me. I'm always on to the next."