Twenty One Pilots: Guns for Hands Meaning
Song Released: 2013
Guns for Hands Lyrics
When the sun shines on the ground,
And shows what you have done,
It shows where your mind has gone,
And you swear to your parents,
That it will never happen again,
I know, I know what that means, I...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:I believe this song is about suicide and self harm. I'm going through my interpretation lyric by lyric. but the overall synapse is that tyler is aware of all the depressed kids in the world and the suicide attempts and suicide successes there are. He is bothered by this and want to help all these kids by having them fight for their life and find something to live for and rise up against their depression. In the offial music video there is a bit of Japanese writing, possibly alluding to the extremely high suicide rate in japan. the whole song generally talks about hands as a form of carrying out your will, in this case suicide and harm. but at the end, suggests to do something else with your hands other than turn them into guns.
"I know what you think in the morning
When the sun shines on the ground
And shows what you have done" in these lines tyler is talking about either self harm or attempted suicide and waking up to see what you did
"It shows where your mind has gone" - specifically suicidal thoughts and depression
"And you swearing to your parents
That it will never happen again
I know, I know oh ow, what that means, I know oh oh oh ow" literally telling the parents that you wont do it again (self harm/attempted suicide) and how tyler knows that it probably will happen again and you are only saying that to reassure/appease the parents
"That you all have guns" guns meaning having the means and thoughts of suicide.
"And you never put the safety on" saying that your mind is somewhat of a "loose cannon" you might say. basically that you are willing to take your life and are serious about it.
"And you all have plans,
To take it, to take it, don't take it, take it, take it" literally plans to take your life and the conflict in these thoughts is described in the line "don't take it" in between the thoughts of really killing yourself.
"I'm trying, I'm trying to sleep
I'm trying, I'm trying to sleep
But I can't, but I can't when you all have
Guns for hands yeah" this entire stanza expresses tyler's thoughts and emotions about all of the suicidal people, that he is disturbed by the fact that there are so many people willing to take their lives and also have the means too.
"Let's take this a second at a time" saying to live in the moment and take life slowly and just take things one a time
"Let's take this one song, this one rhyme
Together, let's breathe
Together, to the beat" talking about just living, to breathe and calm down and to the beat, to just live one moment at a time.
"But there's hope out the window" the window being an opening in a room full of darkness. the darkness being depression.
"So that's where we'll go
Let's go outside and all join hands" offering to connect the suicidal people with others. and offering of salvation for all these people.
"But until then you'll never understand" unless you take the offer and try to come out of your depression, you wont ever understand what living life really means, and how precious it is
"We've turned our hands to guns, trade in our thumbs for ammunition" talking about how there are more suicidal kids and how we have use our hands for self harm and suicide rather than helping others or doing other things (however this line I view as very open to interpretation)
"I must forewarn you, of my disorder, or my condition" tyler talking about his own problems with this topic and how he also feels these things. this ties into what he says in the next line.
"Cause when the sun sets, it upsets what's left of my invested interest
Interested in putting my fingers to my head" this means that what is left of his depression and suicidal thoughts is still with him when he is alone at night even though he seems much better and wanting to help kids during the majority of the song.
"The solution is, I see a whole room of these mutant kids" this tells of how many of these suicidal people there are and how he is uniting or bringing them together.
"Fused at the wrist, I simply tell them they should shoot at this" (possibly talking about self harm on the wrist0 telling them they sould redirect their feelings or think about his propaosal
"Simply suggest my chest and this confused music, it's
Obviously best for them to turn their guns to a fist" how turning too music and talking about their thoughts and feelings would help, and how they should redirect their suicidal thought to something they can fight for/with. and instead of hurting themselves, find something productive to do, hence fist, which can sometimes represent a rise to arms or a movement to fight for. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:This song is about Tyler talking about self harm. The beginning is about people who self harm think about what they did and he knows where their minds have gone (suicide or self harming) and he knows that when you swear to your parents it wont happen again, it will eventually happen again. He cant sleep knowing we have guns for hands because he knows there are people out there hurting themselves and he doesn't want this to happen. When he starts rapping he is saying he sees all these people who have depression and/ or other conditions and he wants them all to turn their weapons to a fist so they can take out their hurt, anger, sadness, and whatever makes them hurt themselves on him so they cant harm themselves.
I love this song because its a deep song if you listen to the lyrics. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:I'm doing a project on this song, and it makes me feel a little heartbroken to listen to it. It is about self harm, and Tyler is trying to tell the listeners who do self harm: "I know what you are trying to do, but you don't have to do it. If you need to, take it out on me, but not on yourself." And he is right. That song holds such a strong meaning. It will probably always be my favourite Twenty Øne Piløts song.
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i agree with alot of these but to me i felt that the "You swear that it will never happen again,.., i know what that means" is saying that the self harm wont happen again because this time it will be suicide.
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I read other interpretations. They seem meaningfull and sensible.
But when i listened this song today i thought about the lyrics with the thoughts in my mind.
Especially last 2 weeks so many things happened at Palestine. And i was feeling so distressed all this time. There was a friend of mine living at Gaza(Palestine). And so many civilian people else who killed innocently.
And these lyrics reminded me of these things :
"That you all have guns,
And you never put the safety on,
And you all have plans,
To take it, don't take it,
Don't take it, take it, take it."
Because Israel wants to have al-aqsa and have plans.
Actually it made me think about all the wars and these kind of things from the point of view of a kid. Contries, people have plans to take some things(have them).
And within all of these periods i feel distressfull and "I'm trying, I'm trying to sleep,
I'm trying, I'm trying to sleep,
But I can't, but I can't when you all have,
Guns for hands, yeah." when they don't stop war and wait with their guns everywhere.
Keep the peace for kids. -
I think that this song is about suicide along with the many other people. I will get most of the lyrics that I find goes along with this thought. When the singer says in his song" When the sun shines down on the ground, It shows what you have done. It shows where your mind has gone." I think this means the singer is telling the listener that after bruising and scaring themselves in the day light they see what they have done (How bad the situation was) "You swear to your parents that it will never happen again" This means that the listener or person in the song has been noticed by her/his parents and promised that they would not harm themselves again. "You all have guns and never put the safety on and you all have plans to take it to take dont take it take it" Means that Tyler (Singer) is trying to explain that people are killing themselves and pointing guns at their heads with out the safety on and that they have plans to end their lives but the singer does not want that to happen. "But there's hope out the window so that where we'll go. Let go out side and all join hands but then you'll never understand." I think this means that the singer wants you to remember that your friends are outside and should join them and talk. "I must forewarn you of my disorder or condition" means that depression and other disorders may make them difficult suicide and think about suicidal thoughts.
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I believe that this song is about self-harm and suicide. I will support my claim lyric by lyric. Before, I get started, self-harm and suicide are really hard topics to talk about. I, myself, self-harm and have tried a few suicide attempts. So I can sense where this song is getting at.
"I know what you think in the morning
When the sun shines on the ground
And shows what you have done
It shows where your mind has gone
And you swear to your parents
That it will never happen again
I know, I know-ow-ow what that means, I know-ow-ow-ow-ow"
"I know what you think in the morning"; He is meaning the person's thoughts. The person's thoughts could be full of darkness, and suicidal.
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"When the sun shines on the ground, and shows what you have done, it shows where your mind has gone"; He is meaning when the person's self-harm
are finally visible in the morning when the sun rises. This person finally sees their scars and they show what they have done to themselves and where their mind had gone when they had done it.
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"And you swear to your parents, that it will never happen again, I know, I know-ow-ow what that means, I know-ow-ow-ow-ow; He means that the person has promised to their parents quite a few times, but always break their promises by proceeding to self-harm. Tyler is making them aware that he knows what this person is going through and that he has been there in that person's place before.
"That you all have guns
And you never put the safety on
And you all have plans
To take it, to take it, don't take it, take it, take it"
"That you all have guns
And you never put the safety on" He means that the person has that object that they self-harm with, they never do it safety. Maybe they're trying to commit suicide by self-harm. (That is very quite possible).
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"And you all have plans
To take it, to take it, don't take it, take it, take it" He means that this person has suicidal thoughts, with a plan to take their life. He is telling them not to take it.
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"I'm trying, I'm trying to sleep
I'm trying, I'm trying to sleep
But I can't, but I can't when you all have
Guns for hands, yeah" He means that he cannot sleep knowing this person has extreme suicidal thoughts and are planning to take their life. He really wants to help, but doesn't know how.
"Let's take this a second at a time
Let's take this one song, this one rhyme
Together, let's breathe
Together, to the beat
But there's hope out the window
So that's where we'll go
Let's go outside and all join hands
But until then you'll never understand"
He is telling this person to take it one step at a time. To listen to the lyrics and each rhyme. To breathe as they are listening to the beat.
He tells us that there's hope, and to keep fighting. That we're not alone, there are others out there struggling like we are. "But until then you'll never understand" He means that until we can follow and gain that hope, we'll never understand that we are not alone and there are people out there struggling like we are.
"We've turned our hands to guns
Traded our thumbs for ammunition
I must forewarn you, of my disorder, or my condition
Cause when the sun sets
It upsets what's left of my invested interest
Interested in putting my fingers to my head
The solution is, I see a whole room of these mutant kids
Fused at the wrist
I simply tell them they should shoot at this
Simply suggest my chest and this confused music, it's
Obviously best for them to turn their guns to a fist"
He is telling us that he knows that we cannot take care of ourselves and stop harming our bodies, as it is too difficult to just stop like that. It takes time. But he is saying instead of hurting ourselves, to hurt him instead. "Obviously best for them to turn their guns to a fist" Meaning that it's best for us people with suicidal thoughts to seek help and once they do, they can turn their guns to a fist. (You know how people crunch up their hands to show a sign of strength and then raise it in the air? ✊)
This was just me interpretation of this song. I hope it helps! God bless you all. Stay strong to all my fighters out there. <3
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I do think this song is about suicide too because myself I HAVE done all of this and told other people to focus on their joy in the world and what they're going to miss out on if they do kill themselves, in return they say it back to me when I'm feeling depressed and want to die. They always tell me "Try to not let Dema control you like Tyler said! You need to stay alive for me, and your boyfriend ||-//." I always listen to them because they make me listen to this song and make me think that Tyler's telling me to not kill myself and they tell me to go to the gym when I feel anger because I take ALL of my anger out on myself. My gym has punching bags and bench pressing stations so I bring my boyfriend and he coaches me. I think that what it means when Tyler says 'But it'll be best if they just turn their guns into a fist' means that they should just put the gun down and punch something, Tyler doesn't care if it's him or a wall or whatever, Tyler just wants the audience to stop suicide.
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I think this song is about school shootings. The youth nowadays are quick to solve their problems at school with guns instead of fists. So they have guns for hands. We try to sleep but we can't because the shooting is on our minds and it's only a matter of time until we wake up and hear the news of the next one.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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It's about harming yourself and how when Tyler tries to sleep at night he can't because he knows that fans hurt themselves.
"Turn your guns to a fist" is his way of saying to but the blade/lighter/pills/etc. down. -
I believe it's how the artist knows that people are committing suicide, and he can't sleep because he knows that we have the power to take our own lives, and is trying to convince us not to.
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"It's obviously best for then to turn their guns into a fist" guns are for killing, and fists are for fighting
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Self harming is a quite sensitive subject.
Tyler would prefer all those who suffer to take their anger out on him instead of hurting themselves.It's the most pure and selfless thing I have ever heard.It's a sign to find another way to control your feelings.Create, draw,scream,laugh.Turn your 'gun' to something powerful but not harmful. -
Self harming is a quite sensitive subject.
Tyler would prefer all those who suffer to take their anger out on him instead of hurting themselves.It's the most pure and selfless thing I have ever heard.It's a sign to find another way to control your feelings.Create, draw,scream,laugh.Turn your 'gun' to something powerful but not harmful. -
Self harming is a quite sensitive subject.
Tyler would prefer all those who suffer to take their anger out on him instead of hurting themselves.It's the most pure and selfless thing I have ever heard.It's a sign to find another way to control your feelings.Create, draw,scream,laugh.Turn your 'gun' to something powerful but not harmful. -
I feel like it's pretty obviously about a group of people (most likely fans of the band) who are suicidal. Tyler first talks about knowing that they are attempting suicide, perhaps even more than once. The line "guns for hands" also refers to their suicidal tendencies. He then talks about how how using music and other people (maybe even other fans of the band or other suicidal people) can help keep them alive.
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My interpretation of guns for hands is people have this ability to hurt others and its up to them to actually get there guns out and hurt them.
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