"Cleaning This Gun" is the title of a song written by Casey Beathard

Casey Beathard

Casey Beathard is an American country music songwriter. The son of former NFL general manager Bobby Beathard, he has co-written singles for several country music recording artists, including Top Ten singles for Gary Allan, Billy Ray Cyrus, Trace Adkins, and Kenny Chesney...

 and Marla-Cannon Goodman, and recorded by American country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 artist Rodney Atkins

Rodney Atkins

Rodney Allan Atkins is an American country music artist. Signed to Curb Records in 1996, he charted his first single on the Billboard country chart that year, but did not release an album until 2003's Honesty, which included the number 4 hit "Honesty ".If You're Going Through Hell, his second...

 for his 2006 album If You're Going Through Hell

If You're Going Through Hell

If You're Going Through Hell is the second studio album released by country singer Rodney Atkins. It has been certified platinum by the RIAA for U.S...

. The album's fourth single, it is also Atkins' fourth consecutive Number One hit on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 charts, tying a record for most Number Ones from a country album since Tim McGraw

Tim McGraw

Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts with total album sales in excess of 40 million units in the US, making him the eighth best-selling artist, and the third best-selling country singer, in the...

's Set This Circus Down

Set This Circus Down

Set This Circus Down is the seventh album by country music singer Tim McGraw. Certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA for U.S. sales of three million copies, the album produced four singles for McGraw on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts...

in 2001-2002.

Content

The song begins with the narrator's recollections of his teenage years. In the first verse, he states that although he cannot recall anything else that he learned in high school, he does remember the speech given to him by his girlfriend's father after meeting him for the first time — a speech meant to instill fear in the boy so that he does not misbehave when with the girl, ending with: "I'll see you when you get back; bet I'll be up all night (pause) still cleanin' this gun

Shotgun

A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

."

In the second verse, the narrator tells of how he may someday find himself in the same situation as the father (i.e., meeting his daughter's boyfriend, who "seems to have just one thing on his mind"), and need to give that same speech to the boyfriend.

In a short bridge later in the song, the narrator notes that the approach is merely to intimidate the young suitor at that it is extremely effective:

The song concludes with the narrator speaking to the young boyfriend: "Yeah, son, y'all buckle up and have her back by 10 — uhh, let's say about 9: (slight pause) 30. Drive safe!"

Chart performance

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Chart (2007–2008)	Peak position