As the father of two young daughters, I love the country tune “Cleaning This Gun,” where the father cleans his gun and lectures his daughter’s date as the boy waits for her to finish getting ready. I love it even more after reading singer Rodney Atkins’ description of the song:

“Cleaning [This] Gun” is like a funny joke that is true. That could have been really just a dumb redneck kind of song, but the songwriters — Casey Beathard and Marla Cannon — took a very intelligent approach to that idea.

You know, dad’s out there joking — “I’ll be cleaning my gun when my daughter goes out there on her date.” They took the intelligent approach about it, with the speeches that you go through — the speeches that we really all should remember, but we don’t. They’re all very important things, but yet when it comes to your little girl, you’re going to remember that speech.

My audience, I think, is intelligent rednecks, so that’s who I was singing to.

“Intelligent redneck” — sounds kinda like “enlightened redneck.” Works for me.

I’d never actually try an intimidation stunt like cleaning my gun before my daughters’ dates, but I do love the message of the song: Mess with my daughters, and you mess with me. Enjoy the video: