American "Gun-Culture"

[rvm45]

This started as a post elsewhere.

It grew into a short essay that I think is Powerful.

If you like it, help me try to get it to go Viral.

Post it everywhere you can think of...




What is "American GUN-CULTURE"...?

Well first of all, let us admit that part of our unique heritage is based on Myth, Legend and what not. So I will mix real historical personages with actors and fictional characters without pausing to distinguish...

For my purposes, it matters little and it isn't worth pausing often to say. So don't get the idea that I'm reality challenged.

Think of the many tales of Daniel Boone, Davy Crocket and Natty Bumpo or the many iconic drawings of the Pilgrims with their Blunderbusses.

Fast forward to the American West.

What a bunch of Hoo-Hah...but Legend needn't be true to be powerful.

A.} Guns, particularly Revolvers were quite expensive back then and Ammunition was comparatively more expensive relative to the gun.

Back when a Colt Single Action Army was $20, $20 was an average month's pay for a cowboy--and cowboy's were relatively well-paid as Manual labor goes.

Still, many of the more expensive handguns go for $1000 nowadays and that's close to a month's net pay for many.

But yes, there were quite a few cowboys who had no pistol at all and who didn't feel terribly disadvantaged.

Many who did walk around with a six-shooter would have been challenged to shoot a horse while hanging onto its reins.

For every five Colts that were around back then, there were about three S&W Breaktops but until recently there weren't modern S&W Style Breaktops available to Movie Prop Departments.

The cheaper Webley Bulldogs may have rivaled the Colts for pure numbers.

I read an article maybe twenty years ago that said that more cowboys carried .22 rim fires than all the centerfire models combined.

What did most cowboys carry a pistol for?

To use as noise-makers to celebrate, get cattle moving or to head off stampedes. To kill snakes at spitting distance. To make a fashion statement and to discourage troublemakers by the sight of a weapon.

For the cowboy who wasn't a dedicated pistolero, .22s would do all that just as well and both Gun and Ammunition was Cheaper.

B.} Duels weren't fought in the "High Noon" fashion.

I think that I read that much digging wielded one such Duel that was fought that way.

C.} Some of the First Restrictive Gun Laws were passed by Cattle Towns.

Never mind.

When I was a boy, there were old Roy Rodgers and Cisco Kid movies on every weekend. Lone Ranger was on the TV every afternoon. "Gunsmoke", "Cheyenne", "Branded", "Bonanza", "The Virginian", "Laramie" were all Prime Time favorites.

Fast forward in history:

We've all read and heard about Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Elliot Ness...

Sgt Alvin York, etc.

John Wayne carried a Colt Peacemaker in most of his movies. Then a generation later Clint Eastwood came along.

Dick Tracy carried a short barreled .357 Magnum. Mike Hammer was known for his .45 Automatic. A score or more of TV Detectives--Public and Private--carried Snub-nosed .38s.

And who can forget Dirty Harry's iconic .44 Magnum?

The first Gun that I ever bought was a .44 Magnum--that I hadn't even known existed until I saw the Movie "Dirty Harry".

Now everyone in America is not a member of the "Gun Culture" sadly...

But all these ideons go into the mix.

{Nowadays we're more likely to say "Memes."}

But when we get into real Gun people:

We read and greatly admired Elmer Keith, Mel Tappan, Jeff Cooper, Skeeter Skelton, George Nonte...

Colonel Askins, Chuck Taylor, Finn Aggard and Bill Jordan were a few of the lesser luminaries.

And we live in America!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that America is the only Kun-Tun-Rhee on Earth that recognizes--in much curtailed practice, but still recognizes the Principle--that everyone has the Inalienable RIGHT to bear arms...

And I think that America is the only Country that recognizes the RIGHT to go armed as a means to defend life and property.

{O yeah India recently commissioned their ONE State-Owned Gun Factory to turn out 1000 gritty triggered Webley Breaktops downsized to .32 ACP to arm all India's women against rape...}

I love Webleys, Breaktops and .32s and I'll bet that I could smooth and lighten the DA Trigger Pull...

So if I had $1800 laying around and had scratched most of my other Gun Itches, I would like to have one of those Indian Lobstrousities--so long as it was offered in such a way that I wasn't depriving some poor Indian woman of the chance to own one.

A year or two ago, the Irish Parliament passed some more anti-gun laws in the Prime Minister's words:

To pre-empt the development of an American Style Gun Culture.

I'm sorry dude, but it takes a century or two to develop an American Style Gun Culture.

An American once asked a Briton:

"How can we create an American Oxford"?

"You need adequate physical infrastructure, Great Professors, Cream of The Crop Students, Lavish Research and Fellowship Grants...

"And 400 Years of Tradition."

Ireland won their Independence largely by means of Bowler-wearing, Bicycle Riding Assassins who used .455 Webleys. If they had put a "Right to Keep and Bear Arms" Plank into their fledgling Constitution, they could be well on their way to developing their own Gun-Culture...

But sorry Ireland, the day you put the Right to Keep and Bear Arms into y'all's Constitution starts day number One on your hundred year count-down to Gun Culture.

IF and I say IF American Gun Culture is Wiped out, whether all at once or by Attrition, I sincerely doubt that there will ever be anything like it again in the history of Mankind.

O some future Society might decide to codify the Inalienable Right to Bear Arms into their political constitution...

But it takes more than that to have American Style Gun Culture.

So we are in a Grim "No Quarter Asked; No Quarter Given" War to preserve our Culture from Total Annihilation.

And sometimes I hear myself adopt Stances that seem Bleeding Razor-Edged Radical even to me.

Sometimes I question my Fanaticism...

And then I realize that we are in a Vast Cosmic Conflict for an Existence that is Far Weightier than mere Physical Existence.

Y'all--Please do everything in y'all's power to help fight this good fight.



.....RVM45

[headlesshorseman]

Very well written. thank you.

So if I had $1800 laying around and had scratched most of my other Gun Itches, I would like to have one of those Indian Lobstrousities--so long as it was offered in such a way that I wasn't depriving some poor Indian woman of the chance to own one.

It is good to remember the face of your father.

[rvm45]

When I wrote that, I failed to make myself clear and as a result I offended a few people.

"American Gun Culture" isn't rigidly defined, so we're pretty much on our Honour how we want to define it.

Growing up as a boy, we had four Guns that stayed in our hall closet:

A Double Barreled Damascus 12 Gauge that had been my grandfather's; my Father's 12 Gauge Belgian Browning Auto-5; a Stevens .22 and a Marlin .22.

My uncle had an old Lever Action Marlin and a 2-inch Barreled S&W .38.

One of my aunts owned a .22 and a double 12.

Our Guns sat undisturbed at the back of the closet for years at a time, untouched by human hands except to move them to one side when some serious search for something was underway.

Now I guess in some Shit-Hole of a Country where all firearms are illegal and even air rifles are tightly restricted, this may seem excessive and some Prophets with itchy ears may mean exactly that when they say:

"American Gun Culture".

And I'm not being scornful of such folks…

{I'm not scorning casual Gun owners. Anti-gun politicians need to be flayed alive…}

But to me "American Gun Culture" is folks who drop by the local Gunstore once or twice a week…guys who avidly check all the bargains in "Shotgun News"…guys who spend the bulk of their "I wish" time thinking about Guns that they'd like to own.

There is an old proverb that says:

"A good man eats to live. An evil man lives to eat"…

I don't necessarily agree—Obesity is a great sin—and one that I'm guilty of…

Some few can engage in Gluttony without purging and without getting fat…

And unless they stole their food from someone, I don't see the "EVIL".

Be all that as it may.

I believe that an Evil or even a morally Neutral guy goes armed to protect his life. A Good man feels that life is Worth protecting precisely Because there are Guns in the World.

So the Evil man goes Armed to Live while the Good man Lives to go Armed.

I lose patience with dim bulbs who say—hypothetically—that they would give up their guns when all the criminals give up theirs.

I mean, they imply that this will never happen—but what if it could?

Would I give up my Guns if all other Guns would vanish of the face of the Earth? No!!! No, and I'd be sharpening my sword or axe to go after whatever lickspittle had struck such a Demonic bargain.

"Sure Joe Henry is in favor of Gun Control! He always has at least two-dozen armed guards protecting him…"

Stop and THINK People!!! Would you accept an Ironclad offer of round-the-clock bodyguards if the price was that you never could own, handle or carry your own Gun ever again?

I'd spit right in the face of someone who'd offer a deal like that.

If you really love your Guns, so would you.

Whatever.


…..RVM45

[headlesshorseman]

I think that gluttony is the only one I missed. I tried it once and my ankles and knees started hurting, so i quit.

I agree about the bodyguards. I don't know of that many people that I would trust that much. any bodyguard is a mercenary and can be bought by someone else.