NEVER FIRED A GUN
I don’t think kids have toy guns any more. Well they probably exist, but I’ll bet in most places they are frowned upon. Guns are bad. Guns kill people and animals, and they break things. Some people like guns. They enjoy target practice and hunting. My friend Frog is always trying to get to try skeet shooting. Can't do it.
Guns scare me.
I probably don’t like guns because I was taught as a child to not like guns, right?
Nope.
When I was a kid I loved playing with toy guns. I had toy pistols and toy rifles. I played with other kids in the neighborhood. We hid behind trees and garbage cans and shot at each other.
We didn’t just yell “Pow Pow” or “Blam Blam” or even “Bang Bang” though I do recall being able to imitate the ricochet noise we learned from watching westerns, we had caps and cap guns. Stick’em caps were the most realistic but you had to reload often. Roll caps were the best, kind of like real assault weapons. Oh how I loved the smell of cap powder in the afternoon.
We shot each other, we shot imaginary Indians (that would be Native Americans) we shot Japs (sorry, we still weren’t eating sushi in the fifties) and we shot wild animals along with “Rama of the Jungle” on TV. My brothers had a BB gun. They shot little rubber army men and an occasional bird. I came from a family of toy guns.
I’ve never fired a real gun. I don’t think either of my brothers ever fired a real gun. My oldest brother once went deer hunting with some Navy buddies. He bought a new rifle and other stuff just for the hunt. When he had the chance to take down a deer he could not pull the trigger.
Actually I guess Jim did have to learn to fire a gun as an officer in the Navy, but I don’t think he ever aimed at anything other than a target.
Well there was that groundhog incident. My mom had a thing against groundhogs, but Jim missed on purpose.
I remember my pop once shot a squirrel with his friend from Louisiana. He was depressed for a week.*
What is your point Cranky?
I don’t know, for some reason I remembered cap guns and started to ramble. Maybe my point is children’s toys and children’s games do not necessarily lead to similar behavior as adults. Maybe it sometimes gets it out of their systems.
My point is not that hunting is bad, or that people should not have guns. If I lived in the sticks I would greet every stranger coming down my dirt road with a “howdy” and a shotgun by my side.
So there; no point. I don’t like guns; I loved playing with toy guns.
So what?
*Italics indicate a wondering mind.
Post familiar? re-run from July 2015
I don't mind guns. I think they're necessary but not in the hands of the mentally ill. Maybe there should be a form you have to fill out in order to get a gun... Oh. Wait..There is. And still the whackos and criminals can get their hands on them which is why the responsible gun owners roar about the 2nd amendment.. And around and around we go.
ReplyDeleteSo much fun for all those with toy guns. They were happy days. And now it's knives! How did that come about, I wonder. Was it perhaps the withdrawal of toy guns?
ReplyDeleteI remember cap guns, my brother had two, a matched pair worn in twin holsters, but I never got to play with them. Whenever we played 'Cowboys and Indians' (native Americans) I always had to be the Indian and get shot "dead". Then he graduated to a BB gun and accidentally shot a neighbour….
ReplyDeletemy daughter and a friend went to a gun range once to try out, just for fun. There were two types of handguns, a Glock and another that I don't remember. They shot at paper targets like they do on TV and she said the other gun felt awkward and she couldn't hit the target, but the Glock felt really comfortable in her hand and she "killed" that target with five shots to the chest, all in a nice close spacing. But they never went again and K doesn't own any guns nor does she want to.
A very difficult subject requiring expert input, JoeH. In previous generations boys played with toy guns, toy police cars, tanks and toy soldiers. Girls played with dolls, and replica cooking utensils and nursing kits. Today ... life is so different with so many experts on every subject under the sun. I know of schools for children aged about 7 or 8 where they are banned if they point their fingers at each other like guns and go bang bang bang.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
My thoughts are that just because we have the right to bear arms doesn't mean everyone needs to or should.
ReplyDeleteI also had capd guns and played 'shoot em up' games with friends....getting older I had a pellet rifle and shot a bird in the wing, the cat got it...I never shot a gun again.
ReplyDeleteThis is the story of my husbands young life. He played with them. Went hunting and couldn't kill the deer staring at him. End of guns. I only wish more people did this and felt this way.
ReplyDeleteAs retired cops we have many guns. Hubby loads his own rounds for different guns. It's part of the landscape here and if you live where we do in California you had better be armed. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteHave a fabulous day, Joe. ♪♫♪♫
I do have two guns. A pistol (I am an old lady living alone) and a varmint rifle (for poisonous snakes). I only hunted once as a child and I tortured a rabbit due to my poor aim and never did it again. I just kept wounding him and he kept going---it was horrible. I cried a lot.
ReplyDelete"If I lived in the sticks I would greet every stranger coming down my dirt road with a “howdy” and a shotgun by my side." Say what?
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have need for a gun in the deadly violent city ain't no way you'd need one in the safer sticks.
You been listening to too many banjos I think!
I feel much safer in my suburb than I would in an area where my neighbors were miles apart, not banjos, common sense...at least it is to me, but then I'm a jerk so...
DeleteEven though I was a girl I played with guns made from wood to look like a gun we played cops robbers and cowboys. Wouldn't it be nice if kids would get out and play like we did instead of using their phones and playing war games on the computer? I haven't shot a gun in a long time, but I have one loaded in my house and would shoot it if somebody got brave enough to break in.
ReplyDeleteLiving in the middle of nowhere, we have quite an armory. It's the culture. Kind of a collector thing. An investment. We don't greet people with them, but there IS one that is accessible if needed. I've never shot any of them. Let the record show that a headless body was found in a septic tank less than half a mile up our gravel road. The guy wasn't shot, but was beaten to death with a baseball bat over a drug debt. I don't recall where his head was recovered. It's kind of creepy, knowing that his body was driven right past our house.
ReplyDeleteLove this because it has no point but, it does. Not everything has to have a point to be entertaining. You reminded me of my little silver cap gun when I used to be a cowgirl when I was about 7, with my cowboy hat and holster. I loved the smell of gun caps too. I dislike guns now. I was anti guns with my two boys but the youngest grew up to be in the armed section of the UK police; he is around guns every minute of his working days and nights. So there we are. You just don't know how things will turn out.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is fun to shoot targets, it would not be fun to have to grab one in self defense, and i know i wouldn't use it anyway.
ReplyDeleteI fired a gun. I did it once (actually shot 3 bullets). Hubby/son both have guns. Hubby wanted me to go to the shooting range with them and asked me if I would shoot the gun. I said okay but that I would only do it a few times and then probably not again. I respect guns like I respect the ocean. I'm not good at swimming so I know to stay close to water's edge. I don't particularly want a gun around but if hubby does, then as long as everything is stored safely then I'm okay with them. I said this before. Boys will use anything as a weapon if they don't have access to toy guns. Saw it in my child and saw it in his child (who now has a toy gun but I didn't get it for him.) I live in an open carry state. It does freak me out a bit to walk by someone with a gun in their holster who is not a policeman. I honestly don't think I could use a gun to inflict harm on someone unless that someone was hurting those I loved especially the wee one. Then I would have to make sure I knew what I was doing before I attempted something and made a mess of things.
ReplyDeletebetty
As a Brit, it is SO interesting to read the comments about guns. We are given the impression that Americans are all gun mad and everyone has one ready loaded in their home. But it is clear from these comments that this is not the case for everyone. It's great how honest to goodness blogs written by us ordinary folk can help us understand each other's lives without the news putting its own devious slant on everything.
ReplyDeleteI remember this post from 2015. I can't remember what (or if) I commented back then, but today, this sentence made me giggle:
ReplyDeleteI remember my pop once shot a squirrel with his friend from Louisiana.
I'm picturing your pop holding his friend from Louisiana in his arms and pulling ... what? ... his hair? Arms?
;-)