Guns

Discussion in 'Other Reminiscences' started by Ken Anderson, Feb 11, 2017.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I know that things might have been different in other part of the country but when I was in high school in the UP of Michigan, kids who had pickup trucks had gun racks on the back window. There were guns in them, and they were often loaded. Many of those without pickup trucks had guns under their seat. That was in the school parking lot, and many of us didn't even lock our doors. The police might pull us over for speeding, but the presence of a gun in the car didn't phase them a bit.

    It's not that we were violent. Although a lot of people hunted, no one ever shot anyone. People might get into fist fights, but the loser didn't reach for a gun to settle the score that way, and most of us didn't even get into fist fights.

    During hunting seasons, some kids would go hunting after school. School let off for the first week of deer season, but there were other hunting seasons as well. I didn't hunt, but I still enjoyed guns. We'd do target shooting although, admittedly, the targets were sometimes road signs. Most often, they were bottles and cans that people tended to throw out of their car windows in those days. Judging by the bullet holes that I see in "Moose Crossing" signs around here, I am guessing that part hasn't changed so much.

    Guns were, by no means, an obsession. They were just there. Gun safety courses were taught in the schools, and kids would bring their own guns. I didn't take any gun safety courses in school because I had already done that through the Boy Scouts, but I know that the school had a gun range.

    There were very few accidents, although I don't know of anyone who kept their guns in a gun safe. One of my friends shot his hand off putting his loaded shotgun back into the case while he was in elementary school, but that's the only gun accident I was aware of. His hook was the envy of every kid in school, although I am sure he didn't see only the positive side of it.

    Putting a loaded shotgun back into a sliding gun case was a stupid thing to do, and I'm sure he knew that too, but he got careless, or maybe he forgot that it was loaded, I don't know.

    But there were very few accidents, and no incidents of gun violence, yet nearly every kid had access to guns, at least since elementary school. There was a kid whose father owned the gas station in town, and he was the only one I knew of who wasn't allowed to touch a gun.

    Different parents had different rules, of course. A couple of my cousins could take their guns out whenever they wanted to after the age of twelve or so, and we did some dumb stuff with them; although not so dumb that we hurt ourselves or anyone else. I was supposed to ask to use the gun, even though I had my own gun; mom would always say no, and my dad wanted to know what I would be doing with it, and where. I didn't always follow those rules when he wasn't around, but those were the rules.

    From what I understand, that is pretty much the way things were in Millinocket until fairly recently. Still, most local kids have guns, but there are a lot of kids here now whose parents moved here from Massachusetts or somewhere, and there are teachers here now who would panic if a kid so much as drew a picture of a gun.

    Things have changed so much in a fairly short time, and I am troubled by that. You might argue that things had to change because people have changed, and I suppose you're right. Yet, I can't help but believe that the only kids around here who would pose a threat with a gun are the ones who moved here from Massachusetts, or New York, or from places where the gun culture has been seen only among the criminal element.

    I know also that this is pretty much of a rural America thing, and that if you grew up in a large city, you will probably be unable to identify with it. You may even have always viewed guns as being horrible, violent things.

    By the way, I decided to post this here rather than in the "Hot Button Issues" area because I'm not looking for an argument about gun control. My comments here are meant to address the changes that I have seen during my lifetime, and even in the past couple of decades.
     
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  2. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    That's how it was when I was growing up too @Ken Anderson. I always saw gun racks with shotguns and rifles on them in almost every pickup truck that was on the roads in the rural areas where we lived. My brothers and I even had a 22 rifle that we shot squirrels and rabbits with so my mom could make a tasty meal to eat with them. We also shot at old cans, etc. and we were taught from the moment that rifle was given to us never to point it at anyone, and never to leave it loaded when it wasn't in use, etc. Before that real gun, we all had play guns and we played Cowboys and Indians all the time. We never had a thought in our minds to use either the play guns or the real rifle to really kill anyone or even hurt them. The changes that have come in our lifetime terrify me sometimes. I don't feel that terror for myself but for my children and grandchildren and what is ahead of them.

    All my daughters and their husbands have guns now with permits (which is another thing we did not have to have back then) and their guns are for protecting their families and their selves. I don't like this but I am in absolute agreement with them that this is just as necessary as having insurance on their homes and vehicles. The fact that my children also have alarm systems in their homes is something that wasn't necessary for us either when we were growing up, we didn't even lock our doors most of the time when we went somewhere...it just wasn't necessary.

    But life now isn't like that at all. It scares the hell out me when I think how much things have changed from when I was even a teenager. I think that is sometimes why I get afraid when I think of traveling too...America just isn't a safe place to be anymore but I don't think moving would help because I don't think there are any safe places in this world now days.

    Guns were invented out of necessity and from the beginning they were used to help put food on the table and for protection. Now we really don't need them to put food on the table but we need them more than ever for protection.

    My Honey and I don't have a gun and I don't want one but I count it as a blessing that my children understand the need for theirs to protect their families in this crazy world we are now living in.
     
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  3. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    We're the same age @Ken Anderson and I went to school in Pittsburgh and I never even saw a gun until I met my husband in Chicago. Nobody that I knew talked about or had guns, nobody that I knew went hunting when I was School age. My best friend's father was a policeman but I never saw his gun either. Nobody even had a pick up truck that I can recall.

    It's funny how even though we grew up in the same time period our experiences were so different. We always lived in the city, maybe that's it...I don't know.
     
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  4. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    We had a couple of guns leaning against the wall by the door, not for fear of needing them against people, but for things like fox in the chicken house, or coyotes. We had no need of protection against people.
     
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  5. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Well we didn't need a gun for any animals in our subdivision but there wasn't any crime either. We probably locked the doors at night but not during the day.
     
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  6. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    That was the time the world was sensible we would walk through town with our shot guns and rifles and no one even the police stopped us or ask questions. No one stared, nothing was said, and no fear it has really changed with the scare techniques that the media has caused.
     
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  7. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    It was the same when I was growing up. Even though we lived in town, it was a small town, and my folks had mainly lived out in the country, so naturally they brought the rifles along when they moved into town. Most of the men and boys went hunting every fall, and it was an acceptable reason for absence from school when it said that you had missed all week because you were out at deer camp hunting with your dad.
    The boys that lived in the country and drove their pickup truck to school always had a gun rack and rifles in the back, and just about every other pickup in town did, too, especially during hunting season in the fall.
    The teachers or principal didn't care that the weapons were out there in the pickup trucks, and often they were out with some boy or another to admire a new hunting rifle, or some other new equipment.
    We didn't worry about being safe either, and I don't remember us ever locking the door to the house , whether we were home or gone all day to Spokane. Mom left the keys in the ignition of the car, sometimes even when we were in Spokane, although she was more apt to take them along in her purse when we were there.
    One time, we had gone to the park, and when we came back, the car radio was playing. Some kids had probably been sitting in the car and listening to the radio while we were gone.
    Probably part of the reason that people were able to live this way and not have to worry about a home invasion was just because the thiefs back then knew that most homes would have weapons, and they might get shot if they came in to do harm.
     
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