Posted on 09/26/2016 5:11:12 AM PDT by rellimpank
I grew up with guns. Along with my boyhood pals, I grew up coveting, collecting and running wild with guns. "Let's play guns!" was our sham battle cry during those innocent years, the 1940s and '50s. While girls were jumping rope and playing jacks, we boys were shooting up the neighborhood. Depending on the season, we were just as likely to have been playing baseball, basketball or football. But "guns" was our sport for all seasons, fair weather and foul, indoors and out.
From prekindergarten years until adolescence, guns had a powerful grip on our imaginations and our sporting lives, mostly through the movies of that era, with comic books in a seductive supporting role. And while I eventually outgrew my physical attachment to guns, I was left with a retro affection for what are euphemistically called "action movies," ancient and modern — an unwholesome habit that's been harder to break than tobacco products.
Thanks to our precocious diet of action movies, my grade school buddies and I also acquired an encyclopedic fixation on guns — their makes and models, the advantages of revolvers vs. automatics, double- vs. single-action. We mainlined on their mechanisms, their ergonomics, their metallic luster, the length of their barrels, while adding as many specimens to our home arsenals as our parents would allow.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I never wish to fire a gun in self-defense either. However, given a choice between firing a gun in self-defense or not having one when my life, my wife's life, or my children's lives are in danger, I will make the only moral decision, and that is not to be a pansy/sissy/liberal (whatever the politically correct term is for someone with no guts).
Quite the opposite, Normally he isn’t interested in any of the stuff I do. This shows him the reality of his shoot em up video games. It’s serious business.
You loathe the dollars trilogy? GB&tU? That’s one of the best movies of all time.
When I was a kid, I had toy guns, BB guns, and REAL guns. And I knew the difference!
Yup, circular saw is one of the scariest things around. Damn near cut my finger off with one of those. Very careful now!
Excellent!
Normally he isn’t interested in any of the stuff I do. This shows him the reality of his shoot em up video games. It’s serious business.
It also gives you a mental "point of contact" ... something that catches both of your interests. It's very important for parents to find points of contact with their children, particularly as their children grow into adults.
Did any real kid ever say “Let’s play guns!” ?
I remember some liberal telling me, regarding road rage, that pointing your finger at someone and pretending to shoot them was just as serious as pointing a real gun.
I had to explain to them the difference between pointing a finger and a gun. I said, “Imagine I’m a guy you just cut off in traffic.” I pointed my finger at him. I asked them how that made them feel. Then I asked them to imagine that what I was holding was not a finger, but a gun, and they are looking down the barrel of a 9 MM glock. Yes, they admitted that it was emotionally different.
We used to say something like that. My childhood was late-50’s, early 60’s.
But the function of “playing guns” is learning the concept of protecting your family and your stuff. Remember girls liking to be tied up or “locked” in a room (usually a square made out of rocks) while one boy protected them from another boy? We used to play that sort of stuff back in the 1st to 5th grade years. It’s about learning to be a man who protects his family.
Sure, it can become too rough as you get older, but that is part of the risk of hanging around human beings. They can be quite dangerous, but usually are not.
We all had a BANG shooting time.
We played gun games all the time. We wanted to be be just like our movie heros. We had silly old fashioned fantasies of being like John Wayne or Roy Rogers. We wanted to protect women and children and the helpless and then modestly ride into the sunset. (Or maybe get the pretty girl) Good thing society has changed and we now hold Pajama boy in higher esteem than archaic characters like John Wayne.
I never saw a spaghetti western until I got in the military, really. My education was the same as yours.
Interestingly enough, three of Clint Eastwood’s best Spaghetti Westerns were actually filmed in Spain. (Italian Director Leone though).
Camouflage and moulage!
Sometimes, real blood was available, free of charge. LOL
Agreed. It's certainly right up there. And shot through, more or less literally, with...
Let’s play guns!”
Yep I remember playing war too. We would divide into teams, and the bad guys team would be “Japs” or “Jerries”. Oh my God all us kids would go to reeducation camps today........
“Funny, we played a game called “War” where we played out WWII, following the epic programs like “Combat”, “12 O’clock High” and “Rat Patrol”. We killed the Nazis with sticks (rifles), stones (hand grenades) and other objects.”
When we were fighting soviets, we would throw a nuclear bomb out the door. It took care of them every time.
Sheesh, this guy must be getting paid by the word. “Gosh, Hollywood sure makes a lot of movies with gunfights.”
The author lives in his own made up fantasy world.
How long ago it seems. We played cowboys and Indians when I was a kid. Sticks were our imaginary rifles. Some kids had cap guns as their pistols. Those who were the Indians used sticks and kite string to make a bow and shot imaginary arrows. I don’t recall anyone getting hurt other than the occasional scrapped knee suffered when falling while chasing or running from the other side.
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