Transporting firearms

It’s interesting, I found a book recently that I purchased in 1955 from the Weekly Readers Book Club while in grade school. The two kids in it go to their uncle Emmett’s MT sheep ranch and the first thing uncle Emmitt does is arm them with a .22 rifle to shoot gophers. Later in the book they purchase a Savage hi-powered rifle and ship it to their Dad whose recovering in a San Francisco hospital from wounds suffered in Korea. Their Dad writes back how he keeps the gun in his hospital room and proudly shows it to all the doctors and nurses that stop by. In addition, my late wife used to collect Nancy Drew books, in one of the books Nancy finds herself planning to visit a person she’s intimidated by. Her attorney father can’t go with her but hands her his revolver to take with her for self-protection.

Back in the early 1960’s I used to walk through my village (in IL of all places) carrying a shotgun or rifle on my way to go pheasant or squirrel hunting. The only time I was ever stopped by the police was when they wanted information about good places to go hunting.

The good old days weren’t perfect but at least we didn’t live with the paranoia that we live with today. Guns were recognized for what they were, tools and the danger came not from the tool (be it a gun, or a knife, or a hammer, or an axe, or a bat) but from the person holding that tool.

My how evolved we are these days…