Blast from the Past

Every month this magazine presents on its Web site (www.gunsmagazine.com) a complete issue from the corresponding month of half a century ago. It’s like opening a time capsule and getting not just a glimpse, but a real understanding of what a different time that was. It’s proven to be one of the more popular features I link to on my own website, both for old-timers and especially for younger readers.

These links have proven to be one of the more appreciated features here at WarOnGuns in terms of site visits and comments, and we have a new one just below this post. "Blast from the Past," my Rights Watch column for the Dec. 2006 issue of GUNS Magazine, is now online.

GUNS Magazine, December 1956

Veteran vs. Sullivan Law

The articles published, month after month in GUNS have been so consistently imaginative, exciting, authoritative, and well, just excellent in every way that they will eventually lead me to an advanced stage of frustration. You see, I am a die-hard pistol enthusiast who is unable to get his hands on even an air-pistol, much less the real product. Why?

Because local and state laws prohibit the average citizen to possess pistols and revolvers, And I'm average...

The U. S. Government spent a great deal of time and money to teach me to shoot a pistol effectively. In fact, it even went to great lengths to provide me with the proper live moving targets: mostly North Koreans. Now I hate like blazes to lose this hard earned talent because of some silly and non-effective gun laws. The morning papers prove every single day that there is no shortage of weapons among the underworld citizenry of the city. In fact, even the younger elements seem well heeled. No doubt, with little effort, I too could get my hands on one of these "hot rods," but since I enjoy the status of an honest lawful citizen this method is and always will be out. Frankly, I'm up against it.

I sincerely hope that this letter will be published for it may help arouse the sleeping pen hands of other weaponless pistol enthusiasts. Perhaps if we make enough noise the sleeping councilmen down at city hall may take another look at our gun laws.

Ray Zanon
New York City

This was written 50 years ago.

Sorry, Mr. Zanon--not enough of your generation perceived the threat. And I can't say with confidence that enough of us do today.

The December 1956 issue of GUNS Magazine is now online.

Also in this issue:

• "Is the Single Action the Perfect Revolver?
• "How Good Were Indians as Shooters?"
• "Why No Left-Handed Rifles"
• "World's Biggest Gun Collection"
• Classic ads of the period
• And much more

Pack the Peace of Christ or We'll Kill You

Through worship, rap and the spoken word the conference, held at Philadelphia Mennonite School, delivered a Christian message of peace, urging participants to 'pack the peace of Christ', instead of a gun.

I don't care if they dance through life with eyes closed and arms upraised singing "Kumbaya," but they then go on to advocate a host of citizen disarmament edicts, that is, imposing their "religion" on the rest of us--under force of state arms.

In the words of a 1747 Philadelphia sermon:

"He that suffers his life to be taken from him by one who has no authority for that purpose, when he might preserve it by defense, incurs the Guilt of self murder since God has enjoined him to seek the continuance of his life, and Nature itself teaches every creature to defend [it]self."

These fools can self-murder all they want and I won't force my will on them--just leave me and mine out of the equation.

I'm also reminded of a Woody Allen line:

"The lion will lie down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t get much sleep."

Imaginary Gun Violence on Rise in Maine

State officials say there have been 19 bank robberies this year, more than any year in recent memory. They also say in almost all of them, the robbers showed a gun or claimed they had one.

The answer is obvious. Maine banks need to modify their "No Guns Allowed" signs to include theoretical ones.

This Day in History: December 4

A force of Continental dragoons commanded by Colonel William Washington--General George Washington’s second cousin once removed--corners Loyalist Colonel Rowland Rugeley and his followers in Rugeley’s house and barn near Camden, South Carolina, on this day in 1780.