Saturday, January 16, 2016

Freedom

I remember when anyone could buy a gun from a catalog and the US Post Office would deliver it to your house.  I've told the kids about this and they're amazed, but Brownells recently put a picture of one of their old catalogs on Facebook and I sucked it off of their Facebook page.

You can click on the picture to enlarge it, but a new Ruger Mark 1, bull barrel for $112.50.  What a deal.  Just fill out the order form in the back of the catalog, enclose a money order, and in a couple of weeks, your new pistol would come to your door.  No background check, no questions asked.

I wanted to buy a pistol out of the back of Field and Stream magazine, but Momma wouldn't let me.  I was about 10 years old at the time.  But, by the time I got to be 12 years old, I bought my first pump shotgun from the old McBride Rod and Gun Club at the now defunct England Air Force Base.  It was a Winchester Model 1200 and it cost me $87.50.  I saved that money myself by working Saturdays as a skeet boy for 50 cents per hour.  This was in 1965.

Of course, all that came to an end in 1968.  Congress passed a gun control law and freedom declined just a little bit.  Today, when people talk about gun control, I remember when a kid could walk into a gun shop, plunk down his money and buy a gun.

Freedom!  Let Freedom Ring.

7 comments:

Ed Jones said...

I bought my first .22 rifle with the money I made setting pins at the church two lane bowling alley. We made 1.50 a line, I could make 9.00 a night if I set both lanes. Would have been 1958 or 1959, I think I was 12 years old, bought it a Wards by my self on my bicycle.

Anonymous said...

I still have a Remington .22 single shot rifle my father ordered from Sears & Roebuck in 1930 when he was 15 years old. I still use it to pop squirrels.

Old NFO said...

Yep, sadly those days (and prices) are gone forever...

Anonymous said...

Cool! I actually have one of those bull-barrel Ruger Mark I pistols. It's super accurate. Oddly, I paid about 120 bucks for it used, so substantially less than it cost when offered new in that Brownells ad. I count that a win.

Happy days!

Denis (from the GC)

Anonymous said...

I bought my first gun, a .22 from a friend for $15 when I was 12. Dad didn't even know I had it. Got the money from mowiong lawns and shovling snow at $.25 to $.50 per lawn. Shot it out in 3 years so it wouldn't hold fireing pins. Sold it to a cousin gor $15 and walked to a neiboring town to buy a $35 dollor replacement. Walked back home with it and a brick of ammo. Had a good time shooting it on the way. Still have it.

Anonymous said...

As Gun owners, we have compromised too much already. Time to remove Brady and NFA laws.

Bibliotheca Servare said...

And remind me how many mass shootings were performed by those kids? Lots, right? No? Whaaaat? You mean there weren't more massacres by kids and lunatics before unconstitutional gun laws were "passed"? Say it ain't so! I mean the NY Times assured me that gun laws prevent criminals from using guns to hurt people! There's no way they were full of bullpucky...right? The "news" orgs *never* lie- *hacking, choking sounds* okay, I couldn't keep it up...seriously how do such spectacular examples of human stupidity survive? I'd think they'd forget how to breathe! ;-)