After the formal surrender of Japan’s naval base in Yokosuka, I became eligible for discharge in ‘46, meaning that I had to surrender my trusty Browning Automatic Rifle that got me out of some hot spots in the past. There were no gun laws then; it was simply a matter of turning in government property. I was permitted to keep a Japanese bolt-action rifle I had picked up during the mop-up days at Okinawa but had to turn in its ammo clip. This souvenir was stolen aboard ship going home, but I explained it away: being a city kid who really had no interest in gun-collecting anyway. Besides I still had a Rising Sun flag and a Japanese officer’s binoculars stuffed in my seabag.
In my day everybody knew that high-powered rifles and hand machine guns were readily available to the underworld, supplied by unscrupulous gun makers. Yet if we could believe the old G-Men movies, these were limited to the Mafia, kooks, and genuine gun collectors; hunters were content with their buckshot, the Winchester hung over from the Wild West, and the vintage bolt-action‘03s. It was not until the DOD demanded greater fire power by modifying the size of the magazine that holds significantly more cartridges, did the imagination of gun owners take hold — why settle for an eight round clip when a lousy marksman can be armed with a rifle of sixteen or more to spray the sky for a duck?
Though shooting down continuance of the assault weapon ban was disappointing, realistically banning these are cosmetic and symbolic of a nation’s frenzy of “gotta have” — despite and because of terrorism. As long as there are uncontrolled global gun manufacturers bent on arming the world, no gun law will be effective — the hell with domestic tranquility.
Still, as an old BAR-man who carried a magazine belt containing two hundred deadly cartridges, I think it’s a bit much that one has the right to demand even more for his hunting trip, even if limited to a Garand enhanced rapid fire semi-automatic. On the other hand, these goodies are there for the taking and what consumer does not want more of the latest gadgets? Guns are like cell phones — “can you hear me now, squirrel?”
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: September 29, 2004.
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