Trust

As for the idea that other peoples’ property is still sacred, consider this. Several years back at the big yearly cowboy action shoot called “End Of Trail” (held in Southern California back then), I managed to drop my wife’s brace of holstered Colt SAA revolvers off of our gun cart right smack in the middle of the parking lot. This wasn’t just the competitors’ parking lot, but the one open to the general public. Then in my fatigue I managed to not miss them for over an hour. When it finally clicked in my mind I had lost about $2,000 worth of handguns, my heart was in my throat as I retraced my steps. The guns were nowhere to be found. Then I thought of the lost and found booth and sure enough they were there. The finder didn’t leave a name, so I couldn’t even personally thank him or her.

The same is true for our weekend Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Silhouette matches held here in Montana. People travel for hundreds of miles around to attend, and many set up their gear, spotting scopes, range boxes, and various accessories under awnings and just leave them out all weekend. Never has anything disappeared. That’s the way it is in my gun culture.

Respect for Law

For a dozen years now I’ve engaged in selling the four books I’ve penned about shooting guns of the old west. Literally tens of thousands of checks and credit card numbers have been sent to me. Some of the latter came from as far away as Israel, Argentina and Australia. Among all those orders I’ve experienced precisely one bad check and one invalid credit card number. Interestingly, but perhaps meaninglessly, both of those came from women buying my books for boyfriends. That’s the way it is in my gun culture.

Also in my gun culture, people don’t shoot up road signs, farmer’s gates, rancher’s cattle, or anything else that shouldn’t be shot. People in my gun culture love to shoot, but they shoot at targets of paper or steel, or at legitimate game animals or varmints. Most people in my gun culture love competitions; not because they have to be top dog, but because competitions are their social events. People in my gun culture look forward to breaks in the games’ action or the end of the days shooting so they can visit with others. Then they talk about such things as the width and depth of grease grooves in their bullets, or how many lands and grooves their barrels have or what’s the best powder for such and such a caliber or gun.

In my gun culture people pay their bills and pay their taxes. They have an independent nature and don’t expect the government to take care of them. At the same time it seems like they’re always pitching in to help someone else.

People in my gun culture don’t watch Rosie O’Donnell no matter what venue she’s gravitated to. Neither do they worry much about who’s sleeping with whom in Hollywood. People in my gun culture do speak with reverence when they hear another American serviceman has been awarded the Medal of Honor in Iraq or Afghanistan and they hate it when they hear another of those young men or woman has taken a hit.

People in my gun culture are decent. They don’t dump puppies or kittens by the side of the road, mistreat children or hit women. I’m proud to be a member of my gun culture.