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Remember when you could buy a gun anywhere?

3K views 39 replies 29 participants last post by  Match10 
#1 ·
I was just thinking of when I was a kid in the 70s(in Miami) and we had dept stores that sold hand guns, one was a store called JM Feilds, and Woolworth, and Woolco, I used to allways look at them and wanted to have one, now 40 years later you have to go to a gun shop or on line. :(
 
#4 ·
The neighborhood hardware store had a section in the corner by the check-out counter with a small selection of revolvers, shottys, and a few .22's.

Funny, I never remember seeing a semiautomatic pistol there......
 
#5 ·
Several of the Hardward stores here in Northeast Georgia still have large gun and outdoor sections. Habersham Hardware in Cornelia and Reeves in Clayton come to mind. Prices aren't the most competitive, but they have or will get it.

My favorite rifle ( Stolen years ago) was a marlin 1894 .357 that my dad bought when wolworths went out of buisness.

Their is still a little old school around, you just have to look for it now.

Take Care,

DAN
 
#7 ·
I remember our local hardware stores, ( in western Washington ) had a few rifles, .22s, air rifles/pistols and perhaps a shotgun or two.
 
#13 ·
I'm not old enough to remember all the places where guns were sold, but I do remember toting my BB gun, then later my .22 rifle, all around my neighborhood without inciting any panic. I remember a time when guns weren't taboo, and if a kid had a rifle he wasn't regarded as a school shooting suspect in need of psychiatric care.
 
#14 ·
Otasco hardware, Town & Country shopping center in Marietta. (Now the space is occupied by a Chinese all you can eat buffet).
Back in the early 1980s they sold both rifles and pistols. Fairly low quality stuff. Cheap prices. I think I bought some .22 ammo from them.

When I was in law school, I recall reading a case where some armed robber had tried to rob an Otasco hardware store in some other state, and got shot for his trouble. The injured young man hired an attorney to sue, on the theory that company policy prohibited store employees from being armed on the job. The assistant manager who shot the robber was violating that policy, and therefore his breach of this "duty" was the factual and proximate cause of the robber's painful and disabling injuries. He lost. The hardware store won.
 
#15 ·
If the gun-grabbers get their way, they won't stop at banning guns. They are against weapons generally, including knives, swords, martial-arts weapons, military bayonets, folding knives, hunting knives, and even chef's knives and other big kitchen knives. Ditto for all sorts of archery equipment, blowguns, airguns, etc.

And one day people will look back at the early 21st century and shake their heads at the unhealthy amount of freedom we had, where the government had no effective way of stopping kids from buying or shoplifting knives from sporting goods stores. Where crazy adults could order blackpowder guns and crossbows with laser sights from mail-order catalogs or the internet. Americans of the post-disarmament era will wonder if the blood was ankle-deep or knee-deep in our streets, knowing that as late as 2015 you could buy a samarai sword at a flea market or pawn shop, no ID, no age restrictions (by law-- maybe only by store policy), no questions asked.

In this future America, before you can buy a new Ginsu knife to cut celery in your kitchen, you'll have to sign a statement and the authorities will have to review how many big knives you have bought in the last 12 months, to make sure you're not a "straw purchaser" and sending these deadly weapons out onto the black market.
 
#17 ·
I bought my first rifle (an Enfield .303) at a Murphy's "Five and Dime" store in Pennsylvania, in 1956. They had a huge bin of them in the middle of an aisle. My mother was with me, but I made the purchase myself, as an eleven year old. :shock: I had mowed lawns all summer, to save up the $9.95 for the purchase, plus another buck for a box of surplus ammo. My uncle had told me how to check the barrels, so I ask the clerk to borrow a round, and he gave one to me. I think I inserted that bullet into the end of every rifle in the bin, to find the one that was "shot out" the least. I was one very proud kid, carrying my rifle out of the store.
 
#18 ·
Half the guys at my high school had shotguns or rifles on gun racks in their pickup trucks in the school parking lot. During hunting season this number went up to about 75%. They were in plain sight, and most of the time, the vehicles weren't even locked. Nobody stole stuff out of our trucks and nobody shot up the school with their guns. Of course, this was back in the day, in rural Alabama. Even some of the girls had them too.

As for pocketknives, the ratio would have been about 100%; this would include students, teachers, and the principal.

In 2010 in an urban environment, we'd have all been felons.
 
#19 ·
Nullifier said:
Half the guys at my high school had shotguns or rifles on gun racks in their pickup trucks in the school parking lot. During hunting season this number went up to about 75%. They were in plain sight, and most of the time, the vehicles weren't even locked. Nobody stole stuff out of our trucks and nobody shot up the school with their guns. Of course, this was back in the day, in rural Alabama. Even some of the girls had them too.

As for pocketknives, the ratio would have been about 100%; this would include students, teachers, and the principal.

In 2010 in an urban environment, we'd have all been felons.
Substitute [s:36exdtpw]in rural Alabama[/s:36exdtpw] insert in rural middle Tennessee
 
#23 ·
You have to remember folks that back in the day a lot of people farmed for personal consumption as well as for a living and a rifle or shotgun was just another farm tool. A lot of people up until the 70's hunted regularly for food and actually ate what they shot.

People were just generally outdoors more than they are now. I'm not that old (I don't think) but I can remember hunting both alone and with other people growing up on a regular basis. Heck I was squirrell and rabbit hunting by myself at 8 years old and bringing home some pretty good meals. I had my own .22, .410 and 30-30 and knew how to use each very well.
 
#24 ·
I remember two separate stores at a local mall that had firearms for sale, both stores were at Cumberland Mall and this was during the late 70's, it is sad that the mindset change has affected material objects in the manner to where they are shunned from all but a local gun store, I miss those days also.

My favorite store of all time was a little convenience store on Macland Rd. just off Austell Rd. which is located in South Cobb Co.

There was a convenience store / gas station there but the hidden gem was only a few steps away, just a few feet away from the counter was a set of steps, once you stepped down into the back room it opened up substantially, within this area were the things that kept young kids and outdoor oriented adults awake at night.

The place was named "Michael's Trading Post" Michael was an old man by my standards but my father and grandfather knew him well, he was the type of avid outdoorsman that could provide valuable information on an almost endless variety of topics, trapping, taxidermy, fishing, camping, reloading and of course long rifles, smooth-bores and sidearms.

It was a store filled the things that stole your sleep for many a night and captivated you often in the form of daydreams. The inventory always seemed to be a perfect mix of the finest examples and at very fair prices, we spent many a day mulling around and spending our allowance on various things at that place.

Michael would also let a young boy put something on lay away and he would give you a ticket and say "come back anytime for visiting hours if you like, I will tuck it away down here until your return" , many times he would take the initiative to smooth the action or tweak the item to perfection prior to your payoff. When you picked the firearm up it would have a smoothness that just wasn't there when you first rolled the cylinder or stroked the action.

He never charged for the additional work and always accompanied a new firearm with a free 50 round box of cartridges, all he would do is smile as you readied everything to leave.

That was my fondest memory and it just so happens that it comes from the back of an old school convenience store.

Sad indeed, that those times are gone but those very fond and warm memories will last me forever.
 
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