A blast from the past

© FMG Publications

Regular readers know I write the monthly "Rights Watch" column for Guns Magazine. I've written before about one of my favorite features that they offer on their website:

Every month this magazine presents...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.

The February 1959 issue is up, and in addition to everything I love about going through these old issues, the classic ads, the prices, the reminder of a freer time, this one contains a wealth of sentiment that should cause modern readers to pause and reflect on.

First, you need to click here to access the link for download. Note that the file size is 13+MB, so this may be problematic for those of you on dial-up.

There's a lot to see along the way to where I want to take you, the Chicago museum curator on page 4, the "hero of the East Side" (Detroit!) on page 6 (immediately followed by the Kentucky "Only One" with a quandary), and then we strike pay dirt, the "Crossfire" section of letters to the editor, beginning on page 10.

OK, the first guy seems a mite confused on how laws restricting carry might not make New Mexico the gun owners' haven he regards it as, but the observers on page 11 more than make up for their wayward contemporary.

First, we have "Arm Us and Make Us Strong!"

A populace where everyone could shoot, had a rifle and plenty of ammunition, would make invasion impossible. It is also in the great tradition of the Founding Fathers.

...Every man and woman in this country, and every child over 10 should know how to handle a rifle and how to shoot.

Guess who the letter writer was? And how many newspaper publishers today share this sentiment?

Then there's "Soldier Says 'Keep Your Guns.'"

I intend to keep all of them, law or no law!

I'll let you go through the gun and shooting and hunting stuff without comment, well maybe just one, to call your attention to the "Buffalo Bill" article starting on page 18, oh, and the "World's Biggest Shooting Match" on page 24, but where I really wanted to take you next was to a picture on page 36, from "THESE are the WINNERS of 1958 Guns POLICE AWARDS," and importantly, its caption:

Bakersfield, Cal., Lieutenant Seaman has trained thousands of young shooters in his classes conducted during spare time. Four thousand young hunters with no accidents got him award.

What does this tell us of the difference in attitudes then and now? And how credible does it make the argument of the gunhaters that the best remedy for kids and guns is ignorance and avoidance?

There's a lot of other stuff I'd love to point out, from calling foxes to building your own cannon, but I'm wrapping this up so you'll have to find those articles on your own. There is one last article I want to call your attention to, and urge you to read in full. The magazine felt it important enough to warrant breaking their "no reprints" policy.

Turn to "Should You Own a Gun?" by Karl Hess, beginning on page 46.

Freedom is never thought into existence. It is fought into existence. And that is the way it is kept-by men with the arms to protect their prize.

Today it is the same.

Read what he says about registration. Read what he says about communists, and their domestic dupes. Read what he says about restrictive gun laws and crime, about disarmed Britain, about "Mothers' groups," about national defense... And while, with the benefit of hindsight we might challenge what he means by "illicit concealment," the balance of the article is a treasure, both of truth and as an insight into how "gun rights" were perceived in a time many of us still remember.

Those of us who do recall know how far we have fallen. And we've committed ourselves to breaking that fall, to rising again to the challenge of freedom, and to reclaiming it for a generation that we pray will be free to dust off our words half a century from now.

It is our obligation and task to ensure his ultimate conclusion still holds true today:

Finally, there is the matter of the sort of freedom for which America stands. It is a freedom of individual men. It is a freedom of individual responsibility and individual rights. It abhors the collective, effete "safeties" of old er, tired nations in which the people must be " protected" from themselves. It is a freedom which, if it ever came to it, would be fought for on every single American doorstep.

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Want more?

If you enjoyed reading this old issue of Guns, you will definitely enjoy reading more of them. All issues for 1955, 1956 and 1957 are now available on CD-ROM. You can order them here.

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And now it's time for a shameless personal plug...

"The Message of Mumbai" is my Rights Watch column for the April 2009 issue of Guns Magazine.

You can read it by clicking here. But if you want the entire issue, and I think you'll enjoy it, you can pick up a copy at newstands now.

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COLUMN UPDATE

I just received an email from Len Savage:

Lou Dobbs will be discussing the Olofson case, and the ATF arrest of my device.  Herb Titus, Olofson's new attorney, and myself will be live via satellite on tonight's show.

Dobbs is on CNN. Check your local listings.