Jay Cronley: Townfolk peaceable as new law takes effect
BY JAY CRONLEY World Staff Columnist
Friday, November 02, 2012
11/02/12 at 3:13 AM
I woke up thinking about "Do not forsake me oh my darling," the opening lyrics to "High Noon," a classic Western matching good versus its opposite in a shootout that would define frontier justice.
Would this be the main drag in some Oklahoma town?
Might it even be my street?
Would the painters doing work across the way come packing heat today?
Would the landscapers up the block show up with double-crossed belts of ammo on their chests?
Might the cold steel of a six-shooter glimmer in the sunshine as a delivery person comes up the hill?
Yesterday was the dawning of this state's open-carry gun law enthusiastically endorsed by Annie Oakley, who is the governor.
Would car horns honk less?
Might tempers be tempered?
Would people start picking up where their dogs went to the bathroom?
Might manners return?
You're going to ask to see a person's open-carry permit?
Maybe these permits should be packed and pinned openly as well.
Gunplays well with others: I have had mixed results with guns, making a weak "C" in ROTC, thought to have been next to impossible up to that point.
The classroom portion of ROTC had to do with analyzing topography, the sizes of hills and dales, and military strategy. The field work was about cleaning and firing your rifle, shining your brass uniform accents, maintaining a proper uniform, and marching.
Shooting straight and marching straight were recurring problems.
As I explained to the shooting instructor, I kicked left-footed and threw right-handed. Maybe that had something to do with the off-center marksmanship.
My family on my father's side was from Nebraska and had a successful history of game-bird hunting.
I inherited a shotgun from that grandfather and stopped on the way to a shooting range for some ammunition, only to be told by the proprietor of the store that the gun had a badly worn glass barrel and would have probably exploded in my face the first time I pulled a trigger.
Minding my manners: After having made the rounds in my neighborhood and through some stores, the launch of the open-carry times didn't bring on thoughts of Dodge City and Marshal Dillon.
Yesterday appeared to be a day like any other.
I might have seemed like a slightly better person, but it could have been my imagination.
Maybe it works this way: Maybe lunatics can't get open-carry permits.
Original Print Headline: Townfolk peaceable as new law takes effect
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