in-town gun toting stories???

[twofifty]

Ricky's thread on motorcycle carrying got me thinking about how things have changed wrt toting firearms without being hassled.

How many here remember being able, say as a 15yo kid, to strap a cased shotgun or .22 to your bike's top tube and pedal unnoticed and unhindered to your grouse or rabbit woods, all within a few miles of Big City limits?

How about taking the bus home from a centretown hardware store with a brand new shotgun, taken apart and wrapped in stout paper. Said shotgun was purchased by simply showing regular ID like a birth certificate.

Believe it or not, that was Ottawa in the early 1970s. Yes, big bad gun controlling Ottawa! Before trigger locks even!

Any other city, town or village gun toting stories?

[catnthehat]

Win94 had a great one of walking past the men waiting for the bus with a rifle.

When I was a kid it wasn't unusual for me to throw the .222 a rifle scabbard on the snowmobile , head over to the bell store and pick up some gas before hitting the bush.

Cat

[falco]

I used to go rabbit hunting on my pedal bike with my cooey bolt action repeater strapped to my back on a sling all the time. I would pedal through town (Drumheller) and would nary get a glance. The cottontails were plentiful then too. Ahhh, to go back to simpler times again! I still have that cooey and it still shoots good too.

[Bushrat]

We used to take guns on the school bus, stand them in the corner of the classroom, at lunch hour on fridays our grade 9 teacher Mr. Wishart ran a school rod and gun club where we'd go out behind the ball diamond for some plinking or shooting where we had a little range set up. I remember Mr. Hillman our bus driver would stop the bus for us to get out and shoot grouse sitting along the road when we went up over Vinegar hill. This was in rural N.B. in the 70's. He was the same driver that was always hung over, on those snowy mornings before the plow went through he made us kids get out and put the chains on whenever we went up that hill. If anybody on the bus was acting up he's stop the bus right wherever, throw you off, sometimes 10 miles from town in the middle of nowhere..... we were pretty well behaved kids.

[roger]

i got hauled into the police station cause i had a winchester defender all decked out in riot gear, (dual pistol grips, lites, shrouds, etc )it was next to the fishing rod in the rear window gunrack (when it was legal), the truck was locked and when i returned to it, I was questioned.
in the station overheard him arguing with the captain why "this gun is better than what 'they use' and why should i be allowed to have one'
half an hour later I was allowed to leave with my gun in tow...the young fed was not happy about either.
the whole incident, didnt improve my respect for the uniform.

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by roger

i got hauled into the police station cause i had a winchester defender all decked out in riot gear, (dual pistol grips, lites, shrouds, etc )it was next to the fishing rod in the rear window gunrack (when it was legal), the truck was locked and when i returned to it, I was questioned.
in the station overheard him arguing with the captain why "this gun is better than what 'they use' and why should i be allowed to have one'
half an hour later I was allowed to leave with my gun in tow...the young fed was not happy about either.
the whole incident, didnt improve my respect for the uniform.

Another fine example od someone not knowing their part of the job and the law!
Cat

[.270fan]

SO in the late eighties I was in highschool in Red Deer and joined the High School target shooting club. There was an indoor range next door to the school and we were told to bring our guns ( .22lr ) to school and keep them in our lockers..... CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NOW ???

Much more of an innocent time, and it was only 20 years ago..

[u_cant_rope_the_wind]

I grew up till i wuz 15 in langdon AB (jst east of cgy on the glenmore trl)
my best freind lived on 32st aand 32 ave sw or vice versa
I would ride my peddle bike in to meet him at the last bus stop in cgy at that time it wuz ogden rd and glenmore trl
and he had to carry his gun (in a case) on the city bus, down
town, walk 5 blocks, get on another bus and meet me on the se side, from there we would go gopher shooting and the area we did that in is if any of you know where road king is on barlow trl and 51 st or 52 SE, at that time that was a couple miles out of the city already
then some times we would go pheasant and partrige hunting (in the fall)
or jack wabbit hunting in winter and boy I,m tellin ya
those jack wabbits was prety big game in those days around cgy
as Deer were few and far between,
i never seen a deer east of cgy till i was 15
now jst around langdon there is alota deer
IF some one wuz to do those things today the cops would call out the swat team and cruesify them for just trying to ride a bus wth a empty gun case

[kissacoyote]

In 1970 I was working in Mackenzie BC. Hunting season came around and I decided I needed a rifle. There was a Co-op on the local mall, so I went in there and bought a Parker Hale 30-06 and a box of shells. I went out of the store and back into the mall. I was going to buy something else at another store but then realized I had no cash left. My bank was right across the hall from the Co-op, so I walked into the bank with the rifle and leaned it up against the counter beside me. I did my banking and left. I didn't think much about it and nobody even looked twice. I wouldn't want to try that now now.

[BC7stw]

My 16 gauge bolt action or my single .22 went every where with me when I was a kid. First on my home built go cart along with the gopher traps, then in my 51 fargo that I got as payment for helping a family friend shovel grain at aged 15. That fall I left the farmyard at about the same time each night to hunt ducks. Dad says you could set your watch by my departure. I don't know of one kid when I was growing up killed or hurt by a firearm, nor do I recall any gun related issues in all those house holds either, neither can my parents. In one generation guns have turned into horrible instuments of death. Any kid who picks one up will certainly shoot themselves or someone else, or hold up the local bank or candy store. Any otherwise responsible adult who holds one in their hands will instantly turn into a murderous, violent, bullet spraying freak. Thankfully we have gun registration to prevent all this. I want to take this opportunity to thank those responsible for this new law as I truely believe I have been saved from a life of crime which I think may owe its roots to all the skunks I killed on the farm with my shotgun in the summer of '71.

Giving credit where credit is due, safe storage is something practiced by most and has always been the case. But as always it is the few who can't get it right that screw it up for the many who are law abiding responsible gun owners.

Bitter about gun registation, not in the least. And yes my son hunts squirrels and grouse in the jungle of a forest behind my house, in keeping with a family tradition that has been in Canada since about 1804.

[Puma]

In the mid 70's, when I was about 17, I bought a semi auto .22 at a pawn shop on 8th Ave Mall in Calgary for $75.00 and rode home on the bus with it. I had a hard time deciding between an M1 carbine and that .22 he had for sale.
I dont think I even had ID then, maybe a library card?
My friends & I used to walk up onto Nose Hill and shoot gophers with our guns all the time.

How times have changed eh? I wonder what happened?

[Fordman]

In 1971, I was in grade 3 and for show & tell brought my .22 cooey repeater to school. A bus ride of 1/2 hr. from the Saracee reserve into school in calgary. Not a word said. Like others have said I darte anyone to try that today. FORDMAN

[twofifty]

What has changed is our unwillingness to do today what we did then, even though carrying as we all have done is still legal. Current law, as I understand it, does not prevent carrying a cased unloaded long gun on a transit bus or walking along the sidewalk downtown....provided it is registered.

We - and I - have in these respects rolled over in deference to societal perceptions of our sport. The hassles from police officers inadequately trained in firearms law don't help either.

Yet, if you were to ask me: 'are you willing to walk downtown with an unloaded cased rifle'...my answer would still be no. I don't need the hassles, the likely confiscation, and the resulting damages to my rifle.

Any current stories out there about 'bold' carries....or are we all skulking around even though we are law abiding citizens?

[roger]

Originally Posted by BC7stw

My 16 gauge bolt action or my single .22 went every where with me when I was a kid. First on my home built go cart along with the gopher traps, then in my 51 fargo that I got as payment for helping a family friend shovel grain at aged 15. That fall I left the farmyard at about the same time each night to hunt ducks. Dad says you could set your watch by my departure. I don't know of one kid when I was growing up killed or hurt by a firearm, nor do I recall any gun related issues in all those house holds either, neither can my parents. In one generation guns have turned into horrible instuments of death. Any kid who picks one up will certainly shoot themselves or someone else, or hold up the local bank or candy store. Any otherwise responsible adult who holds one in their hands will instantly turn into a murderous, violent, bullet spraying freak. Thankfully we have gun registration to prevent all this. I want to take this opportunity to thank those responsible for this new law as I truely believe I have been saved from a life of crime which I think may owe its roots to all the skunks I killed on the farm with my shotgun in the summer of '71.

Giving credit where credit is due, safe storage is something practiced by most and has always been the case. But as always it is the few who can't get it right that screw it up for the many who are law abiding responsible gun owners.

Bitter about gun registation, not in the least. And yes my son hunts squirrels and grouse in the jungle of a forest behind my house, in keeping with a family tradition that has been in Canada since about 1804.

i like how you so delicately wrote this without a hint of sarcasm!!LOL
good read

[catnthehat]

It's not unusual to se me walking into my office with a firearm .
My secretary signs for boxes from cool plces like " Bismuth Reloading Supplies" and "Rangesports Unlimited", or " Higginson Powders" all the time.

I will not be subverted into darkness!
I had an issue with a few memebers of another union when I was Genreal Foreman on a prject a few years back.
A day later I got a call from the safety department telling me I had to remove the "bullets" I had on my desk and windowsill because it was prohibited to have them on site and it was "bothering the workers". I went right over to the safety Superintendat's office and demended to know if the sight of pieces of brass and copper "bothered some of my workers", becaus ethey all KNEW these things were dummy rounds, and furthermore, no, I was NOT going to remove them because somebody didn't have the balls to stand up and tell someone else that
trying to play a politically correct card to get back at me was B.S . and to grow up!

Csae closed, heard nothing more about it.
That incident still PO's me off to this day on several levels....
Cat

I fondly remember the good 'ol 70's. I grew up in the Elk Valley between Sparwood and Elkford. My dad had a back window gun rack, stocked full of rifles. We drove into Sparwood or into Blairmore to go grocery shopping with those rifles. In fact one day while in shop class, we gazed upon a herd of elk through the spotting scope, I called my dad at work, within a half hour we were outta school elk hunting. To this day, I still have a back window gun rack in my horse hauler (91 Ford 1 ton), but I use it as a coat hanger

[ABDUKNUT]

nothing as exciting as living in west palm beach for a year and carrying a concealed colt delta 10mm every day...

[Big Buff]

I too can remember doing all those things with guns when I was growing up.

What changed? Who let this happen? Governments? People?

By the looks of it, it's gonna get worse!!!!

[CptnBlues63]

I remember as a young kid back in the early/mid 70's tossing my .22 over my shoulder (slinged) and hopping on my bike to ride 3 or 4 blocks to the outskirts of Saskatoon and then out into the 'country' to shoot gophers. A couple local ranchers with lots of cattle actually used to supply my best friend and I with shells!

Ahhhh those were the days..........LOL

[mark bro]

I am reading a book written by Richard Van Emden of a man named Harry Patch he writes in this book about a 108 year old man (Harry Patch) the oldest surviving man of the trench wars in it he quotes.
"As children from an ordinary school, we occasionally played with the boys from Monkton combe. We occasionally played rugby againts them (and gave then a little punch behind the referee's back instead of the flat of the hand)
I played at wing three quarter, so I had to run fast, whereas I have a problem even to walk know!
We use to have a fellow come Saturday afternoons to watch us.
He'd stand on the touch line with double-barrel gun broken under his arm, and we got the reputation among away teams that if we could't beat them we'd shoot them"

[raised by wolves]

Mid-80s, Lethbridge, double barrel 410 across my back, atop a Canadian Tire 10 speed, heading just outside the city limits for ducks and huns. Never had a problem.

Same era, walking to school, carrying either my rifle or shotgun (couldn't afford a case after using all my coins on the guns) as the Hunter Ed instructor had asked me to bring one of mine in as a demo model for class.

Imagine trying this now.

[mud slug]

in high school 87-89 we had a trap shooting club used to bring the 12 g to school and leave it in my locker a day. never took it on the bus did one time carry it to school on my bike as my old wreck had a flat.

[Iron Brew]

early/mid 90's at UNB. One of the foresters brought his 12G pump into the forestry building after a morning of duck hunting. An (English) professor walked by, and got upset. Called campus security, who came and told the student he had to put it in their lockup. I don't know which bothered the prof more, the fact that campus security was so nonchalant, or the fact they had a lockup full of firearms from the students that either lived in rez, or couldn't keep them where they were living...

The prof was really upset when students started telling him they had shotguns/rifles in their cars that day... drove him nuts. Of course, now he had showed weakness in front of foresters and forest engineers...

Wasn't that unusual to see students picking up/dropping off firearms at campus security to go hunting... Not me, though... :-)

[twofifty]

Some great stories here about casual or limited hassle carrying in days gone by.

Loved the school bus 'shuttle' to the grouse hunt(lol), or keeping target/hunting rifles and shotguns in one's high school locker or on campus....
All these big bad guns in the hands of minors and yet so few accidents.

As to campus mayhem, I remember one incident in Ottawa in the 1970s where a kid shot other high school students.

Am not absolutely sure, but I don't recall there were other shootings on Canadian campuses (high school, college, university). Were there others?

Found them on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...elated_attacks

In Canadian High Schools:
1975: Brampton, ON
1975: Ottawa
1999: Taber

In Canadian universities:
1989: Montreal (Polytechnique engineering)
1992: Montreal (Concordia)
2006: Montreal (Dawson College)

Now, what year was the old yellow card FAC system brought in?
And the current PAL/POL system?

[raised by wolves]

I seem to recall another shooting within the past 10 years in or near Coaldale. Anyone???

[Grizzly Adams]

When I was a kid, we met every sat. morning, in front of the Calgary Police station, for target shooting, on their range. Seems to me, it was sponsored by the Optimist Club. Wouldn't happen today.
When I was a teenager, I bought a .50 cal dewat machine gun at Crown surplus. Cost was$20. Brought it home on the bus, without raising an eyebrow.
In High School Metal shop, I built a skeleton stock for my .22 , with the shop teachers advice. As well, for lathe experience, a couple of us built functional model cannons.
Grizz

[220swifty]

Late 90's, i brought an enfield mag in to welding class to put a spot weld on the catch, as it had worn ad was falling out. Eyebrows weren't raised until the packing grease caught fire and put on a show (good thing the teacher offered to do the weld for me, he didnt want me melting through the thin metal)

Same time frame, about 97, pre columbine, i would bring my bow to school and put it in the teachers office, and the arrows would stick out of my backpack like robin hood. Aside from the robin hood jokes (why no tights? Where's your merry men?) nobody said a thing.

My grandpa, on the other hand, was waiting out front of the optometrists office for my grandmother, when he was woken by one of Edmonton's finest (he had his 22 hornet between the bucket seats and drifted off for a nap, as usual on both accounts) He was then subjected to a pat down and vehicle search, then let go with nothing but elevated blood pressure.

[Roughneck12]

Political correctness will kill us all and make life a whole lot less funny.
Kind of like legislating common sense.

Originally Posted by catnthehat

It's not unusual to se me walking into my office with a firearm .
My secretary signs for boxes from cool plces like " Bismuth Reloading Supplies" and "Rangesports Unlimited", or " Higginson Powders" all the time.

I will not be subverted into darkness!
I had an issue with a few memebers of another union when I was Genreal Foreman on a prject a few years back.
A day later I got a call from the safety department telling me I had to remove the "bullets" I had on my desk and windowsill because it was prohibited to have them on site and it was "bothering the workers". I went right over to the safety Superintendat's office and demended to know if the sight of pieces of brass and copper "bothered some of my workers", becaus ethey all KNEW these things were dummy rounds, and furthermore, no, I was NOT going to remove them because somebody didn't have the balls to stand up and tell someone else that
trying to play a politically correct card to get back at me was B.S . and to grow up!

Csae closed, heard nothing more about it.
That incident still PO's me off to this day on several levels....
Cat