old is always new again

Nellis AFB - Las Vegas Nevada (2 days from 1) 1959

Christmas has always been a special time of year for me. From my earliest memory, my father, a fighter pilot for life, placed in me a love of everything west. Through Santa, and the ripe age of not yet one, he had me wearing a gun and holster, western style. I guess Dad fancied himself a “gunfighter” and allowed me to play out his aerial profession on the ground with caps. When I was deemed responsible enough, the 500-shot lever action bb-gun was added to the yearly acquisition of cowboy regalia under the tree. And even though I never went cowboy in life, the aura of being one has always held a special place in my heart. Trust me, outside of learning from dad, I also learned about life watching westerns; chivalry, right, wrong, character, integrity, standing up for, and best of all, romance! The impression of nostalgia always being “white hat” was so indelible, and the epitome of americana, I regularly drag my wife and son on forays to visit long romanticized places of yore that still exist today.

Holloman AFB - Alamogordo, New Mexico 1964

Now, the inverse of what I believed cowboy, and never grasped growing up, man is inherently evil. He will do the most deceitful things to gain wealth, power, and control; desirous of forcing those beneath him subservient. Across American history, whether right, wrong, or who was first, unprovable, those entering an inhospitable land to take from others, required an internal fortitude of courage, strength, and resilience, unfathomable today. Internally, things not easily squelched once the work was done, especially as others moved in to take their perceived share of what was now settled. But the west and the storied version given through the lens of Hollywood drove my passion to visit the long-ago versions of reality. Places where some are ruins, others intact, living communities, in a hostile environment still. Locales like Fort Bowie, Tombstone, Shakespeare, Lincoln, Fort Union, and surrounding territory. The history and people of those days long past fascinate my senses. The landscape, desolate beauty unimaginable, yet all of it had been fiercely fought over by nations claiming, or desiring ownership. Visiting, one can see why the Apache fought desperately to retain their ability to live in a land they claimed and most call uninhabitable. Yet if travelers looked deeper than the byways they’re driving on while passing through, they’d find beyond description a veritable paradise. All of it, settled by guns, mostly the Colt six-shooter and the lever action rifle. Two of the most advanced readily available weapons on the market for either offensive or defensive use at the time. The modern-day “assault weapons” then.

George AFB - Victorville, California 1967

But, while settling and settled are two different propositions, once completed, old is always ushered out by the new. Only, like life, what was once old always becomes new again, a vicious cycle. And worse still, depending on agenda, is original intent, rarely, if ever mentioned. So, looking backwards regarding the ability to own, much less carry weapons today, two towns of the old west held different approaches. In the town of Shakespeare: The law is the shovel, while citizens freely carried knowing they’d be the one digging the grave if. Then further southwest, in Tombstone, wholesale change was afoot:

The increase of murders in this territory and other states is an alarming state of things which calls for an immediate remedy. We do not know how many murderers are confined in the different county jails, but the number is large and being augmented almost daily. The newspapers are inquiring the cause and demanding a remedy, but murders continue to be committed with a boldness and recklessness that are terrifying to the quiet citizen who goes peacefully about his business and never thinks of shooting anybody.

Usually the matter is attributed to the law’s delay or to the imperfection of their execution, and no doubt this has much to do with it. With our large stock of murderers on hand, it is only now and then that one is tried, and then the felon manages to go scot free or gets a light sentence in the penitentiary at most. The people encourage this state of things by their virtual opposition to capital punishment. The masses do not believe in capital punishment, and this is true even in states which would vote by a heavy majority to retain it in criminal jurisprudence. They seem to think that it is a good thing to have on the statute books, but they hesitate to put it in operation. Occasionally matters get so bad that it is deemed advisable to hang somebody, and then it does not matter much who the victim is. It is almost invariably the fact that the man who is selected for the sacrifice is really less guilty than some who have escaped. But the victim is selected, and without the least difficulty in the world is unceremoniously fired out of this life. The jury convicts promptly, the court refuses a new trial, the Supreme Court is unable to see anything irregular in the proceedings, and the governor declines to interfere. The public has arrived at the conclusion that a hanging is a necessity. But when it is over, the public stands aghast, and if nobody says anything, everybody is thinking that it is pretty rough treatment after all.

We have no doubt that if the law was strictly enforced it would do much to stay this flood of crime. Men are not anxious to throw away their lives. But a better plan is to put forth greater and more systematic efforts to prevent the carrying of weapons. The arming of oneself in a peaceful community, as every well-organized community is supposed to be, and walking about like a moving arsenal, is highly ridiculous and, as events demonstrate, exceedingly dangerous. Boys and men of all ages and conditions are armed, and at the first flash of anger the pistol is drawn and somebody shot down. It is sometimes necessary for certain people to go armed, but the practice should never be allowed without a license. Considering the importance with which the recklessness of firearms invested this subject, the general government should assume the entire charge of the manufacture of guns and pistols and should permit them to be sold only by licensed dealers under necessary restrictions. This would do something toward remedying a great evil. (Carrying Deadly Weapons/Tombstone Daily Nugget/October 23, 1881)

Tombstone, Arizona

The opinion piece, a collision of old uncouth, uncivilized values meeting head on with the new supposed genteel, civilized values, factional party politics a part of. Then subsequent to printing, three days later, the gunfight involving the Earp’s (including Doc Holliday) against the “Cowboys” took place. Only, looking back at either opinion, constitutional intent was completely absent in the conversation. While many now flex the 2nd Amendment for gun rights, is it necessary? In the adoption of America’s Constitution, the Framer’s initially excluded a Bill of Rights, believing them “unnecessary, even dangerous,” government unable to legislate what it cannot control (Federalist 84). Yet, they did believe the following: Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped (Federalist 29). Granted, their reasons were far removed from the vagaries of saloons, drunk patrons, the desire to prove oneself, or settle perceived wrongs, but the right ... enshrined constitutionally.

Lincoln County Courthouse, New Mexico

The government’s desire today is to undo what the Framer’s designed for posterity, the goal being, government holding autarchy, while the onus to maintain original intent falls on citizens. The juxtaposition; knowledge (being key): But if we are unwilling to be placed in this perilous situation; if we still will adhere to the design of a national government, or, which is the same thing, of a superintending power, under the direction of a common council, we must resolve to incorporate into our plan those ingredients which may be considered as forming the characteristic difference between a league and a government; we must extend the authority of the Union to the persons of the citizens, -- the only proper objects of government. (Federalist 15)

Shakespeare, New Mexico

So, in the light of present-day party politics overtaking the country, America appears in a death spiral. Amongst the many issues presented, constitutional intent is disregarded, the nation itself in dire need of constitutional leadership. With the recent political push to ban “assault weapons,” a definition of what one is, never presented, on Thanksgiving Day (11/24/2022), President Biden finally announced: The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick. Just sick. It has no redeeming value. Zero! None! Not a single solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.

Yet, constitutionally speaking, the nation’s Framer’s had a wholly different viewpoint; to make certain government could never be stronger than the people, thereby keeping government unable to power shift the power structure designed – WE THE PEOPLE. Likewise, they left no authority for the government to regulate weapons for the same reason. For citizens today, no thought to nefarious issues far removed, yet in reality, things more ominous than most are willing to accept or conceive, the past forgotten. Only, the Framer’s understood tyranny, their remembrance of old not becoming new again, a buyer beware, and the reason for the Constitution’s structure. For the government, banning weapons, the best way to achieve its desired result, although, through a power it doesn’t hold until taken.   

Fort Union, New Mexico

In closing, anything one does, a moral compass is demanded. Of late, the government is intent to make itself god, the perfect descriptor of its morality lost. So, short of being Jesus Christ himself, we all fail, and thus government was instituted among men, to secure the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The ability for one to not be affected by another, and conversely, the one not able to affect others, government being the buffer, not the decider of what’s allowed unless such power is given in the Constitution (limited power – Federalist 45). Although, history now appears to be repeating itself. The lawlessness of yesterday coming full circle, and the law, it appears, deaf to the cries of citizens for protection. With assimilation to the American experiment now diluted to factional groups like Tombstone, I suggest before long, the “Wild West,” will once again be full view of what we sometimes read in the pages of western magazines. And once guns have been outlawed, the question then: Who will the outlaws actually be? For pondering, watch “The Tyrant” (1959), from the series – Wanted: Dead or Alive. And for perspective thought on the raging gun debate, the revered Colt six-shooter, and the lever action rifle for those who love western history: When will they be classified semi-automatic, and due the number of rounds each holds become illegal firearms?