How to buy a gun by mail order:

Sign this. Send it along with your order.

I am a citizen of the United States, over 21 years old, of sound mind, not a drug addict, not a habitual drunkard, not a fugitive from justice. I am not under indictment for a crime punishable by a year or more imprisonment. I have never been convicted of a crime of violence. There is no law in my state, county, or city that prohibits this order being shipped.

Date____________ Signed_________________________

The date had to be before the 1968 Panicked-Over-Guns Act, in other words, during the era of American history when the default condition of government was one of trusting its citizens.

(H/T again to Turner Kirkland. RIP)

The Courteous Dixie Gun Works

What a gray world we've become since the days when Turner Kirkland was in his prime. I just ran across one of his 1967 Dixie Gun Works catalogs. On the kraft mailing envelope is:

"Dear Postman: This Fascinating Catalog has cost our customer $1.00. Please deliver with HASTE and ACCURACY."

Imagine. A time of quaint and touching confidence in the efficacy of polite language.

Turner could also send you a modern gun via Railway Express.

Black Hills Rancher

I don't know if Jinglebob carries openly, but he is the dead-certain cinch to be the only blogger I know who could walk into the general store with a .45 Peacemaker on his his hip and appear 100 per cent natural -- as if buckling on was as routine as buttoning the shirt.

Besides, he slings a mean camera and can handle a dutch oven.

Welcome to the blogroll.

The Free State of Montana

A near-new Texsun camper followed me home the other day, and I decided to keep it. With a little luck, in another week or so it will be back on the 150, pointed westward toward the fur trade country with a stop at the Little Big Horn to honor the military genius of Lt. Col. Custer.

A routine part of any trip is a check of the state firearms laws along my route.

As you'd guess, the Regulators of South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Utah aren't likely to get pantywadded over my veritable arsenal and cache of ammunition, but in checking Montana I was reminded of something wonderful. It is the Montana Firearms Freedom Act which, in essence, tells DeeCee to go regulate up a rope about guns and accessories made in and kept in Montana.

I probably need to be back home before Oct. 1 when it becomes effective. Too bad. I envision buying a Bozeman Trail Silencer for my Bridger Big Rifle, Cal. One Hundred Fifty. I would post a picture here of them and me, defended against the feds by the entire Montana polity, maybe even including the Big Sky National Guard. Damn!! Course I'd have to stay there if I wanted to keep my goodies, but there are worse places to hang out.

(John Steinbeck in "Travels with Charley:" "If I could live away from the sea I would live in Montana.")

Let's hear it for Montana, not afraid to bell the federal pussy. They'll lose in the courts, of course, but the point will be loudly made that some Americans still give a serious damn about the principle of federalism and about Amendments 2, 9, and 10.

No court can change the other pleasant result - the soiled-linen state of the Kalispell liberals -- Redford, Sarandon, that bunch.