By Norma Adams-Wade
“Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear!”
That familiar phrase from television screens in homes of the 1950s and later as reruns brought images and verbal references that were meant to be nostalgic and endearing.
Families gathered to enjoyably soak in scenes of gun-to-tin’ cowpokes and gunslingers — everyone to a man with six-shooters in holsters on their hips, dusty cowboy boots on their feet, bandanas around their necks, and wide-brimmed Stetson hats on their heads.
The masked Lone Ranger was an extremely popular show that introduced each segment with the above intro, adding “Hi- Yo, Silver!” as his white stallion horse reared up on its hind legs before taking off in a gallop.
The list of other westerns seemed endless with TV annals listing as many as 30 such shows airing during weekly prime time: Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Man Without a Gun, Wild Bill Hickok, Roy Rogers, Hop Along Cassidy, Raw-hide, Rifleman, Maverick, Raw-hide, Kit Carson, Billy the Kid, Bonanza, Buffalo Bill, Cisco kid, Davy Crockett, Death Valley Days, Restless Gun, Judge Roy Bean, Wyatt Earp, Sargeant Preston of the Yukon, Zorro, Shotgun Slade, Sugarfoot, Tales of Wells Fargo, Tombstone Territory, Wagon Train, at least one cowgirl Annie Oakley, and Miss Kitty in Gunsmoke’s saloon. Should I go on?
Gunslingers drew their weapons at the drop of a hat if another cowpoke angered them. Duels in front of the salon happened as casually as fender benders on today’s busy streets. Outlaws robbed innocent passengers on stagecoaches and good-guy vigilantes sought to avenge wrong and apply justice. Doc Adams in the Gunsmoke TV series dug out bullets and patched up gunshot wounds as frequently as today’s physicians write prescriptions for antibiotics.
But I was just thinking…gun violence today – unwillingly — is taking us back to yesteryear with death tolls shockingly mounting in schools, churches, shopping centers, homes, and various public and private places.
One of the toughest adjustments in today’s world is mass shootings in public places where perpetrators use easily-attained assault weapons – knockoffs of AR-15s and AK-47s – that they seems to acquire with the ease of getting a six-shooter in an Ole West movie.
Old-west movies and TV series still are popular as TV re- runs that largely baby-boomers watch faithfully. The gun-strapped frontiersmen were admired for their adventurer natures as they braved the wilds and notorious outlaws.
But fast-forward to today. Like it or not, the lifestyle of the ole west is creeping not so subtly in on us. The violence and confrontational attitudes rapidly are leading to mounting death tolls, particularly among the current millennials and Gen Z generation. To “dis” or disrespect a resident of certain gun-harboring neighborhoods could easily lead to deadly gang violence where the lives of in- nocent bystanders in and out- side their homes are at serious risk Mass shootings now seemingly surpass the accepted violence of the ole west. researchers suggest. Security. org, a site that researches safety and security, reports that the shocking 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado was a “watershed moment” that at that time was noted as the deadliest mass shooting in history at a K-12 school – killing 13 and injuring 24.
But even that violence was surpassed when a shooter at Robb Elementary in Uvalde Texas murdered 17 students and two teachers and injured 17 other students. The security.org study showed that since Columbine — – and up to Robb Elementary in May 2022 in Uvalde, Texas — there have 304 fatalities from school shooting . This in- cludes 108 K-12 U. S. schools plus another six at colleges and universities.
In another study, Dr. Luke Rapa, associate professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, led a group study that showed that from 1997 to 2022 there were 1,453 school shootings — ranging from a low of 15 in the school year 2008-2010 to a high of 328 in school year 202102022.
“Gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis, with severe consequences for the nation’s youth,” Rapa and his study group wrote in their report in the Pediatrics research journal.
So, have we arrived back in the Ol’ West? Our senses have become so dulled against the violence surrounding us that we watch the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news hours hopeless and powerless concerning the mounting reports of fatal shooting all around us.
In reality, it comes down to personal choice and legislative power. It’s either your choice to have such lax gun laws that there is terror, chaos, mayhem, and blood in the streets …or … it’s my choice to take action to corral the mayhem in order to be safe in my home and in public places.
The choice is similar to the mask argument during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a standoff between your choice not to wear a mask and potentially spread the disease and my choice to wear a mask and have a better chance to preserve my life. Keep your guns and enjoy your wildlife hunting and visiting your gun ranges. But legalize sensible laws that will keep certain weapons of war out of the hands of immature youths, modern-day outlaws, and individuals whose mental state is shattered.
What will it take to end today’s gun carnage? There is an answer. But wisely, it cannot be spoken publicly.
