Do you remember when it wasn't a "sanitary landfill"? It was "the dump" and we used to go out when I was a teenager on a Saturday evening before it got dark enough to go to the drive-in and shoot rats at "the dump". There were thousands (so it seemed; more like hundreds, in actuality) and you could shoot a "brick" of .22LR ammo easily with just a bolt-action 22 rifle or six-shot pistol - no sense eating up more of your allowance on more expensive loads - leave that to the young bucks with paying jobs in construction or fishing or cutting timber. They could afford the .357 or .45 caliber loads -- too rich for my blood.
It wasn't something frowned upon by the elders, either. The town fathers considered it a service, particularly as the dump attendant was a heavy drinker and likely in town, tying one on, if you know what I mean. The local police didn't even bother to respond to reports of gunfire at the dump -- they just figured we were out shooting rats.
Somehow, in the intervening years between sneaking into drive-ins in the trunk of a car and getting busy in the backseat with Cindy-Lou or Bettyjo, they changed the rules. Now, the mere possession of a rifle in your trunk is enough to send the police off the deep end. Any attempt at shooting vermin at the "Sanitary Landfill" would likely get me, at minimum, a night in jail and a court summons for trespassing on municipal property.
I was reminded of all of this because I saw (sorry, no phone or camera with me to take a picture) that they'd repainted the sign at the local high school in anticipation of a new school year. What sign, you ask? The one that warns it is a felony to bring a weapon onto school property by anyone, other than an on-duty police officer, responding to a disturbance at the school. Heck, when I was a kid, the rule was you could bring your hunting rifle in your truck to school provided it remained locked in your truck. If you were riding the bus and going hunting after school, you were allowed to bring your rifle or shotgun direct to the office and leave it in the principal's office until closing bell. Now, you'd go to prison if you tried that.
The times, they have changed. And not for the better...
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1 comment:
sad but very true... a side effect i fear of working class families and single parent households; environments that get far too busy making money with one hand so that the other one can keep up with all expenses. kids have become neglected in recent generations and lack a great deal of common sense, now not only are those kids integrating in with the adult world they are also having more kids...
ignorant people need ignorant laws...
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