Back in the day CCW

[Sevens]

Okay, I have to make a confession. It goes hand in hand with my earlier post regarding immaturity and my thought process because of my surroundings, the culture, the way "it had always been" and to this very DAY it still gives me a twinge of guilt.

I'm 17, shooting on a smallbore rifle team at my club and the father of another guy in my team is at every practice and he is definitely not LE at any level, some kind of small business owner and he had a license to carry and ALWAYS had a compact, double-stack S&W carried IWB, far back on his right side, nearly SOB. He would just hang out with our coach at every practice, nothing more than that and he rarely interacted with us.

I always had the same thought...
"who is THIS guy, some kind of cowboy? He's not a cop, why is he carrying a handgun?!"

I felt back in '88 the way countless, numerous anti-gun or the uninformed and dense liberals think today... about ME and my contemporaries.

I blame this thinking mostly on my utter immaturity, but some of it on the culture. "This is how it is, why question it, this is just how we've always done it..."
Pathetic and though it was nothing more than how I felt at the time, it is still a strong memory and a very large personal regret.

Here in 2015, I completely and entirely LOATHE the idea of going ANYWHERE without my handgun on me. That is the absolute truth.

Whew! I feel a little better confessing that now.

 

[JDBerg]

A Model 60 is fine for a J Frame. I prefer my 1911's in Gov't length, and my Cmdr. length SR1911 is as chopped as I want for a 1911 in .45ACP. But I do remember when your carry choices were pretty much between a K Frame revolver such as a Model 15 .38 spl or a BHP 9mm and I still think these 2 work fine since I happen to own both.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

My Grandfather carried his Colt Pocket Auto, which he handed down to my Father then ultimately to me. Far as I know, he never had a license, nor did my father, though Dad never carried it, but kept it in a drawer.
I started carrying openly for the first time in the Hiawatha National Forest in our Upper Peninsula in the late 80s. Mostly for protection against the unknown wilds, and it was a Colt Delta Elite. The Colt was my fifth handgun, but my first to carry at all. I was always surprised at the amount of people that told me "not to get caught with that." It amazed me that they didn't know of Michigan's lack of law against open carry. I never took that trip without arms, especially against the threat of a breakdown, and subsequent long walk to civilization. No talk of CCW, that was a foreign subject to me, since up to 2002, Michigan was a may issue state, and those that were issued a license were nothing but the elite's cronies. Very few exceptions existed, because you had to be virtually killed to get the elite to recognize you were being threatened. And since you don't issue licenses to the dead, that generally took care of their problem. No kidding. Thank God for John Engler, who signed shall issue into law, over AG Granholm's stupidity about "seeing what we can do about this." The lack of crime afterward, something we had all screamed would happen, finally made her a believer, much to the chagrin of Michigan's liberal elite.

 

[Bullrock]

I grew up in remote mountains in the 50s and 60s. Everyone had rifles and shotguns but very few had handguns. It was unusual for a pick-up not to have a few long guns in a gun rack in the back window. The State Police and local police officers (all men) are the only people that carried guns. A few women had a little 32 in their purse but nobody knew or cared.

We ordered our guns from Sears and they came in the mail. We bought our ammo at the closest country store and it didn't matter what your age was.

Exactly! The only difference, my growing up time was 40's & 50's. Incidentally my State, Maine, enacted a new concealed weapon law, effective on Oct. 15th. No permit needed to carry concealed. Having a CCP most of my life (since required) I don't know how I feel about that.

 

[michael t]

I can remember going hunting with my father and uncle. Stopped at country store I get 3- 410 rounds and my father and uncle each got 3 rounds of 12. No need to buy a box .Just get what you thought needed for the rabbits.

Seemed all the old men most "WWII vets " had a 25 32 or 38 on them no holsters needed. My self I went from a 22 to 38 and in 1972 I bought my 1st Colt Commander . $154 . I still have it. and the 39A marlin my father gave me on 12th birthday . I had been shooting it since I was 6. I keep in case over handle Bars of bike buy ammo and peddle to country to shoot sat mornings.

To day be surrounded by 20 cops before gone a mile. Seems America has gone from a country of gun owners and shooters to a country of scared children . Just sight of a gun has the crying for police to save them.

 

[Doc Holliday 1950]

Like I said before, I was an Aux.LEO in my home town in 1970. When I left the Garden State for good and lived in other states, I had zero problems getting a permit to carry. First reason was my affiliation with LEO. Second was the profession that I chose to be in. That kind of thing follows you through your life and where ever you live. I really never thought about this until the past few years.
The "Good Old Days" are past. Long live the new "Good Old Days".
Doc

 

[Sevens]

Haha, the good old days are in fact NOT past... just for us, perhaps. There is a whole generation of folks right now who are living in THEIR "good old days", it's just going to be 15-30yrs before they start to get nostalgic about it.

 

[jcv]

Growing up in Chicago in the 50's and 60's private citizens seldom got carry permits unless they were connected. People who felt the need carried illegally and kept their mouths shut. What I saw back then was a lot of small nickel plated revolvers from second tier manufacturers in .22 and .32 calibers. They usually sat in the sock drawer, but were occasionally slipped into a pocket when the need arose.

 

[Deaf Smith]

Personally, If all I had was my 1954 made 2 inch S&W pre-M10 snub (4 screw and rounded 'paddle' front sight) and LSWHP 158s, I would not lose any sleep packing it.

Nor my 1981 made 2 3./4 inch bbl Ruger Security Six .357.

Or even my Series 80 Colt Combat Commander .45!

The polymer pistols are fine, but it's the shooter that matters. Fast and strait shooting will prevail.

And yes, I pack a Glock in the winter and S&W J in the summer. But I only pack the Glock cause of it's reliability and not being a collector item.

Deaf

 

[nugun55]

When I was a kid in the 50-60's, no one I knew had a CCW. But, a lot of "older" folks carried. Mostly "Saturday Night Specials" in .22-.32 cal.. Smith & Colt 38's were for the well off.

No holsters, just jacket or back pocket. You could tell by the way their jacket pocket hung.

Nobody seemed to care or make a big deal out of it then.

 

[KyJim]

I grew up in a rural area where nearly every family had long guns but handguns were not so common. Later, after law school, I bought my first handgun for concealed carry -- a .25 Beretta 950. Concealed carry was not legal in my state at that time, even though it has always been gun friendly. I would only carry when I had occasion to spend time in "bad" neighborhoods. At worst, unless you were a known criminal, carrying concealed would be a $100 fine and often just overlooked. I chose the Beretta strictly for its size. I later got a Colt Mustang .380 after it came out but I rarely carried it until after concealed carry was legalized.

I didn't get a S&W J-frame until much later. The Beretta and Colt Mustang are retired and the J-frame only occasionally gets carried in a pocket holster.

 

[Rifleman1952]

Of the few people I knew who carried back then, it was almost always a j-frame or a pocket sized .25 auto. My very first handgun was a Raven .25. My second was a S&W Mod 60. I knew one individual who always had a 1911 in his vehicle, but never carried it.

It was very common to see shotguns and other long guns hanging in the rear windows of pickup trucks. It was also common to walk into a home and see a quality gun case, prominently displayed in the living room. But those days are long gone now.