Barney Fife and gun safety

[Mal H]

I was watching the Andy Griffith show last night and was surprised to see Barney give some gun safety lessons to one of Opie's friends. What surprised me was that he used almost exactly the same words as Jeff Cooper uses in laws 1 & 2. [Barney Fife accent on] "Treat every gun as if it is always loaded. And never, never point a gun at anything you don't want to shoot." [Fife accent off] He also kept his finger off the trigger until he was holstering the gun. Of course when he holsters "Roscoe" he shoots a hole through the floor. Andy stares at him for a while and calmly takes his revolver away from him for the 50th time. Andy unloads it and lets the boy practice with it.

I don't think they would shoot that scene in the same way today.

 

[FUD]

I never saw the particular episode that you made reference to but I recall in one episode that Barney carried an unloaded gun and was issued only one bullet. Then in another episode where he had to draw his weapon, he had to load the gun first and in his nervousness, he dropped a handful of bullets on the ground and had to go looking for them.

They don't make shows like that any more -- funny/silly with a meaningful (not stupid) plot and which still teaches a moral every once in a while.

 

[loknload]

Then came the infamous duty bullet, kept in Barneys shirt pocket Still enjoy watching that show to this day I remember one when he was showing Gomer how to carry, draw and shoot.
It ended the same way with him shooting into the floor and Andy taking the gun from him
Never saw unsafe gun handling though always showed proper handling of course except for the end gag.

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We preserve our freedoms by using four boxes: soap,ballot,jury, and cartridge.
Anonymous

 

[bruels]

After I finished my last day in field training (ten weeks long), my training officer said, "Congratulations, you have successfully completed the field training program."

I responded, "Oh goodie, that means I can load my pistol, right?"

My training officer looked at me for a long moment, afraid to ask if I really was serious.

I never told him.

 

[4V50 Gary]

Roscoe? I thought Barney gave his revolver a feminine name like Bessie. Anybody?

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Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt

 

[mongrel66]

Bessie was don knots' wife in "the incredible mr. limpet"....ladyfish was his fish wife

 

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Roscoe is very old slang for a gun. Tough guy usage way back when.

Kind of like my "piece"

 

[Mal H]

Glenn is right. Barney said in the same scene that a gun is "called a firearm, a piece, a pistol or a Roscoe. I usually use Roscoe." (I don't remember all the synonyms he used, there were more.) Then the little boy asked Andy what all he called a gun. Andy said, "A revolver." Very funny scene.

I don't recall Barney having a nickname for his revolver, but he probably did.

 

[pluspinc]

Roscoe? I thought it was a "Gat." Or a "Heater." Guess I'm behind the times.

 

[jeffer]

Bringing back some memories. Does anyone remember the scene where Gomer is on the roof and Andy has to say “GOMER TAKE THAT GUN OUT OF YOUR MOUTH”?

 

[loknload]

Watched an old episode of McHales Navy yesterday and watched Ensign Parker field strip a .50 cal machine gun and put it back together, Blindfolded It was quite an abortion when he was done with it . As Christy snuck off with some girl on the 73
Also seen one with Ensign Parker trying to draw his .45 from holster and it went off about 6 times in the holster Funny man that Tim Conway
Thats when they made funny TV, not the mindless stuff of today Anything worthwhile watching gets cancelled.

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We preserve our freedoms by using four boxes: soap,ballot,jury, and cartridge.
Anonymous

[This message has been edited by loknload (edited March 06, 2000).]

 

[sarge83]

We had a real life Barney in our local sheriffs office a couple of years ago. Seems the sheriff himself liked to carry a Glock 26 with a round in the chamber in his front pants pocket, without a holster. He also stuffed keys and God knows what else in there as well. Seems Sheriff Fife, started to get his car keys out of his pocket and a key got stuck on something, turned out to be the trigger of the Glock. He gave the keys a good yank and caught a round through the top of the foot. He was in the hospital for a substantial period of time recovering and in the mean time lost in his re-election bid. Still carried the Glock the same way when he got out of the hospital I am told...