Guns In American College Dormitories
I was surprised when I entered college in the American West just how many guns and bomb-making materials were in people's possession (illustrated last week by the news out of Florida).

For example, in my dormitory, my shady next-door neighbor, originally from Klan country (Tallahassee, Florida), made a show of electrically-grounding himself before entering his room every night, in order not to detonate a supposed cache of explosives. Lying in bed every night, I used to eye the cinder block wall standing between us, and wonder if it was all a bluff. The lurking presence of these implements of destruction were no secret, either, at least to the students. Anyone might have them, and college administration didn't seem to care.

Another fellow across the hall once invited us in to admire his gun. He was rumored to be sloppy with his firearms maintenance - firing supposedly-empty guns during cleaning, for example. Nevertheless, there we were, looking at, and handling, his gun.

He handed his supposedly-empty gun to me. I thoughtlessly turned, pointed the gun towards my roommate's abdomen, and playfully pulled the trigger. Happily, the gun really was unloaded. My roommate was understandably annoyed, however, and I was embarrassed.

None of these gun stories ever seem to end well. A year later, the fellow across the hall was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him with crippling brain injuries. The year after that, he resumed his education, but his speech was slurred and his movements halting.

One day, fellow across the hall was showing off his gun to another student when the student took advantage of his disabilities, locked him in his own bathroom, and stole the gun. Then the student took the gun, went to another dormitory room, and killed another student with whom he had been feuding.

The movies never show this aspect of American West history, but one reason the Wild West is no longer Wild is because arms control was zealously practiced by western sheriffs, until it became second-nature. Since the end of the 19th-Century, that zeal has lapsed.

Yep, it's a free-for-all when it comes to weapons on American college campuses.
(Perv With A Dog had his eyes pecked out by scrub jays on, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 19:46, 19 replies)

I went to college in Texas and this was not my experience at all
In Texas, if you don't have a concealed carry license, you kept your gun at home or in the gun rack in the back window of your truck.
( flirting with badgers What? It sounded good at the time., Fri 22 Mar 2013, 20:04, closed)

You'll excuse me, but surely Florida is not in the American West. By any definition.
If you'd perhaps like to define the "American West" in turns of gun-law it might add an aspect to my knowledge of the subject. Admittedly I'm self-educated but it's been a fairly comprehensive self-education and I'd suggest that in all but a few places - Dodge City was, I'd agree, a well regulated place - gun law ruled.

You could maybe also define West - please remember that other than Bleeding Kansas anything beyond the Mississippi was considered to be "West" until the late 19th century.

You might also consider the Quantrill gang, Lawrence Kansas, and the activities of the likes of Sheridan, Phelps, and George Armstrong Custer in your response.
( The Disappointed Caravanner of the year, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 20:22, closed)

This school is in the American West; the first student mentioned was an out-of-state student from Florida
I consider anything west of Kansas City to be the American West.

In the Old West, where sheriffs were able to exert their rule - towns, mostly - gun control was practiced. Visitors from out-of-town were required to leave their weapons at the sheriff's office. I have no doubt there were reasons for that. Up until about World War I, gun infractions were among the most-common causes of arrest in towns in the American West.

I'm puzzled by the reference to Sheridan, et al. They were professional soldiers, not amateur gunslingers.
(Perv With A Dog had his eyes pecked out by scrub jays on, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 20:34, closed)

Perhaps referring to the "Indian wars" might not have been appropriate.
But you have to accept that you are generalising a vast geography from a very blinkered point.

Let me ask you then - towns like Aitcheson - largely gone now - and those temporary towns established as the likes of the Chisholm trail expanded from Texas drives to railheads - were they gun free?

Wasn't one of the biggest shoot-out vendettas of the West carried out near Santa Fe?

Still leaves the Quantrills, Bloody Bill Anderson, The James Gang etc..
( The Disappointed Caravanner of the year, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 21:00, closed)

I'm speaking from my experiences; yours may have been different
I attended several college campuses in the American West - most campuses urban; one not. In cities, or out, nowhere did I see effective oversight of arms on campus. You just didn't know who was packing what, unless you asked.

Of course, arms were present in the Old West. People tend to assume there were more than there were, though. Arms were expensive, and many people either couldn't afford or didn't want the burden. The most crucial group were the 'thou shalt not kill' churchgoers, who eventually supplanted the wilder types, and were averse to owning guns, on Christian principle. The process moved at different speeds in different places.

Regarding Santa Fe, I'm unaware of any vendettas. Nevertheless, Tombstone, AZ had its famous OK Corral shootout, which appears, in part, to have been an effort to enforce Ordinance #9, which prohibited anyone from carrying a deadly weapon.

Regarding the student who was shot and killed, that was a fact, and not an opinion, blinkered, or otherwise.
(Perv With A Dog had his eyes pecked out by scrub jays on, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 21:51, closed)

Oh man!
Just when this week was being spoiled by people posting relevant and amusing stories you two come along and rescue it with a semi-informed and unfathomably fucking tedious discussion about fucking gun law. I hope you're both put out of your dreary fucking misery. I don't care if it's a gun. They can pummel you to death with crudely hewn clubs for all I care.

Pricks.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:10, closed)

Leave it Shambo
A man needs a hobby - take note - American West and American civil war is mine.

He knows his stuff.
( The Disappointed Caravanner of the year, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:19, closed)

My hobby is wishing people a violent death for having dull and inappropriate conversations on a public messageboard.
Don't you oppress me.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:22, closed)

Also calling them pricks.
Pricks.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:23, closed)

I have no first hand experience at all
I live in the UK and I'm not questioning your college experience.

I'm also not about to provoke a fight. You are perceptive in saying that proceeses moved differentely in certain places.

Bedtime for me in the UK, so here's another one - Montana is West by your definition, it was largely sold by James J Hill. Would you say that current Montana is rightfully owned?
( The Disappointed Caravanner of the year, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:16, closed)

Clouded titles everywhere
That's they way they liked it in the West. I'm from NM, home of murky titles.

Thanks for the Prick-tastic conversation. We must meet sometime, discuss Western water law, and stick needles into a Dr. Shambolic doll.
(Perv With A Dog had his eyes pecked out by scrub jays on, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:36, closed)

We may be speaking from different perspectives
But I think we both love the subject.

Neither of us can be right from this distance in time.

John D. Unruh's "The Plains Across" is the definitive work for me.
( The Disappointed Caravanner of the year, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:44, closed)

Must look up that title!
It'd be fun to write on the West. So many untouched themes. With "Breaking Bad" I sometimes dabble on the edges.
(Perv With A Dog had his eyes pecked out by scrub jays on, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 23:14, closed)

You realise that pointing a gun at someone and pulling the trigger, regardless of whether you are sure it isn't loaded, makes you a colossal prick, right?
First rule of gun safety: Every gun is always loaded, all the time, ever.
( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:22, closed)

Prick.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:23, closed)

I will shoot you with the gun I don't own because the UK has sensible laws relating to this sort of thing.

( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:24, closed)

Except in London, obviously.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Sat 23 Mar 2013, 0:54, closed)

I have finger guns <piew piew>

( sneep used to date Freddie Starr's hamster, Sat 23 Mar 2013, 2:23, closed)

Theme of this week's QOTW is.....?

(Perv With A Dog had his eyes pecked out by scrub jays on, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:40, closed)

Every QOTW has an underlying theme of making the OP look as fucking idiotic as possible.
That's why we stay.
( BraynDedd Natasha Kaplinsky's labia majora, Fri 22 Mar 2013, 22:58, closed)