What Have I lost?

[GaryAdrian]

I have been reading a lot of gun forums lately and I am amazed heart felt post on our rights to bear arms. Who was it that said, we never what we had until we lose it. I think that is the case here.
What rights have I lost from my childhood? Not just laws passed, but the respect and understanding of gun owners here in Texas.
When I was young, every other pickup truck had a gun rack in the back window. Did it cause fear and loathing? I don't think so. Today, I don't see any gun racks in any vehicles except police cars.
When I was young, it was nothing to put my Marlin .22 rifle on my shoulder and walk down the street to the woods near by and hunt birds or rabbit. Do that today and see what happins. The Police will be stopping you and may charge you for Disturbing the Peace.
When I was young, I could give a class report on my hunting trip with my dad and tell of the first deer I ever got and my gun I got for Christmas. . Now teachers call the police on the student as they did in Central Connecticut State University by a professor who reported one of her students to the police after he gave a class presentation on why students and teachers should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. Now, free speech activists say the professor’s actions are what really need to be investigated.
Why do I feel today that I have to be careful on who I tell that I am a gun owner? If I own a gun, does that make me a nut or a criminal? Don't I trust the Police to protect me? Do guns have a place in our modern world?
I will argue that is does today more than ever. To lose a right is easy. Do nothing. To get it back may take a revolution. It's just not about guns, it about all of our Constitutional Rights and Freedoms we enjoy today because of our Founders and the Men and Women who gave all to defend those rights.
I don't care if you carry Open or Concealed, in your car or in your home, or not at all. You should have the rights that we were granted and those right should never be taken away by a select few.
Our world is full of fear and that fear is dictating actions that have been the downfall of many nations.
And I am afraid.
Afraid of losing the America that I love so much and all the freedoms she grants me.
I don't want to be bitter, but I will hang on to my guns and my faith. I will use the most powerful weapon I have to keep my America Free and For The People.
I VOTE!

[SemperFlatus]

I almost bought a rack for my truck this past weekend....yea, we've lost plenty.

[Fangs]

Someone told me that it's illegal to have a gun rack these days. This can't be right, right?

[SemperFlatus]

I didn't know, thats why I did not buy. I remember growing up and almost every pick-up had one....maybe I am too old.

[nitrogen]

What we've lost, for starters:

1) The right to buy automatic weapons, silencers, and short barreled rifles without federal government tax and permission. The NFA imposed a $200 tax (over 3000 in todays dollars!) on machine guns and short barreled rifles.

2) The right to buy/sell/transport guns through the mail interstate without a special federal government license. All firearms dealers must have an FFL. You must have an FFL to receive shipments of firearms through the mail in many cases, interstate. This makes it much harder for competition to keep the rpices of some firearms low.

3) The right to buy guns from a dealer anonymously, without government tracking. (Yes, I know that the 4473's don't leave the FFL's office, it is a form of tracking though, albeit bvery difficult tracking.)

4) We've lost the right to bear arms for the common defense in most states without a state government issued license, or at all.

More importantly, and more scarily, we've lost the ideal of self reliance, at least as a primary. We expect that "The Police" will always take care of us.

[mbw]

GaryAdrian-

Nice post. We must have grown up in the same town at the same time.

[SkinnyB78]

GaryAdrian-

Nice post. We must have grown up in the same town at the same time.

+1

[grandpatim]

I don't think its against the law to have a gun rack in your back window. I may be wrong. I don't use one simply because I want to keep my guns and a rear window is a bunch of money to replace.

Tim

[4copas]

GaryAdrian-

Nice post. We must have grown up in the same town at the same time.

I can remember our Home Economics class in high school, the teacher lets us go out and and bag rabbits, squirrels, quail and the like to cook up for class. Teachers, principals, and whoever always coming out to the parking lot to see the new gun in the rack. We'll never see those days again.............

[KC5AV]

Gun racks are not illegal. They can, however, increase the likelihood that your window will get broken by someone looking for the gun that should be in said rack.

[BobCat]

I have a rifle rack in my back window. I've been known to put my shorty AR-15 (CAR-15) in it to take it to the range, since it is one rifle I don't have a case for and I don't want it sliding around loose in the cab or truck box. No one said a thing, no one noticed, it is no big deal.

The original poster is absolutely right, in my opinion, about loosing rights that one does not exercise. But more and more people are aware that "when seconds count, the police are only minutes away" and are taking responsibility for their own well-being and that of their family. More and more of my colleagues have asked me whether our club has instructors (we don't, and I refer them to PSC because they do).

Time passes and circumstances change, but remember that our perspective and observations change too. Gas will never be a quarter a gallon again, and it is unlikely your grandson will be able to walk through town with his .22 rifle on his shoulder, on the way to the woods to hunt - but he can darn well still hunt, and shoot his rifle at the range, and you can come out and shoot Highpower or Smallbore, or shoot IDPA or IPSC, and you can holster your carry pistol in the morning and not take it off until bed time, which is something none of us could do in 1950 or 1980.

Hang in there.

Regards,
Andrew

[quidni]

I have a gun rack in the cab of my Ranger. Whenever I'm not using it for its original purpose, I keep a long walking stick tucked up there. It also serves as a hat rack; I think I've got a baseball cap and a CD wallet hanging there right now.

But yeah, while I've never been stopped, I have come to expect that if I've got a rifle/shotty tucked up there, there will be at least one deputy following me for a mile or two while they run my plates.

[Liberty]

I have been reading a lot of gun forums lately and I am amazed heart felt post on our rights to bear arms. Who was it that said, we never what we had until we lose it. I think that is the case here.
What rights have I lost from my childhood? Not just laws passed, but the respect and understanding of gun owners here in Texas.
When I was young, every other pickup truck had a gun rack in the back window. Did it cause fear and loathing? I don't think so. Today, I don't see any gun racks in any vehicles except police cars.
When I was young, it was nothing to put my Marlin .22 rifle on my shoulder and walk down the street to the woods near by and hunt birds or rabbit. Do that today and see what happins. The Police will be stopping you and may charge you for Disturbing the Peace.
When I was young, I could give a class report on my hunting trip with my dad and tell of the first deer I ever got and my gun I got for Christmas. . Now teachers call the police on the student as they did in Central Connecticut State University by a professor who reported one of her students to the police after he gave a class presentation on why students and teachers should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. Now, free speech activists say the professor’s actions are what really need to be investigated.
Why do I feel today that I have to be careful on who I tell that I am a gun owner? If I own a gun, does that make me a nut or a criminal? Don't I trust the Police to protect me? Do guns have a place in our modern world?
I will argue that is does today more than ever. To lose a right is easy. Do nothing. To get it back may take a revolution. It's just not about guns, it about all of our Constitutional Rights and Freedoms we enjoy today because of our Founders and the Men and Women who gave all to defend those rights.
I don't care if you carry Open or Concealed, in your car or in your home, or not at all. You should have the rights that we were granted and those right should never be taken away by a select few.
Our world is full of fear and that fear is dictating actions that have been the downfall of many nations.
And I am afraid.
Afraid of losing the America that I love so much and all the freedoms she grants me.
I don't want to be bitter, but I will hang on to my guns and my faith. I will use the most powerful weapon I have to keep my America Free and For The People.
I VOTE!

It is legal to carry guns in a gunrack it is only fear of the bad guys that restrict us from doing so. I see things in the context of my life ime because it is the only reference that I fully understand. What I have seen is that early in my life we lost a lot of rights for a long time. but that in the last 15years we have started too swing the pendulum. We are gaining rights and losing very seldom.

When I moved to Texas in the 80s I lost my right to carry a hand on me I could carry one in my car but only under some very unclear conditions. Today the CHL program gives me the means to pack 24/7, We are allowed to carry in our cars if we meet a few simple condition.

We had an Assault weapons ban. it is gone. Attempts to restore another one at this time is laughable. Seems like even some Democrats understand the Right to Keep and Bear Arms lately. I remember a time not to long ago when gun control was a cause they could unite under.

We are real close to allowing students the abilty to go armed in our schools , Its been a very long time since we have been able to do this.

We had a Supreme court decision demanding that we have the RKBA .. They were unanimous in the decision that it is indeed a collective right. During most of our lives there wasn't a clear statement from our Supreme court.

We never lost the legal right to carry long guns in the open, I see it every year around deer season here in the big city. For the most part folks with pickup trucks lost interest in displaying their guns for the Gangbangers to admire during the rest of the year. Today most folks don't leave their fishing rods out for display either and that is legal too.

We now have the right to carry in National Parks for the first time in over 30 years.

We have a very leftist Speaker of the house showing restraint because of her respect (or fear) of the NRA.


I know a lot of folks get some pleasure at seeing a half empty glass, I know that we have a ways to go before we actually achieve a full RKBA ( shucks we got folks here who aren't crazy about the idea) I know we have the leftist in charge of things, but I think we need to understand how far we have come to understand exactly where we are so that we know where we need to go. If I look back 20 years from today, I see almost nothing but progress in our march forward with the concept of the RKBA . We still need to move forward. There are still threats to our rights that need to be fought off and new ones will be presented too us in the future but for time being we just aren't looking all that bad.

[AEA]

Well said!

[tboesche]

I couldn't find a gun rack to fit the rear window of the Mustang.

I remember well the days of gunracks in the back window. Even though it is still legal to do so, I suspect that not only would you be followed but probably pulled over just to be checked out by the cops.

Perhaps some of the LEO here could chime in on what they would do if were following a vehicle with a gun in a reack.