Are you old enough to remember when firearms were proudly displayed?

I live in northern Wisconsin so I have all my guns in a glass front cabinet. I never lock the house & leave the keys in the car. I pity most people that have to live in fear.

Unfortunately I have to worry about all the meth heads around me and I do live in a small town of 1100 in a very rural county. The meth epidemic has been very bad around me for the last 20-25 years. For me, it's not about living in fear but protecting my stuff from the thieving dope heads.

I'm old enough to remember guns in the back windows of pickups at high school. Even took a 410 or 22 to school when I was in the 6th grade. I went to a little country school that had 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade in one room and 4th, 5th, and 6th in another. We were also uptown with a lunch room and kitchen. My teacher would put the gun in the corner until after school and then take me hunting.

Shoot, I went to a high school that had a rifle team (we had JROTC). We kept our shotguns in our cars/trucks in the HS parking lot to try and get in a little hunting after school, before it got dark. When my state started a play-off system for the HS football championships, the season then ran into the whitetail season, which became a conflict for the players that liked to hunt (fortunately, this came after my checkered HS football career, but wouldn't have mattered anyway since my teams didn't seem to win too often).

This thread has made me decide to look for one of the glass-front rifle cabinets. I have a really good home security system (and back-up), and am working on my man-cave. Gonna go for it.

Born in '65 here and have lived in Texas my whole life.

I remember trucks with rear window gun racks in small towns, but once my family moved to the county of a big city I never saw guns in plain view as often.

I don't really remember guns in glass cabinets. Probably because us kids were supposed to always be outside and we were never allowed into anything that resembled a man cave, pool room, or poker room.

I do remember guns in clothes closets, though. Us kids just never really thought anything about cased rifles or shotguns. We knew those belonged to our dads and we feared taking a beatin' from any of them.

Handguns seemed more rare, or were simply hidden away better.

Buckhunter 62 said:

I live in northern Wisconsin so I have all my guns in a glass front cabinet. I never lock the house & leave the keys in the car...

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That was normal when and where I grew up in 1950's small-town Minnesota. Still was normal when I moved to small-city Wisconsin in 1979. But stopped doing that about 20 years ago.

Mom used to give me her S&H Green stamps from the store, remember those? It took me a year or two to save enough to get a three tiered gun rack for my room. I still have it over 50 years later.

Man if you had one of those 4-5 foot wide fancy gun cabinets, you had ARRIVED Son! It didn’t matter how old you were or how much money you had, that was just plain cool.

As a struggling newlywed I had a small gun cabinet that held 6-8 rifles. I sure was proud of it. Looking back, it was POS.

I just SMH now when I see someone trying to get $900 for their gun cabinet on Craig’s List. I bust out laughing when they say something ignorant like, “ Firm, no lowball offers, I know what I have!” .

Got my first Cannon gun safe in 1985-6. Now it looks like I collect gun safes instead of guns. Gotta downsize.

Still do.

Todd.

Now that's practical use of a bookshelf!!

I'm old enough to remember when a half a dozen teens could walk down the street armed to the teeth and nobody batted an eye. Back then everyone displayed their guns. In fact I can't remember anyone having a gun safe.

Still more.

Within reason, I won't be cowed into not enjoying them.




Todd.

Todd,

Nice Barrister case and nice use of it.

When I was teaching in a small North Central Florida High School in 1984. They made a big issue of no guns on campus ( other than JROTC rifle team .22s this school still had instead of air guns) so second week of October rolls around and I am headed in from the parking lot and only two spaces from the building is a Pick up with a Browning A5 on the Dash. I walk over and there is a 870 pump muzzle first in the passenger foot well.

Not wanting anyone to get in trouble I asked the Vice principal / Dean of discipline if he knew who owned the truck thinking I would slip the owner the word and avoid anything nasty. It was his, the Truck and the A5 and the 870 was his nephew's that rode in with him...besides hunting with him.

He laughed and said he was surprised the schools 2AD nut case would be concerned... especially since his nephew had noticed my gear(spotting scope range bag with ears and eyes and ground cloth) in the trunk of my car as I unloaded a box of graded papers one morning.

Dad had a set of diamond shaped stained wood pieces with a brass coat hanger on each of them he displayed his .410 single shot in the living room of one house and then his bedroom. It was unloaded but the shells were in his sock drawer.

I stopped displaying mostly when a person at a party ignored the closed door and sign to not enter my bedroom in a house I shared with three room mates (nice place with pool easy biking distance of university and each their own bed room) All of us were active members of a SF&F club and hosted monthly meetings which after an hour or so morphed into parties of a sort. I was going by my room and saw the door open and a new prospective member was in my room.... pulling the Loaded Home Defense rifle off the wall. There followed a terse discussion and instructions to never darken my household doorway again. As my bedroom was the enclosed garage, the next day I reversed the kitchen to garage door doorknob so the keyed side was in the house. Scared the bejebbers out of me and made me question what constitutes an adult (we required 21 years of age for member ship)

-kBob

kBob said:

Todd,

Nice Barrister case and nice use of it.

When I was teaching in a small North Central Florida High School in 1984. They made a big issue of no guns on campus ( other than JROTC rifle team .22s this school still had instead of air guns) so second week of October rolls around and I am headed in from the parking lot and only two spaces from the building is a Pick up with a Browning A5 on the Dash. I walk over and there is a 870 pump muzzle first in the passenger foot well.

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One of the highlights of late '70s high school remembrances for me is JROTC (ironically, Navy - in MINNESOTA!) and the separate competitive shooting team. Rifles in cars, rifles in lockers.... Never a thought of ill-inspired activities beyond potential youthful carelessness or indiscretions.

Todd.

Back in the early 70’s we made gun cases and gun racks in high school shop class. My older brothers made some in the 60’s made from oak and mahogany and were awesome. But then came the liberal progressive gun grab up here in Canada and they were all illegal.

Back when I was a kid, we didn't have children.

I am almost 69, so yes. The decline of America ruined many nice things.

I think the decline of showing off guns in your house is not just for theft reasons, but liability. Too many laws against you if you don't have them locked up.

After all, people proudly display art in their homes that can sometimes dwarf even expensive guns. Are they worried about them being stolen? No. The issue is there are no laws against them, nor a stigma. How many "anti-art" people do you know?

These days if you even show a BB gun by accident over your kid's school Zoom meeting, you're in trouble. In other words, blame the anti-gun politicians, plain and simple.

My 1980 R700V,6mmR sits on an old trunk in the back living room,under the big tv. Lives on a Protektor #13 bag. Beautiful mint 6-18, 5* Redfield on top.

Just put it away 2 days ago.

It points right at the Christmas tree..... a little disconcerting when snagging presents? I'll put it back in a few days after the presents are gone.

Usually have a classic handgun on the coffee table as well. Kids are all gone,and wife doesn't care one bit. Sometimes will leave the rifle out when Gbabies are over. Depends on their age,if they're old enough to not be throwing stuff.... haha,then they're old enough that they have been shooting and aren't the least bit "curious" anymore.

Being that they've (Gbabies) all grown up around $$$$ bows.... and guns. They're all pretty well versed in being DANG POLITE around equipment. Heck,even Coco(Dobe) can go to a BIG bow shoot and walk right next to $10k++ line of 3D bows,parked on the ground and never even think about touching one. Just what happens when they grow up around stuff. Same thing in the shop..... where stuff IS LOADED(equipment/switches).

ApacheCoTodd said:

Still more.

Within reason, I won't be cowed into not enjoying them.

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Todd.

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I did some computer work for an auctioneer out in Oberlin who used to keep a loaded S&W Model 76 on top of his bookcase.

Yes, I remember in high school we had our shotguns or rifles in our easy rider rifle racks in our trucks at school so we could go hunting as soon as school got out. My truck however was a 1962 VW Van, 40hp and a state of the art Lear 8 track tape player. I think the tape player cost more than any of my guns, you couldn't get a speeding ticket though, 1/4 mile time was around 26 seconds and top speed was under 60mph.

Buckhunter 62 said:

I live in northern Wisconsin so I have all my guns in a glass front cabinet. I never lock the house & leave the keys in the car. I pity most people that have to live in fear.

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Yes. I live in NW Wisconsin also, but close enough to the Cities that I lock my house, and vehicle. I also grew up in the Cities, with a cop for a Dad. SWMBO grew up on a farm just north of the town we live in, and they never locked the door, guns were in the closet, keys in all the cars. Never could get them to change it. After SWMBO lived in the Cities with me for a short while, she learned that locking the door and car are not necessarily a bad thing. It's not living in fear, it's reasonable prudence. The only part of a crime you as a potential victim can control is the probability of success. I hope you never have any problems. I do not have that much faith in humanity.

My first thought was, “Yeah, yknow you’re right. A long gun would look great above our fireplace.”

My second thought was, “Passerby teen sees gun through window, steals it and shoots someone... I wonder how much civil exposure that means for me? I know I’ll get to keep my house, but...”

Yes, I am a pathetic exemplar of Modern Man.

I remember bringing my first rifle to school for "Show N Tell". Different times.

Bob

We had a teacher who ran a shooting class after school and everyone who had a .22 would bring them to school. There was a rack in his office that they were put in until school was out and then we went to the back field range to shoot. Not one gun had a trigger lock which we had never heard or seen anyways and not once was there any issues. Then came the progressives and we were all mass murderers in training. First thing that happened was shooting class was prohibited and the teacher was fired a couple years later. That teacher was the best teacher that I ever had and the only one I ever respected.
Now that I think of it there were no mass shootings until the progressives started taking power.

Yep, saw scenes like this all over town. Some of my family here in 1973, Rem 742 in the window.