The Lynyrd Skynyrd song... is it anti-gun?

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Now that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky fellow, he must have been pro-gun. His famous piece Festival Overture "The Year 1812" in E flat major aka "The 1812 Overture" even has a part that is often performed with real cannons! If that isn't some kickass pro-gun music, I don't know what is. It does raise the question "What cannon is best for musical performances?" though.
 
How dare anyone say my gun is for killing.... LOL

Do some of you guys interview every owner or every employee of every business you deal with to make sure they don't have any antis among them?

I refuse to give these guys the power to influence me. They have a right to their opinion and I don't put them so high up to think them spouting off matters.

There are plenty of nutty musicians and actors who stupid nutty things and I really don't care. I just care that I enjoy whatever song they sing or movie they make.
 
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Skynyrd

That particular song may be anti, but I do believe Ronnie and crew always had a revolver around.
 

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dont feel bad peacefuljeffery, i thought it was gold too. many times i listened to that song and pictured a pistol barrel thats blue and gold. ha ha
 
guys,I read thru this with interest.It is true that the song is anti but at least in my case,I can seperate artists music or art,from their political or social views,unless their whole carreer was based on that agenda.I wouldn't want to play that song,but if my band outvoted me I would.Don't forget that some of most upscale,cleancut rich people are the biggest gungrabbers of all.Rage against the Machine,I hate the vocals and lyrics yet I like the guitar behind it.Greenday,I like them yet am not to crazy about the song American idiot.Pearl Jam,I hate them politically,they even rant about politics in concert but there are a couple songs I like and play in the band.Do you have any friends who are anti gun?I do yet their other qualities makes them a friend worth having.Not all rough looking rock n roll music people are anti though.(Signed lionking,who is a long haired guitar slinging rock n roller who looks like a stereotypical leftist hippie....but is not!):cool:
 
How can it not be anti-gun?
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I've always thought it was about what it says. The Saturday Night Special is not a gun that most responsible gun owners would own. They are cheaply made, many are unsafe to use, and mainly sought out as a throw away gun.

Who is the most likely purchaser of this junk? How many of you would depend on one as a primary CCW? How many of you would target shoot with one?

Are there folks who can't afford better guns who do have to depend on them for home protection? Most likely, yes, but I doubt they are the majority who purchase them.
 
The Saturday Night Special is not a gun that most responsible gun owners would own....Who is the most likely purchaser of this junk? How many of you would depend on one as a primary CCW? How many of you would target shoot with one?
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No matter the extent to which that statement is true, it still comes off as a bit elitist; and using that angle for argument of their regulation is dangerous, because you're more or less conceding the antis' contention that the RKBA is negotiable because of what some people do with guns. The majority of them may be used in crimes -- no offense, but I'll believe that when I see some statistics. Ultimately, though, those stats don't amount to a hill of beans. I think that in the long run, throwing the cheap-pistol contingent under the bus is just as detrimental to the cause as throwing the pistol and EBR shooters under it -- and I don't mean to imply that's what you were trying to do, Picknlittle, but the people who would do that, no doubt use the exact arguments you put forth.
 
"As they are from the South , I thought it strange as I always equated Southerners with hunting and such . Gun people . Like , Hank Jr ."

Or LBJ, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, or any number of other Southern Leaders?

BTW - John Fogerty and the rest of CCR are New Jersey boys.
 
I like Skynyrd's music. I hold their opinions on guns in the same high regard as I do the Dixie Chick's politics and the US Supreme Court's dazzling musicianship and intricate harmonies.

Sheesh!!
 
The Saturday Night Special is not a gun that most responsible gun owners would own. They are cheaply made, many are unsafe to use, and mainly sought out as a throw away gun.
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Kind of like no honest shooter needs more than ten rounds, eh? These lines between what a "responsible gun owner" would have and what "those other guys" own are a way antis have of dividing and destroying all of us. If you haven't figured that out by now you need to do some more research. But your whole line of thinking is exactly the sort supported by the song. It's a very old, very Southern way of looking at gun rights. Rooted in Jim Crow. It begins with the notion that while firearms are great, they're only kosher for the "right sort of people."
 
Saturday Night Special is a label often misapplied to guns that
many responsible gun owners do own. Read Cook and Ludwig.

unsafe to use,
I remember reading Saturday Night Special, the book by the
noted anti-gunner Robert Sherrill, and he did have the honesty
to admit that there were no cases of anyone being seriously
injured by a exploding Saturday Night Special.

Most "classic" Saturday Night Specials--RG10, Clerke First, etc--
are now off the market, and what are street thugs using?
Check the ATF stats: the most common street crime guns are
high quality 9mm and 38 by Ruger, Smith, and Colt followed by
Lorcin, Jennings and Bryco simply because they are available,
not because they are more dersired.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the street guns I saw sold or
traded in bars, flea markets, etc. tended to be military or
police sidearms, older mid quality guns like H&R or Iver Johnson,
then the cheap cast zinc imports from Germany or Spain.

Saturday Night Special is an elastic label, just like assault
weapon; once accepted, it is stretched to cover more guns.
 
Yeah, I should have my 2nd thots first

Blue and gold ... blue and cold .... someone got buzzed on singing bee.

Two feets they come a creepin'
Like a black cat do
And two bodies are lyin' naked
Creeper think he got nothin' to lose
So he creeps into this house, yeah
And unlocks the door
And while a man reaching for his trousers
Shoots him full of .38 holes
Click to expand...

So this "creeper" sneaks in on a couple lying naked,
thinking he has nothing to lose, and gets shot.
That is supposed to be a bad thing?
 
So this "creeper" sneaks in on a couple lying naked,
thinking he has nothing to lose, and gets shot.
That is supposed to be a bad thing?
Click to expand...

I think it's the creeper doing the shooting, but the grammar is so far from normal speech that it's hard to tell.

~~~Mat
 
"Give me back my bullets" was not about guns, but rather the bullets placed next to top ranked songs. The song was about moving up the charts, that's all.
Mauserguy


PS: I just saw Skynard three weeks ago in Costa Mesa. I broke out my rebel flag after that show.
 
Pistolero,

No matter the extent to which that statement is true, it still comes off as a bit elitist; and using that angle for argument of their regulation is dangerous, because you're more or less conceding the antis' contention that the RKBA is negotiable because of what some people do with guns.
Click to expand...


I'm certainly no elitist. I'm one of the folks asking about info on "dependable" "inexpensive" handguns. I'm not talking about regulation either. This thread has done what so many others have,..it morphed into something other than the original issue or question, which was, "is the song anti gun". I say no. I say the issue is the SNS, because the SNS 's that I have seen were very cheap, unsafe, and even quirky at best. They have all been very cheap revolvers, largely made of some cast material. They weren't the kind of thing most folks relied on to keep on the nightstand for protection, but when a store clerk or a mugging victim was looking down the barrel, pistol pedigree wasn't one of the concerns they had.

I'm not dissin inexpensive guns or those who own them. There are folks here who wouldn't own a Charter Arms, Lorcin, Hi Point, AMT or any of the many other cheap guns, and these are not what I refer to as SNS's. Other folks will find these cheap guns a better option than a rock and a prayer.

There is inexpensive or affordable for someone like myself, understanding that reasonable dependability is necessary, and there is "throw away cheap, but gotta look like a gun from the muzzle end" crap. This is the traditional SNS that was built underground and sold on street corners and in alleys back when this song was written. Do they still exist? I don't know. I've been out of touch with gun markets for a long time.

I was simply talking about what the song represents. Some will see it as anti gun, but knowing the time the song was written and the folks that wrote and performed it, I have to believe it is about a plague of the time, the true SNS.
 
a plague of the time, the true SNS.
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As others have pointed out, that "plague" never existed. It was one of a long line of myths cooked up by antis to chip away at the RKBA. This band bought into it, and I guess some of their fans have too. I guess if you wrap an idea in the proper flag you can get people to buy it.
 
The term "Saturday NIght Special" came form a song titled, IIRC, "Niggertown Saturday Night".

Use your imagination, but not a real 'positive' connotation. Honky-tonkin', drunkeness, stupidity, racism, irresponsible behavior by any other name. Not quite the high point of Southern Culture, in any event . . . :rolleyes:

I like Lynard Skynard's music regarless (and I do read that song as 'anti'), but like the bible, you can find a meaning you like in most any POS pop music song if you twist it enough.
 
As others have pointed out, that "plague" never existed. It was one of a long line of myths cooked up by antis to chip away at the RKBA. This band bought into it, and I guess some of their fans have too. I guess if you wrap an idea in the proper flag you can get people to buy it.
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Cosmoline, I hope you are not going to try to tell me that the SNS never existed. I'll certainly have to disagree. No name, no markings, no numbers. I had two of them given to me a good many years ago. I was about as country as I could get and even I could find them if I wanted them.


Recognizing what these pieces of junk were/are, and what they were commonly used for has absolutely nothing to do with RKBA. I do support safe weapons.
 
I see where you're coming from, Picknlittle, and I did not mean to imply you were an elitist by any means; but as far as the song goes, I can't help but think that Edward King and Ronnie Van Zant wrote that song as a demonization of all defensive sidearms. Call me pedantic, but you'd think if they were only raising awareness of unsafe weaponry they'd have tried to work in something about Big Jim's gun blowing up in his hand. Aside from that, I agree with those who say that the term "Saturday Night Special" is just like the term "assault weapon" in that it's completely subjective and therefore may be applied to whatever firearm the antis want to make the bete noire du jour. But in any event, the Skynyrd song is classic anti posturing -- taking the willful misbehavior of a few and advocating ridding society of all defensive weaponry based on the aforementioned few miscreants.
"Handguns are made for killin', they ain't no good for nothin' else." If that isn't a talking point straight from a Handgun Control/Violence Policy Center/Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (the organization formerly known as the Coalition to Ban Handguns) press release, then what is?
 
Pistolero, I get your drift. I believe that we have come upon one of the many dangers associated with applying rational thinking to song lyrics.

This song, like many others, can and will be seen in a variety of context based on personal history and understanding.

Case in point: The song Illegal Smile, by John Prine, was first performed on television. The name of the show escapes me, but there was a marijuana plant in the background while John was performing his new song.

The chorus is: "But fortunately, I have the key, to escape reality and you can see me tonight with an illegal smile. It don't cost very much, but it last a long while. Won't you please tell the man, I didn't kill anyone, I'll just trying to have me some fun."

When ask if the song was pro-drugs, he explained that it was a funny song about a guy with mental issues. He said he understood how people could think it was about drugs seeing the plant in the background, but that definitely was not the case.

I play and sing this song for it's comic value. Still, I have a hard time thinking the song isn't pro marijuana without considering that JP wrote lots of odd lyrics about mental diseases without making those diseases the central topic.

Music is what it is. Wanna really screw yer head up, try cyphering the lyrics to Mr. Tambourine Man. :)
 
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