Guns and Ducks

[Leo Schulte]

Greetings!

Concerning toy guns: as an official member of the early Baby Boom generation in America, I admit gladly to playing with toy guns of all kinds and imagining myself as a cowboy, soldier, spaceman etc. in constant conflict with the forces of evil.

This explains why Huey, Dewey, and Louie can nonchalantly be experts in gunmanship and nobody would blink twice at the scene!

I have never owned a real gun in my life, and have no interest in them.

If any "toy gun" shot bullets, they were plastic and came out at low speed.  The toy company Mattel had several of these guns (mainly cowboy guns) with spring-loaded bullets.  You could also put a "cap" on the end of the "bullet" (it was called a "Stick 'Em Cap") to make it sound like a real gun.  For younger and foreign members, a "cap" was a square bit of paper with a tiny charge of gunpowder which made a "pop" when the hammer of a toy gun hit them.  You could buy a whole strip of caps which would feed through the gun like paper in a cash register.  Usually the strip of caps jammed!

B-B Guns were advertised in comic books, and could be dangerous, since the tiny pellet (B-B) came out at a higher speed than any of the plastic bullets mentioned above.  There is a movie from the 1980's called "A Christmas Story" which I highly recommend: it in fact involves the desire of a young boy in the 1950's to receive a B-B rifle for Christmas, and shows childhood in the 1950's in lower-middle-class America in a funny way.

Whether actual guns were really advertised in comic books, I can't say, since I rarely looked at anything except Uncle Scrooge and company.  (B-B guns were advertised.)   I never wasted my money on "superhero" comics, so maybe they carried such things.  But I suspect the Comics Code did not allow that.  

You collectors with original issues would be able to prove it one way or the other.


> ----- > 
> From: Larry Giver <lgiver at pacbell.net>
> To: dcml at nafsk.se
> Subject: Gun shootings in duck comics
> Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:21:58 -0700
> 
> 
> 	Nils  mentioned several Bark comics with gun violence.  It 
> reminded me that in The Magic Hourglass, 4C291 Sept. 1950, Donald 
> and Huey, Louie and Dewey were actually hired by the leader of the 
> camel caravan to be riflemen guards.  How old are HDL supposed to 
> be in these stories?  On page 16 their shooting diverts an attack 
> on the caravan by the raiders of No Issa.  Huey actually advises 
> the caravan camel drivers how best to aim at the raiders.
> 	About 8 years ago the Duckhunt website held a contest for writing 
> a duck story.  I won the contest by writing a Rosa-style script 
> sequel to this Magic Hourglass story I titled "Return to No Issa".  
> I can send a copy via email to anyone interested.
> 	And another thing I recall about guns:  there were advertizements 
> for rifles is some of the American comics back in the 1950s.  Some 
> were just "BB guns" that shoot pellets by compressed air, but I 
> think some shot small bullets.  I think these advertizements were 
> for ordering by mail delivery.
> 	Best wishes,    Larry Giver.
> 

=
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