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The first time you saw real guns

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    #1

    The first time you saw real guns

    From a comment by garcia on the politicization thread.

    In my case Paris Spring 1962. I was thirteen and with a visiting school party. I didn't really know this at the time but, the French Government had just signed a cease fire with the FLN, which led to Algerian independence. However the right wing OAS was still active in France. Tension was evident. We'd hear occasional chants of "Algerie Francais!" from our hotel. Armed police were, it seemed, everywhere.

    We were told to stay in our rooms after 7:00pm, and to immediately send a postcard home notifying parents of our safe arrival. I forgot to do this, which led to my father phoning our hotel several days later to find out if I was OK. I got the biggest bollocking of my life. First from our school headmistress — who was way more terrifying than any OAS militant could ever be. Then another from my parents when I got home. At the time I didn't understand why everyone was so upset. It was just a postcard... Jeez!

    But yeah, the guns. Proper automatics, not handguns either. It was the first thing we told our mates about when we got home.
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    #2
    The first time you saw real guns

    First time I saw a cop on the beat.

    Comment

      #3
      The first time you saw real guns

      Did they still have beat cops in NY when you were a kid?

      Comment

        #4
        The first time you saw real guns

        Yes.

        In fact we still do, though they aren't always on foot.

        ursus minor will also have grown up with armed cops being a fairly frequent presence on the subway.

        He also has one or two cops assigned to his school, though I don't honestly know if they are armed (my guess is that they are).

        The US is fundamentally different from the rest of the world in this respect.

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          #5
          The first time you saw real guns

          Ah. That's what I meant I guess.

          Comment

            #6
            The first time you saw real guns

            But yes, we also have cops who walk a beat.

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              #7
              The first time you saw real guns

              I was 5. After the attempted coup there was a machine gun post and armoured car stationed outside our compound, when we returned home.

              We were given half an hour's warning to get in the car and head for the border because the rebels had said they would shoot any white person they found.

              Comment

                #8
                The first time you saw real guns

                First that really sticks out is Guardia Civil in Franco's Spain. Frightening.

                Still get frightened whenever I see the tooled-up thugs at railway stations, mind.

                Comment

                  #9
                  The first time you saw real guns

                  I've been held up at gunpoint, but was significantly more terrified by an adolescent (he didn't look more than 14) with an Uzi in the Istanbul Airport in 1983.

                  With the Guardia, CRS, Carbineri, etc, I was always more immediately concerned by their truncheons and batons, about which they have no inhibitions whatsoever.

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                    #10
                    The first time you saw real guns

                    My dad had hunting rifles since before I was born, so I grew up around them. I fired my first one when we were up at our cottage, so I was probably six or seven.

                    I've only seen a non-cop handgun once in my life, in Nashville with Hugh Fatbastard. Two guys started running their mouths in a convenience store and the teller whipped out his gun to show he meant business. First guy just shrugged and fucked off. I was a bit rattled.

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                      #11
                      The first time you saw real guns

                      For me it would have been at an airport in 1991, which would have made me 11. I can't really remember my emotions but I still have the image so it made an impression. Two policemen with sub machine guns.

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                        #12
                        The first time you saw real guns

                        When I was at junior school our dad took me round a mate of his's house to watch a VHS of 'Conan the Barbarian' and I am absolutely sure some guy there had a gun that he showed us all and I was very impressed by. I still don't know if it was real, and I was told not to mention it to our mam. I haven't, yet.

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                          #13
                          The first time you saw real guns

                          I recall seeing a French gendarme with a small pistol (in holster, so I'm not sure if it counts as seeing the gun itself) when I was about 10. And it really freaked me out.

                          The first unholstered gun I saw was, I think when I was in my 20s on holiday in Florida, when a bartender in a shitty pool bar proudly showed off his 45. Again, it freaked me out.

                          And the only time I've fired a gun, I was failing to kill a couple of clay pigeons, and that must have been only about 5 years ago.

                          Comment

                            #14
                            The first time you saw real guns

                            Query for those on the other side of the pond.

                            Do you lot consider air rifles / BB guns / etc to be "real guns"?

                            We don't.

                            Though they are capable of putting one's eye out.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              The first time you saw real guns

                              I don't think anyone considers an air rifle to be a "real" gun. Even in Britain.

                              Comment

                                #16
                                The first time you saw real guns

                                I did find the amount of BB gun ads in American comics odd as a kid. I just wanted a proper catapult.

                                Comment

                                  #17
                                  The first time you saw real guns

                                  Not counting the routinely armed cops in my former home, my dad once bought a gun, gave it to me, I was 10 I think and I promptly pointed it at him, wanting to press the trigger as on one of my toy guns. His panicked look and shout of 'It's loaded' stopped me...

                                  Otherwise, I uses one for real during my national service, a SIG semi-automatic. Very freaky at first but enjoyed it afterwards, I became a rather good shot as it happens. It was kept in my cupboard at home until I left for the UK.

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                                    #18
                                    The first time you saw real guns

                                    Jongudmund wrote: I was 5. After the attempted coup there was a machine gun post and armoured car stationed outside our compound, when we returned home.

                                    We were given half an hour's warning to get in the car and head for the border because the rebels had said they would shoot any white person they found.
                                    Bloody hell, Shrewsbury's got rowdier than when I was there last.

                                    Comment

                                      #19
                                      The first time you saw real guns

                                      We were driving down to the South of France when I was about 12 and they had - and probably still have - those crap traffic lights that are tiny. This one was covered up by a bush and my Dad went through a red light. Two gendarmes on motorbikes stopped us and my Mum tried to speak to them in French but really it was mangled Italian which she speaks fluently. Unbeknownst to her, we could see that they had pistols in holsters. After she had negotiated an on-the-spot fine/bribe, we informed her that they were armed and her face drained of blood. They were both called Gilbert so, from then on in, all gendarmes on our trip were called Gilberts.

                                      Comment

                                        #20
                                        The first time you saw real guns

                                        Bored of Education wrote: After she had negotiated an on-the-spot fine/bribe, we informed her that they were armed and her face drained of blood.
                                        Because she tought they could have shot her for not speaking very good French? Was she a Tory?

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                                          #21
                                          The first time you saw real guns

                                          Don't know about saw as I spent some of my formative years in the Saudi where all the police are armed.

                                          However, on a holiday to Yemen circa 1997, I was offered a Kalashnikov by a chap guarding a field of Khat. He intimated I should fire across the top of a ravine/wadi where we'd stopped. I refused on account of being a pacifist (I was about ten at the time). I believe he intimated to the rest of my group that he thought I was a bit of a pussy...

                                          Comment

                                            #22
                                            The first time you saw real guns

                                            Pat McGatt wrote:
                                            Originally posted by Bored of Education
                                            After she had negotiated an on-the-spot fine/bribe, we informed her that they were armed and her face drained of blood.
                                            Because she tought they could have shot her for not speaking very good French? Was she a Tory?
                                            No, pay attention. She didn't know about the guns until she had got back in the car. Actually, I have uncharacteristically embroidered the story as, of course, we knew the Gilberts' names because they signed a receipt for the fine.

                                            I think my Mum negotiated the fine down because we only had 30 francs in cash and we didn't want to have to go to the police station to pay more.

                                            Comment

                                              #23
                                              The first time you saw real guns

                                              30 Francs?

                                              Are you sure these were actual police?

                                              Comment

                                                #24
                                                The first time you saw real guns

                                                I still have no idea what a "BB" gun is.

                                                Comment

                                                  #25
                                                  The first time you saw real guns

                                                  ursus arctos wrote: 30 Francs?

                                                  Are you sure these were actual police?
                                                  This was the year after the Jubilee. A franc was worth about a quid then.

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