The Peacemaker at 150 years

 

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Colt Model 1873, also known as "The Peacemaker" and the Single Action Army (SAA). Samuel Colt was a prolific designer of firearms, and this is one of his most well known. 

Peacemaker barrel being engraved at
the 2023 NRA Annual Meeting in Indy.

I watched the engraver working on this barrel for a Peacemaker. It is marvelous to me how artistically talented some people are. He knows the pattern he wants to put on the barrel, and gently, with his hammer and chisel, cuts away at it leaving the pattern forever in the steel.

Armed citizens respond faster than police

The text of my letter to the editor of the Cleveland Daily Banner (paywall), Cleveland, TN.

Regarding gun deaths, your two guest editorials in the April 11 edition tell only one side of the story and leave much out.

The commentary by Gary Riggins uses the tired phrase an epidemic of gun violence, when in actuality there is an epidemic of criminal violence in the United States, primarily in a few zip codes in blue cities. 

Here are some facts about gun deaths:

• One recent report indicates an average of 14.3 deaths in a mass shooting when the police are the first ones to arrive with a gun. Yet when an armed citizen is already there, the carnage drops to 2.3.

• Many of the gun deaths in other reports include criminals killed by police officers and by innocent citizens in self defense. 

Riggins errs when he states that the Second Amendment allows our citizens to own guns. It in fact guarantees a pre-existing right and was ratified because the Founders feared a despotic government and wanted the citizen to be armed like an infantryman. Just as computers and email have long since replaced the quill pen and the pony express, the modern musket has replaced the British Brown Bess.