Wally and The Beaver had a gun

H

Hal

New member
Last night my wife and I were watching the old Leave It To Beaver show. One scene showed the unmistakeable shape of a rifle in the background. The slender barrel made me believe it was a .22, rather than the fat barrel of a BB gun. The really interesting part of the scene: The gun was just sitting in the corner, mixed in with a hockey stick , a baseball bat , what appeared to be a fishing rod and a few other items that the brief scene didn't allow me to ID. The people that produced the show evidently felt that every kid had a gun,or should have a gun, and that having a gun was a wholesome part of growing up. The gun was neither good or bad, not a central part of the theme, but just as important a part of a "typical" kids room as a desk or chair. The complete irony of the LiTB series was the episode where Papa Ward took a young Beav to task for using an electric drill without permission, yet felt 100% confident that Wally and brother could be trusted to have a rifle sitting in the corner of their room!
My how things have changed.
 
I had a Daisey .177 pellet/bb gun. I remember once when a neighbor hood bully came to my house and wouldn't leave, I went and got my bb gun (unloaded) and pointed it at his bicycle tire. I told him I would shoot out his tire if he didn't leave....He didn't leave and I went into the house and put my gun away.

Somehow, my father found out as fathers have a way of doing. He took me and my gun out into the back yard and made me watch as he broke the gun across a tree trunk. I can't remember ever crying as long or as hard as I did that day. I learned that day a great lesson though. My father, in destroying a part of my childhood, layed the foundation for a belief system to which I adhere to this day.

My sadness over that incident was wiped away two years later when my father bought me a 20 gauge single-shot from Sears for Christmas.

The lesson I learned from having that gun and losing that gun will be passed down to my children too. Hopefully they will be smarter than I was, and learn right the first time.


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RKBA!

"The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security"
Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 4
Concealed Carry is illegal in Ohio.
Ohioans for Concealed Carry Website
 
When I was a kid I had a Remington lever-action .22 and a commercial M1 Carbine on a wall rack in my room.

The latter had a 15-round magazine in it (empty of course). Why this semiautomatic weapon and hi-capacity magazine didn't make me shoot up my school I don't know--unless it was my total lack of inclination to do any such thing (tongue in cheek here).
 
Same here - I had an H&R slide action .22 in my room all the time. I don't recall ever having a single thought of shooting up anything or at anybody.

BTW, did you know that the Leave It To Beaver show was the first to have a risque line that made it passed the censors? It was when June said to Ward at the breakfast table one morning, "Ward, don't you think you were a little rough on the beaver last night?"
 
Mal H:

Where do I send the bill for the coffee-splattered shirt and trousers? (The keyboard's OK -- the office can pay for that!) ;)

Incidentally, in a lot of "old" US shows, you'll notice a firearm of some sort in the background, especially those set in "rural" or "small town" settings. Usually a Chinwester ("The Gun that Won the West" -- Corporal Agarn, F-Troop), but often some other interesting pieces. And a lot of the kids had those BB guns that looked like a lever-action, and had a tassle of some sort hanging off them. (Can't identify it, 'cause we never had 'em here.)

B
 
I had a Daisy scissor action BB gun my Dad originally bought in 1922 from Sears when he was 11 years old. We had a gun cabinet my Dad bought unfinished and he and I finished it. In it were a Marlin 39A .22 he gave me on my 11th birthday, an Enfield Jungle Carbine (original), and a Spanish "Matador" side by side 12 gauge. In the drawers were a Colt .22 single action, a Browning .380, and a Luger in addition to ammo. On my 12th birthday he gave me a set of keys to the cabinet.

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Safe shooting - PKAY
 
I always fancied Ward Cleaver as a Smith and Wesson Model 10 shooter for a handgun, and a pump action Winchester Model 12 for a shotgun. Now Fred Rutherford ( Lumpy's father) was a sure ringer for either a captured P38 or Nambu. That is beside the point however. What caught my attention, was the fact that the writers of the show assumed a rifle in the corner was the "All American Ideal" in the I like IKE era, and was treeated as just another object with no more importance than a ball bat or glove. It points out that even though guns are or can be very dangerous, most of the danger is in the eye of the beholder. A gun treated with respect for what it can do is less dangerous than a power tool that is used carelessly. Leave it to Beaver is one of the better shows of the era for portraying guns in an everyday light. One episode had Beaver visiting a Department Store that had shelves filled with every kind of handgun, and a full rack of shotguns and rifles. It always seemed to be assumed that even though they were there, the knowledge of how and when to use them was a given.

Mal H, Oldie but a goodie :)

Bluesman, Had a bit of a similar experience with a Daisy, a window and a failed attempt to hit a flying kite on a dare at age 12. Christmas at age 14 netted me a Sheridan Blue Streak though. Still have it in the corner of the dining room ready to take care of the occasional backyard pest.
 
Most likely the writers didn't even know. The property people knew what a place should look like and put the correct props on the set. That was America then, today in rural Missisippi a child was suspended from school because she had a nail clipper with a swing out nail file on it!
{as usual there is probably way more to the story than was reported} As a kid watching Beaver, we kept our firearms in corners of closets so they wouldn't get dinged up.
Hank
 
My Dad wouldn't let me have a BB gun. He figured since it wasn't illegal to shoot one in the city limits (small town, Western Kansas) I probably would. He was probably right. I did, however, have a Remington pump .22. When I was twelve or so I could buy ammo at the local hardware store and it wasn't unusual to see a couple of kids heading down to the creek with rifles under their arms to plink cans or turtles. When I was in high school I carried one to school, put it in my locker until wood shop class where I took it to repair the stock. No one thought anything about it. And they say guns are easier to access nowdays. Anyone else remember ordering one out of the Sears catalog?
 
Gun in our rooms! You have got to be kidding. Guns are dangerous, a young teenage boy or girl is most likely going to hurt themselves or other. What a joke! I grew up with guns in my room, under the bed and in the closet. Remember even taking my guns to school for show and tell. On my 16th birthday, my parents gave me a 41 Magnum. When in high school (JR's alma mater! Yikes!), had the guns in the trunk of the car, go hunting or shooting right after school. Gee, how time have changed.

Robert
 
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