The details Sarah Vowell uses in paragraphs 18-19 of “Shooting Dad” describes her Father by explaining the history behind his passion for firearms. Vowell infers, that her family ancestry includes moonshiners, confederate soldiers, and notorious murderers (167-168). For instance, Sarah Vowell’s great grandfather is John Vowell who fought alongside pro slavery fighter William C. Quantrill (Vowell 168). Secondly, Vowell concludes that father’s passion isn’t just for the firearms themselves, but also for the history of firearms in America and within Vowel family (168). For example, Vowell’s father hypothesized that John Vowell may have been a hired mercenary in Bozeman where settlers used the “Big Horn” cannon to attack local indian tribes, which
Ellsworth was mean, and it was ugly. The stench of the its streets fell second to the odor of the unbathed saddle tramps who had just delivered 150,000 cattle from San Antonio to its freight yards. Adding to these smells were the blends of whisky, tanning leather, kerosene and carved carcasses, a revolting combination. Gunfights were spontaneous, either over a woman or a card game. When Wyatt crossed the Smoky Hill River into Ellsworth in 1873, he may have remembered the "rules of the gunman," but had no intention of employing them. The two main “rules of a gunman” were to take his time and always be armed. Although many people had warned him that it would be naive to go westward without being properly armed, Wyatt didn’t own a gun. All he hoped for was to find a peaceable job. But, only hours after hitching his horse in town he began to wonder if perhaps everyone was right. The most boisterous spot in town was Brennan’s Saloon, off Ellsworth Square; its faro and poker tables buzzed 24 hours, bartenders tapped beer and ...
Weapons have been around from the Neanderthals of the post-ice age, to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Rocks became knives, sticks became spears, and bayonets became AK-47’s. The technology from the French and Indian War was revolutionized and manufactured by the newly opened weaponry companies. Colt and Winchester had a new end of the market during the times of conflict in the United States.
When you think of Hispanics, the first thing that comes to mind is, obviously a group of men mowing your lawn or an uneducated single mom with five young kids. Most people think that we, Hispanics, do not know how to speak English at all or are illegally in the United States. All Hispanics have been put into the category of the stereotypical Hispanic by Americans. We are all viewed falsely the same way uneducated, illegal, and all Mexican.
"Tell yuh whut, Janie, less buy us some shootin ' tools and go huntin ' round heah." "Dat would be fine, Tea Cake, exceptin ' you know Ah can 't shoot. But Ah 'd love tuh go wid you." "Oh, you needs tuh learn how. 'Tain 't no need uh you not knowin ' how tuh handle shootin ' tools. Even if you didn 't never find no game, it 's always some trashy rascal dat needs uh good Their Eyes Were Watching God 4 131 killin '," he laughed.” (Hurston 130)
To start, guns and violence have a strong impact on Manny’s life, which basically begins with his father. In one instance, Manny is babysitting his younger sister, Pedi. She proves hard to entertain once she realizes their sister, Magda, has mysteriously disappeared, and the rest of the family is elsewhere. While Pedi sleeps, Manny becomes curious as to why his father loves his gun so much, since he has lied to keep the illegal weapon and had gotten arrested for it. As Manny examines the rifle, Pedi wakes up and searches the house for her brother. When Manny sees her, the gun fires accidently, and Manny thinks, “Pedi was dead, I knew it. The way she fell back on the floor, she could only be dead...thinking I’d see a gory dash where the bullet hit her head” (Page 100). Suddenly, Pedi starts crying, and Manny places the gun where it originally has sat and soothes his startled sister. Later, Manny cannot get the incident out of his head and finds the bullet in the cooler. His curiosity about the gun probably comes from the fact that his father, who has a lea...
Shootings at Kent State University What happened at Kent State University? This is a question that many Americans were asking following the crisis on the Kent campus. In the days preceding May 4, 1970, protests, disruption, and violence erupted on the university grounds. These acts were the students’ reaction to President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia.
Since the beginning of the essay the narrator and her father lived in a house “like the Civil War battleground it was” (Kennedy 146). The narrator did not agree with her dad’s political views or understood his love of guns. Contrast to her twin sister, the narrator has a very artistic personality. Her difference in personality caused the narrators frustration towards her father. “Dad and I started bickering in earnest when I was fourteen” (Kennedy 147). The author shows the narrator and her father had started seeing different since she was young. The narrator was frustrated with her father stubbornness and the way she felt she was being treated. “My domain was the cramped, cold space known as the music room” (Kennedy 148). The narrator felt like she was lonely and excluded from her family because of her difference in views. As the narrator’s father tries to get her somewhat involved in his love of cannons and guns, the narrator notices that they have similar interests. “I’ve given this a lot of thought- how to convey the giddiness I felt when the cannon shot off” (Kennedy 150). In addition, the narrator and her father both shared an enjoyment for the loud noise the cannon produced and although they both had opposing political views, they were involved in politics. The author
The Taming of the West: Age of the Gunfighter: Men and Weapons of the Frontier 1840-1900.
Cornell, Saul. A Well-regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.
Somewhere out in the Old West wind kicks up dust off a lone road through a lawless town, a road once dominated by men with gun belts attached at the hip, boots upon their feet and spurs that clanged as they traversed the dusty road. The gunslinger hero, a man with a violent past and present, a man who eventually would succumb to the progress of the frontier, he is the embodiment of the values of freedom and the land the he defends with his gun. Inseparable is the iconography of the West in the imagination of Americans, the figure of the gunslinger is part of this iconography, his law was through the gun and his boots with spurs signaled his arrival, commanding order by way of violent intentions. The Western also had other iconic figures that populated the Old West, the lawman, in contrast to the gunslinger, had a different weapon to yield, the law. In the frontier, his belief in law and order as well as knowledge and education, brought civility to the untamed frontier. The Western was and still is the “essential American film genre, the cornerstone of American identity.” (Holtz p. 111) There is a strong link between America’s past and the Western film genre, documenting and reflecting the nations changes through conflict in the construction of an expanding nation. Taking the genres classical conventions, such as the gunslinger, and interpret them into the ideology of America. Thus The Western’s classical gunslinger, the personification of America’s violent past to protect the freedoms of a nation, the Modernist takes the familiar convention and buries him to signify that societies attitude has change towards the use of diplomacy, by way of outmoding the gunslinger in favor of the lawman, taming the frontier with civility.
Lee, Robert W. "Gun Report: The Buford Furrow Tragedy." The New American 15 (1999): 33
people they had adopted guns. So in this reading you will be reading about different types of
Some errors that could arise from this type of source include biases and limited points of views that lead to misinformation. However, using secondary sources does not detract from Chase’s ability to construct a general theory about firearms development, because a general theory does not require absolute accuracy. Chase also uses many paintings to show military formations in past societies and what weapons they possessed. The conclusions he makes are rational and the inclusion of the paintings provides visually engaging primary sources that further justify Chase’s thesis. Using more primary sources would strengthen the credibility of his descriptions of firearms development in the world, but his construction of a rational theory based on known facts is enough to give this work acceptable credibility.
Carter, Gregg. Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2012. Print.
In the second line the guns are given human destructive qualities, not something that is the banal. They are described as being “monstrous”, that they possess powers of superhuman strength. Owen compares the church bells to the “rifles’ rapid rattle”, that they...