'If you're going to shoot, shoot! Don't talk.' Eli Wallach in 'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly'

I,was visiting a gunshop(it was in the late '70's)in FLA.There was all those gunfull display counters full of handguns,a gunner's dream! Then,I saw a bullet hole through the glass of one of the counter with a tag above it saying: ''THIS GUN WAS NOT LOADED''. I never forgot the lesson! Qc Pistolero

In a generally unseen Hollywood Western by a rather famous Director from the late 1940’s, a stereotypical-for-the-period (Hollywood Period) “Bad Guy” who is more of a “Good Guy” (making him sort of a “Grey Guy”) and who is a recognized gunslinger in the film (wearing a Dual Buscadero Rig if I remember correctly), comes to the rescue of a “Local” who is being goaded into a gunfight he will never win (think similar scenes between Jack Palance as Jack Wilson and Elisha Cook Jr. as Stonewall Torrey in 'Shane' or John Russell as Stockburn and Doug McGrath as Spider Conway in 'Pale Rider'). This time, however, the “Local” lives as the “Grey Guy” steps in and completely outperforms the “Bad Guy” in another typical-for-the-period (Hollywood Period) gun battle. Later, the Sheriff, no friend of the “Grey Guy”, investigates the death and accuses the survivor of murdering the “Bad Guy” in some sort of sneaky, lying-in-wait bushwhacking. “Why do you think that?”, the “Grey Guy” asks the Sheriff, who responds by telling him that it was obvious because the “Bad Guy” had all but emptied his Single Action Revolver while the “Grey Guy” had fired only one or two rounds. “How do you explain that?” the Peace Officer demands. At which time, the “Grey Guy” hitches up his Double Buscadero Rig in a typical-for-the-period (Hollywood Period), “aw-shucks-but-all-knowing-manner” and tells the lawman in a very non-typical-for-the-period (or Hollywood) reply: “Well Sheriff, while he was shooting fast, I was shooting accurate.” Words to live by.

The person who buys a handgun for defensive purposes runs immediately into the power problem. It stands to reason that if you need a defensive weapon at all, you need it very badly. Of course, some situations can be handled by merely producing a weapon-any weapon-but I think that we may assume that the purchaser of a defensive handgun feels that he will use it if he must...an antagonist will be trying to kill him or another. He must be stopped. Only power, and lots of power, will guarantee this.' –Jeff Cooper

yuo never need a gun, until you really need a gun. cletus frade ( W.E.B Griffin)

A weapon is always considered loaded, until verified.