One of the best electronic gun forums for collectors and enthusiasts is www.smith-wessonforum.com. It was there that I found this artifact of the past: https://smith-wessonforum.com/threads/us-post-office-revolver-methods-handbook.788619/ .
You will find a US Postal Service manual there, from circa 1967 according to the original poster, showing USPS personnel how to handle revolvers. To this day, postal inspectors are armed. In the past, it was common for some letter carriers to be issued .38 or .45 caliber revolvers to protect the mail.
Things were different then. When holding a suspect at gunpoint, the manual said “…you must be ready to shoot, with finger firmly on trigger.” (Emphasis theirs.)
Today, of course, we know better. My own take on it can be found here, on my new Facts and Firearms YouTube channel.
The same manual said that if the bad guy grabs at your gun you should clout him over the head with it or drive the muzzle into him hard. The manual was written a few years before Jim Lindell at the Kansas City Regional Police Academy came up with the Handgun Retention system that has saved so many lives since.
We’ve come a long way, indeed.
Yes, we are blessed. You would think that, since firearms have been around since the 1400s, the safety rules would have been worked out a long time ago. Instead, they had to wait for Jeff Cooper.
You can also see the changes in finger position while watching the seemingly never ending repeats of Law and Order.
I’m old enough to remember when there were only 3 safety rules and heard the wailing of “we’re gonna get kilt” when finger outside the trigger guard became SOP.
At least they didn’t say give him whatever he wants and beg for mercy.
Pilots that flew airmail were routinely armed.
As always, a GREAT topic for thought and continuing research!
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor armed miscreants stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Back in the day when your mailman was a badass.
The original of that saying was a description of the couriers of the Persian kings. It is to be found in Herodotus. I don’t know if they were badasses but the King definitely was.
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor armed miscreants stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Back in the day when your mailman was a badass.”
Notice how they didn’t mention those 31 year old postal vans. Good thing the postal service is upgrading their fleet. 😉