{"id":5991,"date":"2019-09-27T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T13:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=5991"},"modified":"2019-09-27T13:22:09","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T17:22:09","slug":"the-first-rule-of-gunfighting-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/the-first-rule-of-gunfighting-is\/","title":{"rendered":"THE FIRST RULE OF GUNFIGHTING IS\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2026have a\ngun! <\/em>The saying is generally attributed to Mark Moritz, and is perfectly\ntrue.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also\nnothing new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in Texas recently I had occasion to read \u201cTrails and Trials of a Texas Ranger.<\/a>\u201d  It was written by William Warren Sterling, who was a Texas Ranger himself on the way to becoming Adjutant General of the Lone Star State.  His career was an impressive one.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading that\nautobiography, it became clear that Sterling was seldom without his engraved, five\nand a half-inch barrel single action Colt .45 revolver, and not often far from\nhis lever action Winchester Model 1895 .30-06 rifle.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His career\nhad taught him good reason for that.  He\nwrote, \u201cEx-Ranger Joe (Pinkie) Taylor \u2026 was a member of a pioneer family in\nGoliad County, and made a fine record in the Rangers. He married, settled down\nand became a Valley farmer. His family objected to pistols. Shortly after he\ndiscarded the familiar weapon, the enemies he had made in the Service killed\nhim and mutilated his body. He was a crack shot, and if he had been armed, the\nassassins would not have ventured within range of his six-shooter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another incident during the \u201cBandit War\u201d of 1915, Sterling wrote of one gang, \u201cThey robbed a store, and then went to a corn sheller, which was being operated by A. L. Austin and his son, Charles. These inoffensive farmers had recently moved to Texas from Montgomery, Missouri.\u00a0 The outlaws captured the unarmed Austins and held them prisoner until young Elmer Millard drove up in a wagon.\u00a0 They put the Austins in it and forced Millard to drive them to a spot near their home. The Austins were then killed by a fusillade from the bandits\u2019 rifles. Miller was released.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\natrocity occurred on a train. \u201cSeated in the smoker were four unarmed soldiers\nwho were returning to Fort Brown after being absent from duty on furlough. Two\nState officials, Dr. E.S. McCain, Deputy State Health Officer, and District\nAttorney John I. Klieber were in the car. Harry Wallis, a former Ranger, was\nalso a passenger. When the train came to a stop, four bandits entered the car\nand began shooting the occupants. One soldier was killed instantly and two\nothers badly wounded. Judge Klieber was on the floor with one of the wounded\nsoldiers, who bled profusely. The blood partially covered his clothing, and the\nbandits apparently thought that both were dead. Wallis and Dr. McCain hid in\nthe toilet. The bandits fired a number of shots through the door, hitting the\ndoctor in the abdomen and Wallis in the hand. Dr. McCain died the next day and Wallis\nrecovered. A Mexican passenger on the train told the bandits about the secreted\nmen. I knew both Klieber and Wallis very well. The unbelievable part of the\nwhole affair was that no one on the train was armed. Wallis told me that he\nwould have had his pistol if he had been traveling by automobile, but thought\nit would not be needed on the train.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The criminal\nis the actor. He gets the first move.  He\ndoesn\u2019t need to carry a gun until he decides he\u2019s going to use it.  The good guy or gal is the reactor: we don\u2019t\nknow when we\u2019ll need it, which is why it behooves us to carry a defensive\nfirearm wherever it is legal to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026have a gun! The saying is generally attributed to Mark Moritz, and is perfectly true.  It\u2019s also nothing new. While in Texas recently I had occasion to read \u201cTrails and Trials of a Texas Ranger.\u201d  It was written by William Warren Sterling, who was a Texas Ranger himself on the way to becoming Adjutant General […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5991"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5993,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991\/revisions\/5993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}