What's up with the irrational prejudice

[Run's House]

against Red Rider and his peacemaker?

[wx or not]

What? Red Rider had one heckuva great anthem song, "Lunatic Fringe." When did they get into peacemaking?

[Camera 47]

Few names inspire such intense fear and panic as the infamous Red Ryder.

An entire generation of optometrists railed against the carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and a thing that tells time. It was a weapon unequaled in its accuracy or its allure. One wonders what history would have unfolded had our nation's warriors been equipped with such an arsenal in the dark days of World War II. Entire books could have been produced describing the intense sting of battle and the horrific welts doctors tended to in field hospitals and recovery wards.

In today's environment of gun control, it's almost unthinkable that such an implement of mayhem could be given to a 9-year-old child, but the world of our grandparents was much different than our own. It was a time of rugged individualism... A time of danger.

Certainly the risk posed by falling icicles could be much higher; the sting of iodine intense against a wounded cheek burning with damaged pride... But the Red Ryder air rifle was the bane of many an eye-care professional and concerned parent from coast to coast.

The weapon was so feared that many spoke out against its silent fury, casting it from the dreams of many a child with one dread phrase...

"You'll shoot your eye out."