He dropped out of school in third grade and worked the family farm until he was old enough to get a job at a coalmine. Before he reached voting age, he fell off a rail car and it ran over his leg. He’d wear a prosthetic the rest of his life. During prohibition he realized running moonshine was more profitable than farm work and that drinking moonshine was more fun than selling it.
He didn’t get rich but was never short on cash. When liquor became legal again, he invested his money in various endeavors and his family did well. When I met him his outlaw and drinking days were behind him and he’d become a pillar of the community. He even served a term on the local Board of Education. Everyone he met called him Mr. Walker, I just called him Pa; he was my grandfather.
Pa grew up and matured in a time when guns were as common as a hammer. For the few years I got to spend with him before he passed, he kept a revolver in his nightstand and a rifle in the closet. They were both loaded.
I only saw him mad only once. My cousin had become engaged in a disagreement with an uncle. Pa found out his son in law had failed to pay my cousin for some work and he told us boys to get in the truck. We did. A few minutes later Pa came out of the house and tossed his Smith & Wesson on the dash.
We pulled up to my uncle’s front door, the revolver in plain sight, and Pa told my cousin to go get his money. Chris eased out of the truck and sheepishly walked to the door. I saw it open and a hand reached out with a wad of cash. Chris took the money, ran back to the truck and we drove home. I didn’t realize it then but I know now Pa had called our uncle and told him he was on his way.
That Smith & Wesson was the first pistol I ever fired and Pa let me shoot it anytime I asked. By modern standards he wasn’t much of a firearms instructor but his guidance was sound, “Hold a fine bead and gently squeeze the trigger.” He also told us grandkids “Don’t ever pull a pistol unless you’re prepared to use it.” We all knew about his past and figured he was speaking with some authority on the subject.
When I was 14 he was 74 and his health was failing. Facing an extended stay in the hospital and debilitating treatment, the last time Pa pulled his pistol he was prepared to use it and it left his family in shock. I didn’t understand at the time but now realize he was the kind of man who would never become a burden on his kin folk.
13 years later I pinned on a badge and while I know Pa would have thought it ironic, I also know he would have been proud. I took his advice to heart and figured I’d never pull my pistol unless I was going to use it. But, cops get scared just like anyone else and in a dark alley one night, fear caused me to draw down on a man. His reaction was something I learned I could almost trust; he reached for the sky.
COL Cooper once said, “It appears that most defensive confrontations are terminated solely by the display of a firearm…Nobody wants to get shot with any sort of pistol, which brings us around to the first principle of gun fighting, which is, have a gun.”
My grandfather lived by Cooper’s advice and while all his dealings might not have been on the right side of the law, he understood well what using a gun meant. Sometimes all that’s necessary is letting the other guy, the one presenting the threat, know you have a gun. Pointing it at them generally serves notice. Then, the burden is on the other guy; he’ll have to decide if you are going to pull the trigger or not.
You best be prepared to make that pull before you clear leather because some folks are not as smart as my uncle was.
