University of Virginia Library

Happiness Is
Your Own Gun

By Corbin Eissler
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Gun legislation has been one of
the most hoy contested issues on
the recent political scene. Because
of the nature of the dispute, those
involved on both sides have tended
to wax hot in their arguments.
Solutions and slogans have been
offered from the complete banning
of all firearms to the Gun Lobby's
slogan "Register Communists, Not
Guns." People discuss the issue
even on the Tonight Show, and
former Presidential candidate Pat
Paulson offers support to the Gun
Lobby by asking "Who knows
when you might meet a moose?"

This problem, it seems, is not
just restricted to the national scene.
A staff member of this newspaper
has been involved in two incidents
that point out the reality of this
controversy right here in Charlottesville.

In late September a fair was held
at the Barracks Road Shopping
Center, at which various civic
groups held sales and raffles to raise
money for their organizations. Our
staff member, a girl, was approached
by a member of one of
these groups and asked if she
desired to buy a raffle ticket for a
gun. Clearly there must be local
interest in obtaining a firearm, or
else the group would not have
attempted to raise money this way.
What the winner would do with it is
a matter of conjecture.

Selling Apples

That this raffle, with a gun as
the prize, was actually held has
been confirmed by a reliable source
close to the organization. But when
Sharon Furniss, the Promotional
Director of the Barracks Road
Shopping Center, was asked about
the raffle she said she had no
knowledge of it. Civic groups that
desired to set up a stand at the fair
had to clear their booths with her.
The group in question had signed
up to sell apples, and Miss Furniss
said, when asked about the gun
raffle, "I am not so sure what my
reaction would have been had I
known about it."

Money is Made

But it seems there is money to
be made in the gun market, not
only in raffles, but by direct sale.
The same staff member was eating
in a local, expensive restaurant with
her uncle, husband, and her uncle's
wife. The conversation was concerned
with the previous incident,
and the word gun was mentioned.

At that, a young man dressed in
sacks and a shirt approached her
uncle and asked if he was interested
in buying a gun, adding "I have a
whole room-full."

The uncle, a conservatively dress
man near sixty, responded with
"yes, I am thinking of killing my
wife."

"What kind of gun do you
want?"

"I was thinking about a thirty-eight."

"I have a Smith & Wesson" the
young salesman offered. It is
interesting to note how the salesman
could tailor his wares to their
function. A Smith & Wesson is a
police gun, and is of little use to a
hunter or even for target practice.

At this point the party at the
table began to laugh, and the young
man quickly left, probably thinking
"no sale."

Market For Guns

So it seems fair to conclude that
there is a market for guns in
Charlottesville. Maybe the town is
full of hunters. Or maybe, as Tony
Imperiale, head of a citizens vigilante
committee in Newark maintains,
the possession of guns is a
constitutional right. Or maybe it is
finally just an individual who takes
literally the old American myth of
the man who eats his meat with
gun-powder.