Category: All About Guns
Dan White was a baby boomer born in 1946 in Long Beach, California, the second of nine children. Though he was expelled in his junior year of High School for violence, he later transferred to another school and graduated as valedictorian. In 1965, White enlisted in the Army.
White was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division as an NCO and served a year in Vietnam. He left the military in 1971 and became a police officer in San Francisco. He purportedly quit the force after reporting a fellow officer for beating a handcuffed suspect. White then joined the San Francisco Fire Department. His rescue of a woman and her baby from a seventh-floor apartment during a fire was the sort of stuff of which heroes are made.
White parlayed his experience as both a cop and a fireman into a budding political career. In 1977 he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. During his tenure, he served alongside a youthful Dianne Feinstein and Harvey Milk.
The Saga of Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was born in New York City in 1930, the son of Lithuanian parents. Milk was known as an outgoing extrovert in school—the class clown. He played football and was an opera enthusiast. He studied mathematics in college and subsequently entered the US Navy.
Milk served as a diving officer assigned to the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake. After a stint portside as a diving instructor Milk was removed from the military via an “Other Than Honorable” discharge for homosexuality. Milk then hopped through several jobs and multiple gay relationships in various cities across the country.
Milk eventually settled in San Francisco. He worked for a time for an investment firm before being fired for growing his hair long in protest of US combat operations in Cambodia. After several failed local election attempts Milk was appointed to the city Board of Permit Appeals in 1976 by San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. This appointment made Harvey Milk the first openly gay city commissioner in the United States.
Mayor George Moscone
George Moscone was a San Francisco native of Italian heritage. His dad had been a prison guard at San Quentin. Moscone attended law school, got married, and also served a stint in the Navy. After a term on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Moscone was elected to the California State Senate.
Moscone’s time in the State Senate saw him sponsor a statewide school lunch program as well as the law that legalized abortion in California. Throughout it all, he developed a reputation for championing gay rights. In 1975 he was elected Mayor of San Francisco, beating out conservative John Barbagelata as well as Dianne Feinstein.
The success of Moscone’s campaign turned on a grassroots effort funneled through a variety of local churches. Among them was the People’s Temple, the suicide cult run by charismatic charlatan Jim Jones. You can read more about Jim Jones and the Guyana Massacre here. In recognition of his support, Moscone later appointed Jones as Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Commission.
The Conflict
Dan White and Harvey Milk were initially political allies. Despite their wildly disparate backgrounds, they were both ardent Democrats and enjoyed a compatible ideology. Disagreements over business development issues and ultimately Milk’s placement of a controversial group home in White’s district eventually drove a wedge between them. Their conflict was eventually seen as a bitter proxy fight between traditional family values and gay rights.
White’s supervisor job paid $9,600 per year ($40,200 today). A local ordnance prohibited any one individual from holding two city jobs simultaneously. As a result, White was forced to resign as a firefighter. He tried to start a business selling baked potatoes from a cart, but this endeavor failed. With a wife and three children to support this created a financial burden. Frustrated with his lack of money as well as the labyrinthine machinations of San Francisco politics, Dan White submitted his resignation as Supervisor to Mayor Moscone on November 10, 1978.
The rules were such that the Mayor appointed a temporary successor after a Supervisor resigned. White’s vacancy insured that the Mayor could stack the board with a majority that was warm to his agenda and potentially hostile to local business. Under pressure from his constituents, White approached Moscone and attempted to rescind his resignation.
Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk saw White’s departure as an opportunity. Milk pressured Moscone not to re-seat White. Moscone subsequently announced that he was appointing Don Horanzy to the position, a farther-Left local politician.
The Killings
A bit more than two weeks after his resignation White had an unsuspecting friend drive him to City Hall. In his pocket, he carried the loaded Smith and Wesson Model 36 .38 Special revolver he had used as a police officer along with ten loose rounds of hollowpoint ammunition. Given the fulminant nature of San Francisco politics, metal detectors had recently been installed at the entrances to the building.
White entered the structure through an unlocked first-story window. Apparently, city officials frequently came to work by this means so as to avoid the waits at the detectors. There’s a message there, but we lack the space to explore it today.
Mayor Moscone was in a meeting with Willie Brown who would himself eventually go on to become Mayor of San Francisco. After Brown departed, White confronted Moscone, again demanding he be given his old job back. Not wishing to make a scene, Moscone invited White into a private lounge attached to the Mayor’s office. Once behind closed doors Moscone lit a cigarette and poured drinks.
Dan White was a trained soldier, a combat veteran, and an experienced police officer. He knew how to run a gun. White drew his revolver and shot Moscone twice, once in the shoulder and again in the chest, perforating the man’s lung. White then shot Moscone twice at close range through the ear, killing him. Bystanders later reported that they took the sound for a car backfiring.
As White left the office Dianne Feinstein recognized him and called his name. White responded with, “I have to do something first.” He then sought out Harvey Milk and caught him in a hallway before inviting him into a private office.
White closed the door, produced his pistol, and opened fire. His first round passed through Milk’s wrist, while the next two struck him in the chest. The fourth hit Milk in the head. As before, White then fired his final shot into Milk’s skull at close range. Feinstein entered the office as White left and discovered Milk’s body.
The Gun
The Smith and Wesson Model 36 is likely the most popular snub-nosed revolver ever produced. The name Chief’s Special spawned from a popular vote conducted at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Convention held in 1950. Barrels could be had in either two or three-inch versions, and the gun carried five rounds onboard.
Serial number 337 was engraved with J. Edgar Hoover’s name and given to him as a gift. An aluminum-framed version was called the Airweight. A variant specifically marketed for female shooters was titled the LadySmith. The gun remains in production today.
The Rest of the Story
Dan White walked out of City Hall unmolested and eventually surrendered to Frank Falzon, a fellow detective from his days with the SFPD. He acknowledged shooting Milk and Moscone but denied having planned the attack. White was charged with murder in the first degree with special circumstances, making him eligible for the death penalty.
White’s legal team claimed that he was caught in the throes of depression and therefore not responsible for his actions. They explained that White, previously a bit of a fitness fanatic, had given himself over to junk food. Subsequent myths perpetuated in the media asserted that his lawyers were alleging that the junk food caused a mental break. This led to the popular term “Twinkie Defense” in the newspapers of the day.
In reality, they were just claiming that the junk food addiction was evidence of his altered mental state, not its cause. Regardless, the jury inexplicably bought this bizarre story. If ever you should choose to assassinate your political rivals in cold blood in a public place, apparently you might want to do it in California.
Jurors purportedly wept when his confession was played in the courtroom. White was subsequently convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison. He was paroled after five, lost his family, and killed himself via carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage two years later.
A Point of Personal Privilege
Harvey Milk endured discrimination, served in politics, and was gunned down in cold blood by an unhinged lunatic. In 2009 President Obama awarded Milk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. On November 6, 2021, the US Navy launched the USNS Harvey Milk, the second of the John Lewis class of underway replenishment oilers. As martyrs go, I’d say he’s earned his accolades.
Most thinking folks agree that no one should undergo discrimination. However, ours is a cruel, violent species. There has never since the dawn of time been fairness or equality in a human culture to compare with what we enjoy today. The pursuit is a noble goal to be sure. However, it seems to me we should spend more time being thankful for what we’ve accomplished and less screaming at each other about how horrible things are.
I grow weary of our current unhealthy fixation with sexual practices. In my perfect world, people would be judged based upon what they accomplished or how they’ve made the world better, not with whom they slept or what kind of clothes they wore. That’s a pretty shallow way to define one’s self. Sex is a fairly straightforward primal thing, and most people can do it. The details do not reflect any extraordinary accomplishment. Would it be too much to ask if we just treat everybody nicely and focus on something more substantive for a change?
Categories
Fliegerfaust – Nazi MANPADS
MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) – A federally licensed firearms dealer in Macomb County is accused of importing devices that convert semiautomatic guns into machine guns, commonly known as Glock switches.
According to the Department of Justice, Chase Farmer, 23, of St. Clair Shores, owns Clinton Township-based Shall Not Be Infringed LLC. From November 2020 until March 2021, authorities allege Farmer used a Russian website to order the switches and drop-in auto sears, which are also used to convert guns into automatic weapons.
READ: What is a Glock switch?
While ordering these items, authorities say Farmer used an alias and falsified details in his PayPal payments. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives found evidence of the crimes and evidence he did not keep proper records, authorities said.
Farmer was licensed to deal in firearms, but he was not licensed to import guns, federal authorities say.
He was charged in a federal indictment with illegally importing Glock conversion devices from Russia and failing to keep proper records. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “A federal grand jury in Des Moines returned an indictment … charging Adair Chief of Police Bradley Wendt with unlawfully obtaining and possessing machine guns,” the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Idaho announced in a mid-December press release. “According to unsealed court documents, Wendt … exploited his position … to acquire 10 machine guns purportedly for the official duties and responsibilities of the Adair Police Department, but later resold several of those machine guns at a significant profit.”
He also, per the release, “acquired 13 machine guns for his Denison-based gun store, BW Outfitters, through false statements to the ATF that the machine guns were being demonstrated for future potential purchase by the Adair Police Department … sought to demonstrate or purchase approximately 90 machine guns for the Adair Police Department, which serves a town of less than 800 people [and, with an accomplice] hosted public machine gun shoots, where they charged patrons money…”
Nice work if you can get it. The problem is, without a badge, you can’t, and therein lies the crux of police as “Only Ones.”
That’s a term I started using (and trying to get others to adopt) after a DEA agent explained to a classroom full of school children that he was “the only one professional enough” to carry a Glock and then shot himself in the foot trying to re-holster it. As I explain to readers on my The War in Guns blog:
“[T]he purpose of this feature has never been to bash cops. The only reason I do this is to amass a credible body of evidence to present when those who would deny our right to keep and bear arms use the argument that only government enforcers are professional and trained enough to do so safely and responsibly. And it’s also used to illustrate when those of official status, rank, or privilege, both in law enforcement and in some other government position, get special breaks not available to we commoners, particularly (but not exclusively) when they’re involved in gun-related incidents.”
Over the years, and without particularly trying, that body of evidence just keeps growing, and growing, and growing. As the character Brant from the dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner noted:
“You know the score, pal. If you’re not cop, you’re little people.”
They sure do make it tough to “Back the Blue” sometimes, don’t they? For those gun owners who wave that flag and insist it’s just “a few bad apples,” what percent would not obey orders to confiscate your guns? Show your work.
The Adair indictment also illustrates another danger, particularly in jurisdictions where police officials are either enthusiastically on board (or even driving) the citizen disarmament bandwagon.
“What Would Happen if ‘Battle of Athens’ Round Two Ever Becomes Necessary?” I asked back in 2014. That article looked at the militarization of police departments with surplus equipment from the feds. It focused on recent acquisitions by the McMinn County Sheriff’s Department and speculated on how the World War Two veterans trying to ensure election integrity against a corrupt sheriff and deputies would have fared had they been greeted by full autos, grenade launchers, and MRAPs.
Let’s keep working for freedom to reduce the need to ever have to find out. Let’s not forget that things may come down to resistance or surrender.
While the charges against Chief Wendt are just that, while he is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and while the Justice Department and ATF have given gun owners very little reason of late to trust any charges they bring as anything other than tyrannical overreach and/or in-your-face political rape, it’s not out of line to speculate that exploitation of the badge was going on.
There is one thing that is provable, and this one that I’m quoting from The Captain’s Journal is beyond the shadow of a doubt:
“There is a solution to all of this, of course. Undo the infringement of the NFA, GCA and Hughes Amendment. Then no one will be able to enrich themselves this way by selling machine guns.”
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The BATFE has released a letter to FFLs and the public, “clarifying” their new rules regarding so-called “80% receivers,” which were adopted earlier this year. The general understanding within the industry has been that the new regulation had the impact of requiring “unfinished receivers” to be treated as “firearms” if they were sold together with the parts and tools needed to turn them into functional firearms.
The industry responded by separating the “unfinished receivers” from the tools and parts kits and selling them separately, with no jigs, tools, or any other parts needed to finish them. The regulatory changes were not authorized by Congress and are currently being challenged in court as an unconstitutional overstep by the BATFE.
This new letter moves the goalposts yet again. Now they are claiming that, with regard to “unfinished receivers” for striker-fired handguns, they consider these “partially completed receivers” to be “readily convertible” into functional receivers, and therefore they must be treated exactly the same as completed receivers.
This means the manufacturers are now required to be licensed by the government to manufacture and sell guns and that each receiver be marked with a serial number and manufacturer information, sold only through licensed firearm dealers. Now purchasers will be subjected to identification and background checks.
The letter graciously invites anyone unsure whether the “unfinished receiver” they own or are manufacturing meets the nebulous criteria of being “readily convertible” into a firearm to send them a sample. They’ll be happy to let you know…eventually.
What they absolutely refuse to do, is publish a clear definition of exactly where the line is between a “receiver” and a “receiver-shaped object.” For several years they had a relatively clear standard, with people occasionally testing the borders of the standard.
It was understood that, as long as certain holes were not drilled, and certain sections weren’t machined to size and shape, the item was a paperweight, regardless of what tools, parts, or accessories might come along with it and regardless of how it might be advertised. Manufacturers who made “80% receivers” with drill hole positions marked were slapped down, as were those who manufactured their items with two separate colors and densities of polymer, which the BATFE said were too easy to finish. And some manufacturers loudly marketed their products as complete, do-it-yourself, “untraceable” gun kits, requiring no background checks or any registration – which really annoyed the control freaks.
The BATFE’s new regulations, adopted last April, threw much of the previously established understanding right out the window.
It cracked down on advertising that promoted the items as a way of avoiding gun control laws and required that “kits” be treated like guns, regardless of how complete or incomplete the receiver might be. But that wasn’t good enough for them, so now they have gone a step further, redefining “receiver” to include “unfinished receivers,” which they say are “readily convertible” into “receivers.”
The BATFE’s “reimagined” interpretations of the Gun Control Act of 1968 were already a serious overstep of their authority. The entire federal gun control regulatory scheme was unconstitutional from the get-go, not just for its violation of the Second Amendment, but for Congress’s failure to do their job of fleshing out the details of their legislation, instead delegating the lion’s share of that work to bureaucrats in the BATFE.
For the time being, this latest “clarification” of their regulations only applies to “unfinished receivers” for striker-fired handguns, like those made by Polymer 80 and Lone Wolf, but another “clarification” applying the same nebulous standards to “unfinished receivers” for other pistols and rifles, will almost certainly be forthcoming.
All of this nonsense is being challenged in court, but there’s no telling how long it might take for these matters to make their way to the Supreme Court for final resolution. Since the Bruen decision striking down New York’s arbitrary concealed carry requirements and establishing a clear standard for judging Second Amendment cases, it appears that some of the Circuit Courts of Appeal – particularly those that serve anti-rights-dominant areas like New York and California – are intentionally dragging their feet and doing their best to keep Second Amendment challenges from getting to the SCOTUS.
Are they hoping for Democrats to follow through on their threats to “stack the Court,” hoping for hard-line originalists like Justice Clarence Thomas to retire or kick the bucket, or just trying to allow the most damage possible before the eventual smackdown of their hubris? That’s all anyone’s guess, but while we wait for this BS to be rectified, companies like Polymer 80 and Lone Wolf are under the gun and at risk of being driven out of business, criminally prosecuted, or both.
Republican Representatives in Congress need to address this abusive, bureaucratic corruption as soon as the new Congress is seated in January, and not just with a strongly worded – and easily ignored – letter, but with real reform legislation. With Republicans holding a majority in the US House, they should be able to force a bill out of that body in pretty short order. Getting it through the Senate would be a challenge but not an impossibility, and even if they can’t get it through, the attempt would highlight the BATFE’s excesses and inconsistencies.
This type of bureaucratic overreach is a total violation of the process, ideals, and objectives of the founders and must be reined in by Congress. That’s not likely to happen unless your cowardly elected servants hear from you loud, long, and unequivocally. The Congressional Switchboard can be reached by calling 202-224-3121.
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father, Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalitio
Categories
Winchester 73 Movie By Joe Engesser
In 1950, Universal-International released Winchester ’73, a movie that helped revive both the classic Western genre and James Stewart’s post-war acting image. The film was praised by critics and moviegoers alike, winning an award for Best Written American Western by the Writers Guild of America. Today, Winchester ’73 is widely considered one of the top Golden Age Westerns and is remembered fondly by fans of the gun that inspired the iconic film.
Author Stuart Lake, best known for penning the fictionalized biography of Wyatt Earp, wrote the original story concept for Winchester ‘73. Lake claimed his manuscript was based on a historic Winchester 1873 that was won in a shooting match and later, after being “traded, pawned, lost as a gambling debt”, the rifle was taken to Caldwell, Kansas, and presented to Marshal Henry Brown. While Henry Brown’s rifle is real, Stuart’s account is highly embellished.
The Winchester ’73 movie’s central conflict (and arguably the film’s true star) is a Winchester 1 of 1000 rifle, a gun that takes an epic journey across the frontier as it passes between cowboys, outlaws, and Indians who seek to own the incredible weapon. We’ll take a look at some of the history and lore behind the film, and examine the guns portrayed on screen. Needless to say, there are numerous spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned!
Search for the Winchester 1 of 1000 Rifles
As part of the publicity campaign surrounding the release of the Winchester ’73 movie, Universal ran magazine ads before production seeking to find some surviving examples of the rare 1 of 1000 Model 1873 Winchester rifle and collect information on the guns. Universal wrote “Remember, we don’t want your “One of One Thousand” Model 73. We are only trying to find out how many of them are still in existence.”
The owner of a potential 1 of 1000 had to supply a photo of their rifle and a notarized letter of ownership, the serial number, and any additional information known about the gun, and the reward for the first 20 authentic respondents was a new Model 1894 rifle. The program was a success, bringing 22 previously unknown Winchester 1 of 1000s into the public eye and sparking a renewed interest in antique gun collecting that continues to persist today.
In a fall, 1950 press release, Universal wrote, “From obscurity these unique “One of One Thousand” Winchester Model 1873 rifles have graduated within only five months into one of the most sought after collector’s items in the country. Even garden variety Model 1873’s have doubled in price in the last few months.”
Winchester ‘73
The Winchester ’73 movie opens with a title card declaring, “This is the story of the Winchester Rifle Model 1873 “The gun that won the West” To cowman, outlaw, peace officer or soldier, the Winchester ’73 was a treasured possession.” The film’s assertion is largely accurate, as Oliver Winchester’s steel-framed Model 1873 was one of the bestselling guns of the era.
Lin McAdam (James Stewart) and his faithful sidekick ‘High-Spade’ (Millard Mitchell) ride into Dodge City searching for someone they suspect will be drawn into a shooting contest to commemorate the U.S. Centennial. The grand prize is a coveted Winchester 73 One of One Thousand rifle.
Lin decides to enter the shooting contest himself after admiring the engraved rifle in the window. The treasured Winchester has captured the attention of the entire town, including Marshall Wyatt Earp. “The finest gun in the world,” Earp states, holding up the prized 1 of 1000 before the competition and noting that every so often, a Winchester 1873 comes out “just perfect.”
The Winchester 1 of 1000 Rifle
Historically, the Winchester One of One Thousand rifles were announced in 1875 when Winchester Repeating Arms Company discovered during factory testing that a small fraction of their rifles shot with greater accuracy. The company decided to market these exceptional rifles as a premium model that could be obtained through special order.
As Winchester described in their catalogs, “The barrel of every sporting rifle we make will be proved and shot at a target, and the target will be numbered to correspond with the barrel and be attached to it. All of these barrels that are found to make targets of extra merit will be made up into guns with set-triggers and extra finish and marked as a designating name, “One of One Thousand,” and sold at $100.00.”
While a standard Winchester 1873 was priced around $50, a One of One Thousand rifle could cost a determined buyer up to $100 or more depending on the additional custom features requested. In an era where farmland could cost less than $15 an acre in some regions out west, these exceptional Winchesters were truly a luxury firearm for most frontiersmen. In the Winchester ’73 movie, Indian trader Lamont (John McIntire) offers $300 for the rifle, and Wyatt Earp declares he’d “give up my left hand” for it.
The Shooting Contest
In the Winchester ’73 movie, Lin and his rival, Dutch (Stephen McNally), enter the shooting competition that’s presided over by Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. Historically, Earp and Masterson did indeed serve as Dodge City law enforcement during the time period, and writer Stuart Lake was well acquainted with both men.
After tying in the first round, Lin and Dutch take turns landing shots on increasingly difficult targets, with Lin finally winning the contest by putting a bullet through the center of a stamp. Director Anthony Mann said that James Stewart practiced so hard with the Winchester rifle that his knuckles bled. Stewart did most of the shooting himself, only relying on renowned marksman Herb Parson to perform the final trick shot.
Lin is presented with the Winchester 1 of 1000 for his marksmanship, but his victory his short-lived when Dutch jumps him and flees town with the remarkable rifle in tow. Winchester ’73 then becomes a film about the rifle’s journey and how the desirable gun changes hands and impacts the colorful cast of Old West archetypes it encounters between Dodge City and Tascosa, Texas.
“Here you’ve got all these men… running around to get their hands on this goddam rifle, instead of going after a beautiful blonde like me.” – Actress Shelley Winters on ‘Winchester ’73’
The American Centennial
In the Winchester ’73 movie, the Dodge City shooting competition takes place on July 4, 1876, the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. True to the film, the American Centennial was one of the most culturally significant events of the 19th century and major gun manufacturers like Winchester used the celebration as an opportunity to display their latest offerings.
The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition was a showcase for American ingenuity, and Winchester spared no expense. The intrepid gunmaker exhibited nearly 200 firearms representing about 50 different styles and unveiled a variety of new ammunition for their rifles. Representatives from the frontier states and territories painted the West as a land of opportunity for the resourceful pioneer, but word of Custer’s defeat at the Little Bighorn cast a shadow over the celebration.
Young Bull’s Attack
In Winchester ’73, news of the Little Big Horn is starting to reach the far-flung corners of the frontier, and everyone is on edge, including a U.S. Cavalry camp that Lin and High-Spade encounter. Lin attributes the Lakota victory to their use of repeating rifles, commenting, “It seems they knew all about your Springfields being single-shot. They sent in the first wave light so it’d draw the fire! Then they sent in a heavy second wave before the Custer men had a chance to reload!”
Some Native Americans did use repeating rifles at the Little Bighorn, and settlers like Granville Stuart lamented that the 7th Cavalry weren’t equipped with Winchester 1873 rifles instead of the Springfield 1873 trapdoor carbine. In a letter to Winchester, Stewart wrote, “If poor Custer’s heroic band had been armed with these rifles, they would have covered the earth with dead Indians for 500 yards around.”
The shootout in Winchester ’73 between the U.S. Cavalry and Young Bull’s band is likely inspired by the Wagon Box Fight, a historic battle that occurred 9 years earlier near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming. Two of the guides in the Wagon Box Fight were equipped with Henry rifles and reportedly discharged over 100 rounds of .44 rimfire during the battle, helping fend off more than 1,000 Native Americans until reinforcements arrived. Crazy Horse participated in the battle and learned from his defeat, and by 1876 many Lakota Warriors were better armed than Custer’s men.
The Gun that Won the West
Only 132 One of One Thousand Winchester 1873 Model rifles were ever produced, making for a truly unique and desirable firearm. After Lin wins the shooting competition, the prized Winchester changes hands eight times throughout the movie, and the spotlight always stays on the film’s true star, the Winchester 73 rifle.
Even the final scene in Winchester ’73, a classic embrace between hero and leading lady, is punctuated by the presence of the famous firearm. As James Stewart clutches Shelley Winters in one arm, he gazes down at his treasured rifle as the camera zooms into the plate on the buttstock, the music swells to a crescendo, and the credits roll. Love can be fleeting, but a good Winchester is forever.
In 1950, the Winchester ’73 movie helped elevate its iconic namesake to one of the most sought-after collector guns in the world, and that trend continues as interest in historic arms collecting is hotter than ever at Rock Island Auction Company. Gun collecting and pop culture have always gone hand in hand, so subscribe to the weekly Rock Island Auction newsletter to receive new gun blogs and gun videos every week. From articles on the Old West guns of 1883, True Grit, and Quigley Down Under, to modern hits like the Walking Dead, Yellowstone, and Star Wars, we explore the most popular and intriguing guns of Hollywood.