Annals of Eccentricity–Shoot ‘Em Up: The American love affair with guns knows no bounds. But to experience a true orgy of firearms–outside of the gang life in major urban areas–you have to check in with the Single Action Shooting Society out in Yorba Linda, Ca. Boasting 60,000 members, the SASS is where cowboy wannabes go to dress up in vintage cowboy gear and blast away with vintage American guns…lots and lots of guns. Everyone gets a badge and a nickname (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a member and goes by the moniker of “Trinidad Slim”). Why do they do this? The LA Times’ Christopher Reynolds goes to find out, and turns in a great feature that tries to get to the bottom of yet another charismatic American subculture:

“All of this makes the unarmed among us marvel. Never mind the psychology of that first gun. What is there in the second or third or 300th to love so much? What is it about cowboys? What turns a lawman into an outlaw? And what am I doing here, squeezing off shots under a midday sun? I draw one .357 from the right holster, another from the left. Then I grab, load and fire a rifle, and then a 110-year-old Winchester lever shotgun, its metal hot as a griddle. The gun smoke curls, the shells dance in the dirt.”

Reynolds meets pistol-packin’ Molly McRuger, “Graybeard” Itchkawich, and a guy named “Coyote Bait.” He blasts away with a pistol, rifle and shotgun, and impresses himself by hitting 27 out of 30 targets in 205 seconds. Until a man named (of course) “Tex” steps up and, the shots ringing out like “keystrokes from a touch typist,” knocks the same targets down with the same guns in just 45 seconds. Gulp. I wonder what ‘ol Tex does for a day job…



Molly McRuger: How would you like to wake up and find this woman cooking your eggs…?

(Photo: LA Times/Chris Reynolds)