Back in 1946, when I was 9 years old in Ponca City, OK, I can remember tying my then-deceased father's Winchester 1906 .22 pump rifle across the handlebars of my bicycle and riding across town and out to the Arkansas River to hunt small game for our larder at home. I don't recall getting even a second look from anyone at the time -- just a kid on a bike going hunting with his .22 rifle.
To quote the late Peter Sellers in one of his comedy routines, "It is not everything, I fear, that has changed for the better."
