Via Reader Old Texan in his Friday email, I see this lovely little thing:
…which leads me to ask: whatever happened to cap guns?
I grew up with the things — I mean, that one on the pic could have been the one I had as a kid, except my gun’s ur-nickel plating was long gone through much pocketing and abuse. And my poor mother had to deal with my constant nagging each Saturday morning (when I got my paltry allowance) to take me to the hardware store or drugstore to get five rolls of those excellent caps (which would last me till, oh, Sunday afternoon; I haven’t changed much).
I’d assumed that they’d been declared illegal because eeeevil guns, and caps ditto because EXPLOSIVE MATERIAL!!!! but I see that plastic ones (eeewww!!!), die-cast revolvers and even cap roll guns are sold through Amazon. Sadly, the first two of these use “ring caps” which are terrible because boys can’t create mini-explosive devices out of them, as we did with the cap rolls when I were a Lad Of Extreme Mischief. (I should point out that my Dad showed me how to do this, which says it all, really.)
But can you buy ring caps or paper roll caps through Amazon? Silly rabbit, of course you can’t, no doubt because you have to fill out ATF Form #4376-5-3 or some such bullshit before such a sale can be “allowed”.
I think you can still buy the cap rolls at Tractor Supply stores and ring caps at Big Lots! (note: they are out of stock in both outlets). But wait: what have we here? Aaahhh, Tin Toy Arcade to the rescue:
I have to say, though, that relatively speaking, those guns are Colt Python-expensive, for toys. Especially when you can get the Real Thing for a little more than three times the price:
…and the plainer .22 LR-only version for little more than double:
…as used by Daughter as her first gun.
But let’s not go there.
I suspect, by the way, that societal pressure is forcing these lovely cap guns to be disappearing fast because We Cannot Allow Children To Play With Violent Toys.
What a load of old bollocks.
