Have you seen the 1957 Disney film Old Yeller?

[Tanis143]

I really regret using the rhetorical question about Old Yeller in my heading. I really don't care if people have actually seen that film or not. I'm more interested in what people, both pro-gunner and anti-gunner, think about our attitude and culture regarding firearms and youth in modern times. I used Old Yeller as a classic example of children around guns without Fort Knox-like security measures and "helicopter" parenting. I figured most here are of an age that probably saw the film and was familiar with the gun-related scenes in that particular Hollywood picture. The 12-year-old boy's mother is not constantly guarding him like a Doberman while he is handling that rifle. It seems that modern kids live in a bubble or may need to be kept there. Big-city life and the demonic global culture that many unsavory foreigners have drug onto American soil in recent times might be rubbing wrong onto our youth. Our youth might be confused. There doesn't seem to be much in the news about kids from Oklahoma who are troubled and are involved in these gun-related incidents that make national TV. I don't figure parents in Middle America hover over their children so much giving them sheltered lives.

The problem is your example is way too broad to draw a full conclusion on. So much has changed (both good and bad) since the time of Old Yeller that they may as well be an apple to orange comparison. So instead of trying to make a valid argument based on such a broad comparison we just decided to reminisce about a movie/book we enjoyed.

 

[Bocephus123]

I really regret using the rhetorical question about Old Yeller in my heading. I really don't care if people have actually seen that film or not. I'm more interested in what people, both pro-gunner and anti-gunner, think about our attitude and culture regarding firearms and youth in modern times. I used Old Yeller as a classic example of children around guns without Fort Knox-like security measures and "helicopter" parenting. I figured most here are of an age that probably saw the film and was familiar with the gun-related scenes in that particular Hollywood picture. The 12-year-old boy's mother is not constantly guarding him like a Doberman while he is handling that rifle. It seems that modern kids live in a bubble or may need to be kept there. Big-city life and the demonic global culture that many unsavory foreigners have drug onto American soil in recent times might be rubbing wrong onto our youth. Our youth might be confused. There doesn't seem to be much in the news about kids from Oklahoma who are troubled and are involved in these gun-related incidents that make national TV. I don't figure parents in Middle America hover over their children so much giving them sheltered lives.

Too much to read in one BM

 

[TedKennedy]

The problem is your example is way too broad to draw a full conclusion on. So much has changed (both good and bad) since the time of Old Yeller that they may as well be an apple to orange comparison. So instead of trying to make a valid argument based on such a broad comparison we just decided to reminisce about a movie/book we enjoyed.

Old Yeller has been replaced by a pit bull.

The long gun on the wall has been replaced by a Hi-Point in the waistband.

"She didn't cry when Old Yeller died
and she wasn't a John Wayne fan..."

Confederate Railroad

"Is there no standard anymore?"

Pantera

 

[Glock 'em down]

I remember an ol yeller

Me too. Boy am I glad HE'S gone. A more surly, cynical, sarcastic sonovab!tch you'll never meet than that damned ol' yeller.
He was a purdy good gun smitty though.

 

[MacFromOK]

Old Yeller was the first movie that made me cry.

I read the story. It made me NOT want to watch the movie.

IMO, there's enough sorrow in real life.

___

 

[Glock 'em down]

I read the story. It made me NOT want to watch the movie.

IMO, there's enough sorrow in real life.

___

 

[Jack Shootza 50]

I saw it 64 years ago.

Me too!

 

[BillM]

There were two young boys in a late 1800's homestead with an unlocked gun kept over the door loaded at all times. Neither of the Coates brothers went on a killing spree. Of course, there were no shoot-em-up arcade games back in the Old West to corrupt young innocent minds.

Is it just that modern American culture is "not safe" to have children and guns mixing? What has changed since the Old West? There is a lot of criticism from the Left about getting minors involved with guns and shooting sports. Some think that long guns "are OK" for minors but not handguns.

I spent a few years as a teacher, and I was using the Old Yeller movie in my classes. Watch the movie, read the book, talk about the differences, talk about why they might have done things differently in the book and movie, write and read and think...

Teaching as a subversive activity. Which is a book title I ran into decades ago. And that is why things are different now. Teachers are not all trying to teach kinds how to think. Many are trying to teach them what to think. This stuff has been going on since the 1890's, at least. There was much admiration for the Prussian system. Teach the students to be good factory hands, and compliant workers. Not good citizens.

Bill

 

[BillM]

View attachment 238824

There was also joy in the movie, and a boy growing up and becoming a man. There is an old saying. "A real man shoots his own dog." Travis, the kid in the movie, did that to protect the rest of his family, and to save his best friend from a horrible death. Another lesson in that movie is that life goes on, even after bad things happen. Turned out that Old Yeller had a son, too.

Life is pain. Get used to it. Among other things, it's how you know you woke up alive. And if you're not alive, you are going to also miss out on the joy that you can find being alive.

Bill

 

[BillM]

Me too!

In the theater when it first came out, and on late night TV as a teen, and I own the DVD, now, as well as the book. It is a movie that has stood the test of time, for me at least!

Bill