Blair Mountain, WV (1921)

[AdamG]

any American could legally buy and was not required in most States to register an automatic weapon. In addition to production and sale (limited) prior to WW I, a large number of souvenir weapons were returned from Europe and went on the market. They can still be legally purchased and employed in most States but must be federally registered and are taxed.

Indeed, Ken. The Peanut Gallery who are not familiar with American firearms laws would probably also find it interesting that the $200 Federal Tax (per weapon, per each time it changes hands) was meant to keep legal weapons out of the hands of the common man.

Around 1934, a $250 1921 Thompson Sub Machinegun cost almost as much as a used car, so a $200 tax essentially doubled that. With prices starting around $5k now (and going upwards to around $30k for some of the rarer-but-available weapons), the $200 tax is a spit in the bucket (although the relative value of the weapons themselves has remained constant).

IIRC, COL Icks (of Aberdeen Ordnance Museum fame) kept a collection of WWI ordnance (howitzers, mortars, etc, in working condition) on the family farm around Princeton (in the People's Republik of New Jersey).

Redneck is not really a slur -- except to some people whose opinions count little.

It's also a lot older than the quote implies, though the quote does say "The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and rival miners' unions appropriated both the term redneck..."

Yup, the wiki link tells all about the origins in the paragraphs before my pull quote. We need a [box] for snark, just so's I can annotate things like [snark]redneck[/snark].

AdamG
Descendent of [snark]Rednecks[/snark].