No Guns, No Glory

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Friday. May 24, 2002

[TroutStalker]

The Clunes of "Frontier House" -- the PBS "reality" miniseries chronicling three families attempting to live the life of 1883 Montana homesteaders -- may not win any popularity contests. But patriarch Gordon Clune said things would have been better if public television had been more realistic about one of the biggest realities of pioneer life: guns. Not only did the producers turn down Mr. Clune's request to be allowed to hunt for meat to feed his family, they imposed strict limits on using guns to ward off hostile varmints. "We were supposed to give a predator two warnings," Mr. Clune told the Los Angeles Times. "'Excuse me, Mr. Coyote, please don't eat my chicken. Excuse me, Mr. Coyote, please don't eat my chicken.' Then, you were supposed to fire a warning shot."

[hobbes1]

Totally ridiculous that the families had no guns, of course.

No, it's true really, according to Michael Bellisles "Arming America" the pre 1900 existence of guns in America was rare, if not non existent....Honest...lol

[CyberCowboy777]

The program was very interesting - I enjoyed the premise

The Clune family was not passed for survival of the winter for lack of food and hay. I was completely behind Gordon on the idea of survival via hunting. Had he been able to hunt (along with his sons) he could have sustained his family. Even if he lost livestock because of the Hay shortage.

Also I was impressed by Gordon's ingenuity. The bootleg was genius and provided much needed cash.

[crude77]

Real 1880"s homesteaders would have used the guns to run off the producers.

[TexasRepublic]

I stopped watching crap like that show after I shot my television. ;-)

[RikaStrom]

Totally ridiculous that the families had no guns, of course.

No, it's true really, according to Michael Bellisles "Arming America" the pre 1900 existence of guns in America was rare, if not non existent....Honest...lol

Makes you wonder if good ol' Michael was a contributor to the series. LOL

[archy]

The hostile varmints that they wanted desperately to ward off were the "PC idiot" producers of the program. They're out-of-season, though, even in Montana.

No they're not.

-archy-/-

[mamelukesabre]

How's this for politically correct?!?!

they don't allow guns or hunting, but they allow one guy to build his own still an make hard alcohol to use as money for purchasing items at the general store. It is a federal offense in this country to distill spirits, even for your own consumption. Yet this guy is doing it for profit on national television.

Then, a local indian goes hunting for them and GIVES them the animals that he kills. Apparently, it is politically correct for indians to hunt, but not for anyone else. What a crock.

If this show had been at all historically accurate, the guy making his own booze would have been giving the booze to the indian in exchange for his squaw's handicrafts....blankets, leather goods, beadwork, etc....and subsisting on a diet of mostly wild game that they killed themselves with their own firearms.

[Chuckster]

I very much wanted to check this series out but, alas, I threw my TV overboard several years ago

d;^)

here's a link to the web site, more history, less PC from the sound of this discussion: PBS Frontier House

[eloy]

You can leagaly brew for your on consumption on your property. Transportation of un-batf'd alcohol is illegal, though.

Check out this site

[Blood of Tyrants]

I found it totally ridiculous that they gave the men hunting lessons and then didn't allow them to hunt to suppliment the family's diet with wild meat.