Main Piece
“So he… he was a…he was a cop. He was going into the bank, and there were always false alarms at the bank. He was running in the bank and he had a rifle in his hand, and the way he would always check if the safety was on was by pulling the trigger. One time, he was running and he went to check if the safety was on and the gun went off and he shot a statue outside in the ass.”
Background
Informant Details
Nationality: American
Location: Willmar, Minnesota
Language: English
The “cop” in the story is the informant’s Great Uncle Nick, but the stories were all originally told to the informant by the his Great Uncle’s brother, the informant’s Grandfather. The informant didn’t fully believe the stories until he attended Nick’s funeral. There, the informant heard the story told by other people, and now the informant completely believes the story.
The informant finds the story very funny, as did everyone else. Everyone who knew the story had a positive memory of both the informant’s Great Uncle and the story. Someone at the funeral commented to the informant the following: “The only thing that would surprise me about Nick [Great Uncle] is if any of those stories [referring to other stories about Nick and guns] weren’t true.”
Although the informant was not born at the time of these events, he fully believes in them and the fact that his Great Uncle Nick was a great, if sometimes irresponsible, handler of guns. The story means a great deal to the informant, and is one of the main memories he has of Nick, who has since passed away.
Context
The informant’s Great Uncle was a police officer from the 1950’s to the 1980’s in West Central Minnesota, and the story occurred somewhere in this time period.
Notes
The story and people’s positive reaction to it are demonstrative of America’s somewhat irresponsible history with guns, which is where much of modern gun culture presumably comes from. It is also interesting that people’s belief in Nick’s escapades is unshakeable. He has become something of a ‘legendary’ local figure.