GUNPLAY

aturday morning TV Westerns of the 1950s—think , , and —created a huge demand for products kids could use or wear to imitate their small-screen heroes. At the top of kids’ wish lists were cap guns. For most of us with a bit of gray at our temples, our first shootin’ iron was in fact not a real gun at all, but rather a palmful of stylized pot metal. The Old West roll cap pistol was gun we youngsters used to settle high noon showdowns on the sidewalk. It was metal when you pulled the trigger—okay, kind of like the real ones. Stores naturally filled their shelves with toy guns and accoutrements tied directly to the TV shows kids loved.