Just another nerd.
In 1966, Mattel released a toy version of the M-16 called the M-16 Marauder Automatic Rifle. The gun’s big selling point was its shooting sound that didn’t require caps or batteries.
The gun looked so realistic that it was used as a prop in 1969’s The Green Berets in a scene where John Wayne’s character smashes an M-16 against a tree.
Even as it stands, the Home Guard could only exist in a country where men feel themselves free. The totalitarian states can do great things, but there is one thing they cannot do: they cannot give the factory-worker a rifle and tell him to take it home and keep it in his bedroom. THAT RIFLE HANGING ON THE WALL OF THE WORKING-CLASS FLAT OR LABOURER’S COTTAGE, IS THE SYMBOL OF DEMOCRACY. IT IS OUR JOB TO SEE THAT IT STAYS THERE.
-George Orwell, “Don’t Let Colonel Blimp Ruin the Home Guard” article for the Evening Standard, 8 January 1941
A sample of older Remington ads. Kind of like smoking, my kids don’t believe me when I tell them how ubiquitous and common stuff like this used to be.
