When a group (usually guys) is heading toward a car for a trip, someone, shouts out “shotgun”. The first individual to say this, gets the front seat for the ride. There are testosterone-induced variations on the rules that are too numerous to go into here.
It originates from the American West where there would be two men in the front of a stage coach. One drives, and one carries the defensive weapon (presumably a – wait for it – shotgun) to fend off (WARNING: PC TERM FOLLOWS) Native American attacks, wild animals, alens, the random undead – take your pick.
My question is what was so desirable about being the sole person responsible for the safety of your passengers on an old west stagecoach trip? Especially wth such an ineffective long range weapon as a shotgun. How did this carry over into modern times with the invention of the automobile when the right-seater is just as much a passenger as the back-seaters are, and the only person responsible for the safety of the passengers is the driver?
I just wanted to say, this isn’t necessarily a PC term - it’s also useful to determine quickly which kind of Indian you are talking about. Speaking as an E. Indian, I rather appreciate it. I mean, your context makes it obvious but there are times when it’s not so much.
I think you’ve got a false assumption here. There wasn’t necessarily anything desirable about carrying a shotgun on a stagecoach. What is desirable is riding in the front seat of an automobile. Modern “Shotgun” is merely a reference to the riding position, not to the duties, of that fellow on the stagecoach.
No offence meant by it. The last thing I want to do is to offend a veteran Doper, lest they bring down the Squirelly Wrath of the Mods tm on me.
What was meant by the comment was a sarcastic dig at the tendency for the American Left to be overly sensitive about political correctiveness. I have a 10 year old in public scholl, so I see this on almost a daily basis.
To elaborate, I imagine no one clamored to ride shotgun on the stage. It was an assigned, paid position. They weren’t calling “I get shotgun!” back then.
In modern times, people clamor to ride up front in a car by calling that, but as I said they’re only referencing the location (in front beside the driver). Better view and such.
I’m curious: what are the "testosterone-induced variations "? I lack significant amounts of testosterone, but I do call shotgun whenever possible, and now I wonder what the other rules are.
There are a number of variations and conditions on “shotgun.” Some hold that you have to be in sight of the vehicle to call it. Others claim that the first person to touch the car gets position. Some resort to various punching games to settle disputes. Seniority counts only if you have the physical or economic wherewithall to back up your pre-emptory claim.
Back in the days of bench seat sedans and coupes, “radio” was second choice after “shotgun.”
“Shotgun” had access to the door, did not have to be squeezed in with a person on each side, and had a window to play with. “Radio” was squeezed between the driver and “shotgun,” but had the satisfaction of controlling the stations everyone had to listen to (subject to the discretion of the driver/owner). People who failed to call “shotgun” or “radio” were relegated to the back seat–a place of ignominy where one had to crane one’s neck to see around the heads of the occupants of the front seat with neither the control of the radio nor the status of “shotgun” with which to console themselves. (And if a car was a two-door, they were further relegated to clambering into the back and getting their knees out of the way before the more priveleged front seat riders deigned to get in.) The most humiliating position, of course, was the center of the back seat in a two-door: squished between other people, no window to look out, and the drive train “hump” shoving one’s knees up under one’s chin.
Only if there were actually seven other passengers on the trip
and the sun was not too hot or it was not too rainy or snowy and the wind was not howling
and if the road was not so bumpy that the sweep of arc that high above the ground did not make one sick.
On more than one occasion another male’s call of SHOTGUN!!! meant at LEAST I was able to sprawl in the back seat (I’m kinda tallish and like to sprawl) and at BEST I got to make out with their girlfriends while they were dickering about radio stations.
Besides, the back seat is more fun. You don’t knopw you’re gonna hit something until after the fact, and then it’s mor like an amusement park ride. With ambulances.
