# I call shotgun! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 31, 1999, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445 "1999-10-31T23:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rasputin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dec6dc/32.png) [@Rasputin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasputin)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/1 "1999-10-31T23:00:00Z")
My question is, why do I call it shotgun? What is the origin of this term for the passenger side of an automobile? * * * “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work… I want to achieve it through not dying.” – Woody Allen ---
**Author:** ![JBENZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b77776/32.png) [@JBENZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBENZ)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/2 "1999-10-31T23:11:00Z")
Front seat outside is where the shotgun guard sat on a stage coach. * * * JB Lex Non Favet Delictorum Votis ---
**Author:** ![Cessandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/3 "1999-10-31T23:12:00Z")
I’ve heard that it comes from riding in wagons or whatnot and having someone sitting next to the driver with a shotgun in case of bandits or Indians, etc. * * * Cessandra [My Homepage](http://www.shsu.edu/~stdmed17/Home.html) [The RHPS: Website For Virgins](http://www.shsu.edu/~stdmed17/RockyHome.html) **Both Updated More Often Than This Sig** ---
**Author:** ![Cessandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/4 "1999-10-31T23:13:00Z")
Hmph, only 60 seconds ahead of me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Flowers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@Dead\_Flowers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Flowers)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/5 "1999-10-31T23:15:00Z")
Historically, it’s the passenger’s duty to fend off robbers and such with a scattergun. I believe the term originated in the days of the stagecoach. The driver cannot be expected to maintain control of the vehicle while simultaneously killing the bad guys, thus this job falls to the guy in the seat next to him. Incidentally, you must also orchestrate the radio presets/cassettes/CD’s and point out both officers of the law and members of the opposite sex. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Flowers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@Dead\_Flowers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Flowers)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 1999, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/6 "1999-10-31T23:16:00Z")
Damn. I’ve got to learn to post faster. ---
**Author:** ![Cessandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/7 "1999-11-01T00:45:00Z")
Don’t worry, Dead Flowers, you may have been third chronologically, but I think you explained it best! ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/8 "1999-11-01T02:08:00Z")
Funny you should mention it - there’s a car commercial where the guy calls “shotgun” and then rides in the backseat! I was very confused. Where I come from, if you had 3 people in a car, the lone guy in the backseat was “riding Amish.” ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Flowers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@Dead\_Flowers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Flowers)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/9 "1999-11-01T03:54:00Z")
Where I grew up, if you ride three in the front, the middle passenger is “riding cowboy”. This is because the guy who rides in the passenger seat closest to the passenger door has to get out to open and close the gates to all of the fences encountered on the journey through the back forty. The guy in the middle is the true cowboy, bright enough to sit in the middle and not have to open/close the gates. ---
**Author:** ![Occam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Occam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Occam)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/10 "1999-11-02T06:48:00Z")
Where I’m from, If you have a bench seat and three people are riding in front the guy in the middle is said to be riding “bitch”. Maybe it’s a Midwestern thing. ---
**Author:** ![metroshane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@metroshane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metroshane)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/11 "1999-11-01T19:22:00Z")
In texas, riding in the middle is riding ‘bitch’. something to do with the hump, maybe. * * * All this science, I don’t understand. It’s just my job 5 days a week-- Rocketman ---
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/12 "1999-11-01T19:23:00Z")
I can confirm that driver-bitch-shotgun is a prevalent scheme in the middle Great Plains. * * * Come to kindly terms with your ass, for it bears you. ---
**Author:** ![Pixoid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pixoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixoid)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/13 "1999-11-01T20:00:00Z")
Bitch, for us, is the middle of the _back_ seat. Because I’m so short, I always end up bitch…_sigh_… ---
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 1999, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/14 "1999-11-01T20:15:00Z")
We also have the “sitting bitch” phenomenon here in CT, which of course refers to sitting in the middle seat of a bench seat (either the front or the rear). ---
**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/15 "1999-11-02T02:13:00Z")
Here in KC, bitch is the front middle, in a truck. I’ve never ridden in a car with a front bench, at least not in the stage of my life where I learned cuss words. –Tim * * * We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first “lost generation” nor today’s lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 1999, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/16 "1999-11-02T17:36:00Z")
I’m guessing that “I call shotgun!” is the origin of the interjection “Shotgun!”, which around here is synonymous with “Dibs!” What I want to know is, what is the origin of “Dibs!”? ---
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/17 "1999-11-03T02:34:00Z")
A curious sub-phenomena around here is that the calling of “shotgun” must be accompanied by “…no joust.” If someone is unaware of, or forgets about, the “joust clause” and only calls “shotgun,” someone else may call “joust,” at which point the two have to do Paper, Rock, Scissors (best 2 of 3) to determine who gets shotgun. Also, you cannot call “shotgun” until all potential riders are outside and can see the car. Has anyone besides me ever rode shotgun because they in fact _were_going to be shooting a gun? All we ever shot at were signs and shit and we were in the middle of nowhere so it was not too big a deal. ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/18 "1999-11-03T04:01:00Z")
The only one of those terms I’ve ever heard, in California, was ‘shotgun’ for the middle of a pickup seat. I assumed that that position, with only two persons in the truck, was used to mount their shotguns. Haven’t I seen guns mounted there? Ray ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/19 "1999-11-03T11:38:00Z")
grady… Yeah, I have rode shotgun with a shotgun in hand. The meat of the redneck social season (deer season) is coming up in a couple of weeks and I expect there will be lots of this type of thing going on around here. This is illegal of course, but that doesn’t seem to stop much of anyone. We always joke about the one foot on the ground rule. * * * Tenacious, like a coonhound tracking a poodle in heat. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445/20 "1999-11-04T06:12:00Z")
I thought ‘riding bitch’ referred to a passenger on a motorcycle? * * * **R** anger **J** eff \*The Idol of American Youth \* [Riders In The Sky](http://www.ridersinthesky.com) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-call-shotgun/4445.md?page=2)