Thursday, February 10, 2011

Ronald Reagan, gunslinger

Literally:
Former President Ronald Reagan is known as the "Great Communicator," but one Iowa woman will always know him as her hero.

Melba King (pictured, pictured below right) was a 22-year-old nursing student in Des Moines in 1933. She was walking home one autumn night when a mugger came up behind her with a gun and demanded her money.

At that moment, Ronald Reagan -- who was a Des Moines radio sportscaster at the time -- came to her rescue. Reagan pointed a .45-caliber revolver at the robber from the window of his second-floor rented room. Melba King

"And he said, 'Leave her alone or I'll shoot you right between the shoulders,'" King told KCCI.Reagan scared the man off and calmed King's nerves. Then, the future president said he would walk King home.
The punch line?  He didn't have any ammo.
King didn't see Reagan again until 1984, when Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad heard her story and invited her to an Iowa caucus campaign event ...

After King and Reagan hugged on stage, Reagan laughed, and said to the crowd, "This is the first time I've had a chance to tell you the gun was empty. I didn't have any cartridges. If he hadn't run when I told him to, I was going to have to throw it at him."
Big brass ones, yessir.  Explains how he ended the Cold War.  After taking on a mugger with no ammo, taking on the Soviet Bear leading the Free World was a walk in the park.

Via Gun Mart.

3 comments:

Lissa said...

Is it possible to admire the man while simultaneously shaking him for not having ammo?

bluesun said...

Gunslinger, because he would have had to sling the gun at the mugger.

Anonymous said...

That's very similar to how he faced down the Soviet Union.
He was the President, but he had a Democrat Congress that wouldn't back him without bribes (domestic spending).
Or you could look at the Strategic Defense Initiative which scared the hell out of the Soviets, but still isn't operational.