"Well, boys, I'm glad to see you," said the young tough, who naturally assumed the column of bluecoats advancing toward him were Union men. "I heard Jo Shelby was coming this way," he continued, explaining that he had come out to "have a pop at him with this here weapon".
At the "Crossroads of the West" gun show here last weekend, weapons dealers sold semi-automatic rifles and custom-made pistols, and ammunition wholesalers unloaded bullets by the case.
One resident, Heather Hamza, told the Hollywood Reporter last week: "I shudder to think if any of these people coming up here have weapons in their cars.
"All the kids in the gangs round here carry weapons," said one of three 16-year-old boys who had just collected his GCSE results.
The city has a population of only 50,000, but its support is critical for the new government, because so many people here have weapons at a time when sporadic confrontations continue between militias around the country.
In the late 1940's there was one more surge of interest: Legend has it that residents here smuggled weapons out of Millville Airport to the Hagannah resistance movement before Israel was formed in 1948.
Here, with weapons painted in cartoon colors, we have real guns that look fake.
"Here the weapon of choice is guns, because guns are so easy to get in Philadelphia".
"There's a lot of people here that carry weapons, that shouldn't be carrying weapons.
"We are here to collect weapons over a 30-day period, weapons that are handed over voluntarily under terms and agreements agreed by all," a spokesman for the British brigade, Maj.
