03765 - Haverhill, N.H.
Linda C. Smith and George Cataldo opened the Old Time Gun Shop in Haverhill in 1990. They are also the town's animal control officers. The following is an edited interview with Smith.
A shovel, a rake, a car, a tractor. A gun is a tool like any other, and you have to learn how to use it. Blaming guns for people getting killed is like blaming spoons for people getting fat.
I’ve had people against the gun shop, saying guns are bad, but guns are not the enemy. They’re a tool that some people have the right and the need to use. If you want to live in the country, you have to understand that.
Look where you’re living before you start complaining. You’re in the North Country. Don’t move next to a farmer if you don’t like the smell of manure. Don’t move next to a gun shop and call the cops the next time they fire a gun.
I’ve had people call me to take care of a skunk problem, but they don’t want me to shoot them. They want them moved. Hello, you put your house right in the middle of the woods. Where am I supposed to put them, a skunk hotel?
We’re finding more and more people are actually getting back into hunting so they can know where their food came from and what’s in it. A lot of women are getting into firearms, and the younger generation is picking it up. They’re not bad people because they believe in hunting and shooting. They’re practical, which you’ve got to be.
With the economy like it is, it’s a matter of survival. You’ve got to be willing to eat what’s local. Woodchuck stew, that’s wicked good.
Maybe some people feel like it’s unfair. Some people think the animal suffers, but a hunter is the last person on earth to let an animal suffer. If you ban hunting, the next thing you know you have to hire someone to come in and deal with it because there’s not enough food for the animals. We’ve seen it as animal control officers. Starving to death, now that’s suffering.
My sister lives in Florida with all their gun control laws. She has an alarm system on her house and she doesn’t go out after dark because she’s afraid of all the stuff going on. When she came up here to visit she was freaking out walking the street at 11 o’clock at night.
I said, “Why do you live there?”
“Well, because it’s warm.”
I say I’ll stay up here in the cold with my guns. At least I’m not afraid of the dark.
Hear George Cataldo talk about the guns for sale at the shop.