The apocryphal story is actually kind of interesting.
Roads and right of way established during the pre-firearm era were that you’d ride on the left, with people going the opposite way on your right. This was so you could use your dominant hand (usually your right) to use a sword to defend yourself.
Roads after firearms were available often established right of way with riding on the right, with oncoming traffic on the left. This is because when you shoulder a firearm on your right shoulder it’s easier to aim left.
Stagecoach drivers would sit in the left seat, with the extra person sitting on the right, holding a shotgun, hence the colloquial term for the front passenger seat.
I have no idea how true this is, but it makes for an interesting story.
The correct answer afaik is stagecoach, but tbf Clyde Barrow did use cut down Browning A5s in robberies. While I don’t have any information on whether or not they were fired from a moving vehicle, it could have happened.
thats a stagecoach thing, right?
Yeah it was bench seating so one guy had the reins and the other had a shotgun. Hence the name.
its interesting the slang that persists…
“i call getting to shoot people!”
The modern version would be “I call running the Spotify!”
I mean, it’s still America.
I guess the location of the shooting has changed though. It should mean having your desk at the front of the classroom by the teacher’s desk now.
The amount of naval terminology that has stuck around in English is mind boggling.
Ahoj! I’m Czech. We don’t even have any access to sea…
No direct access, but “jump into the Elbe and wait” is still a valid strategy…
… And hope no German bridge crushes on you!
And other shit.
Gringo explaining a horse carriage: Imagine a gun
And the kids have been shouting shotgun from then on.
In the time of horse drawn carriages, wouldn’t the rifle be a more common weapon?
Easier to aim a shotgun went bouncing around on the stagecoach, running from bandits.
oh I thought it was from the moonshine age, I guess horse buggies make more sense lol
Whenever someone says “Shotgun” I can only think of the drive-by scene in Boyz 'n Da Hood.
The apocryphal story is actually kind of interesting.
Roads and right of way established during the pre-firearm era were that you’d ride on the left, with people going the opposite way on your right. This was so you could use your dominant hand (usually your right) to use a sword to defend yourself.
Roads after firearms were available often established right of way with riding on the right, with oncoming traffic on the left. This is because when you shoulder a firearm on your right shoulder it’s easier to aim left.
Stagecoach drivers would sit in the left seat, with the extra person sitting on the right, holding a shotgun, hence the colloquial term for the front passenger seat.
I have no idea how true this is, but it makes for an interesting story.
In Europe it was because of Napoleon. In the US is was because of how wagons were made, according to this article:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/02/business/why-americans-drive-on-the-right-and-the-british-on-the-left
I’d been told it was a gangster thing: passenger seat shoots out the window for a drive-by.
I thought it was a US police thing, because the passenger seat is where the shotgun is commonly holstered.
Every American police car I’ve seen has the gun rack in the trunk.
That makes a bit more sense if true. I don’t easily picture 1920s gangsters wielding shotguns for a drive-by.
The correct answer afaik is stagecoach, but tbf Clyde Barrow did use cut down Browning A5s in robberies. While I don’t have any information on whether or not they were fired from a moving vehicle, it could have happened.