Annie Oakley

Since today has unfortunately been dominated by Americans’ obsession with guns and violence, might as well make tonight’s film perhaps the first gun scene ever placed on film, a demonstration by Annie Oakley in 1894.

Not that I attempt to place blame on Oakley for American gun culture, but the popularity of her marksmanship was part and parcel of the larger issue in a society already well-known for violence, especially on the so-called frontier.