Civil War Reenactment Took An Interesting Turn When This Guy Showed Up With A Real Sawed-Off Shotgun

MCINTOSH COUNTY, Okla., Nov. 9 (UPI) — A Civil War reenactment in Oklahoma took a turn towards reality as a drunken man was arrested for firing an actual weapon. Police apprehended Gary Alen Lane after the man was found intoxicated and holding a sawed-off shotgun at a reenactment of the Battle at Honey Springs. Lane resisted arrest, dropping his weapon and fleeing from McIntosh County Sheriff’s Department deputies after firing a shot towards a tent containing nine actors. Reports say that more that police found additional weapons at Lane’s home near the battlefield. One of the actors in the tent was struck by a shotgun pellet but did not sustain an injury. Lane was charged with several offenses, including assault and battery with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol, malicious injury to property and resisting arrest. He is being held at the McIntosh County Criminal Justice Center with out bail and set for trial on November 9th.

This is one of those stories that would be a funny in a comedy movie but is decidedly less funny when it happens in real life.  Nobody died so that’s a win. A scene in a movie plays like, “Hey who’s the whacky (drunk) grandpa who showed up with a real gun?! That’s whacky. Get him outta here!” In real life though? Alright I’m not gonna lie. It’s still pretty funny in real life. Again, it helps that nobody died because I’m pretty sure I couldn’t even blog it if somebody had.  The thought of a drunk dude stumbling up to a Civil War reenactment with a real sawed-off shotgun is fantastic. I wondered for a second what side he chose. The article didn’t say but I can go ahead and guarantee he waddled over to the Confederate side. This was it.  This was gonna be his time to rewrite history and bring back the slaves. A bunch of fake Union soliders with fake guns who had to hire a baby sitter for a free Saturday against his real gun and real whiskey breath. So he slammed a bottle of Jack Daniels and headed to the battlefield with his sawed-off. Rebel yell until the cops show up.

PS- This is gonna sound obvious because it is but this story made me think how easy it would’ve been to win a war if you had even semi-modern weapons and the other side didn’t.  I’m not even talking the crazy shit the military uses now that I don’t understand. I’m saying if you gave one guy a Tommy Gun during the Civil War he would’ve taken out a million dudes by himself. Are there any video games like that? That’d be super fun and super boring at the same time. It’d just be a massacre. Give my character an MP40 from Call of Duty 2 and drop me in the middle of a Civil War battlefield.