every so often a british writer has a character call ‘shotgun’ for a situation not involving a car, or even a mode of travel at all, and for some reason i find this absolutely adorable.
i thought of making a post to explain the history and usage of the term, but if i did that they might stop.
i’m an american and i don’t know the history. i guess it’s because people drive with a shotgun next to them?
nope.
ok i’ve been informed by a couple people that outside america, it just means ‘dibs’, so it’s unlikely they’ll give up being cute about it if i explain, so imma explain.
it comes from this:
see, once upon a time, the american west was very sparsely settled, and between the few towns there were lay hundreds of miles of wild animals, criminals, desperate ex-confederate soldiers with raging ptsd and more ammo than food, and semi-nomadic first nations bands who at any moment might be at war with the us government, each other, and/or local landowners, or just looking to make their name by taking some trophies and bragging rights.
so if you wanted to get mail, goods, or passengers from one place to another, you better be prepared to defend yourself and run like hell at the same time.
enter the shotgun rider.
see in the picture, the fella that’s not holding the reins has a long gun over his knee? he must be confident, that’s a bit longer than the usual coach gun. you’d load with shot instead of slugs because you wanted scatter – aiming from a galloping coach isn’t easy even for a sharpshooter, and the intent was to deter, not kill. you’d aim for your attackers’ horses if you were smart. a man with buckshot in him might chase you harder in anger, but a horse with a peppered flank was goddamn done with your nonsense.
of course, such exciting episodes weren’t going to occur on every trip. so as a matter of practicality, while keeping watch for attackers, the shotgun rider was also navigator, relief driver, snack-fetcher, and in charge of entertaining you so you didn’t nod off and drive your horses in a circle all night.
the modern usage is sometimes just ‘dibs the front passenger seat’, so i see how it became just for claiming stuff across the pond. but the general connotation is also that you’re the main support guy. the co-pilot, the map-decipherer, the one who phones ahead and asks mom if you need to pick anything up on the way back. it’s not just about getting to ride up front, it’s about being in charge of stuff, which is very appealing but also a responsibility.
and that’s why you don’t call ‘shotgun’ for things other than driving. because that’s the only situation, really, where you’re calling dibs on being somebody’s right-hand guy for a task.
driver still picks the music, tho. that’s a cosmic law.
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