• BillyClark@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    111
    ·
    edit-2
    16 hours ago

    Americans are desensitized to guns, but the Dr. Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories was a military veteran who often carried his army revolver. Anybody with a passing familiarity with the character of Dr. Watson could think, “I guess he keeps his gun in his desk.”

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      11 hours ago

      This post says “the first episode of sherlock where john watson opens up his drawer and you see a gun”.

      So, it’s talking about the Sherlock mini-series from 2010 which was set in modern times. I don’t think that in modern times a military veteran is allowed to keep a gun in a drawer.

      • BillyClark@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        9 hours ago

        I think that everyone is over complicating this.

        When you see he has a gun in the mini-series, you’re just reminded of how the he had a revolver in the books. You aren’t going to think about it because he’s supposed to have a gun. You just say, “Oh, he still has a gun.”

        I think the disconnect is probably between people who know Dr. Watson from the books, and people who don’t know the books. The Sherlock mini-series is obviously targeted at people who never read the books. So it’s entirely possible that they wanted the viewer to question its existence.

      • Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        9 hours ago

        I’m a veteran with a .22 in my desk drawer that has a muzzle suppressor (if I am going to use it I don’t want to damage my ears).

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      40
      ·
      16 hours ago

      The majority of the UK had guns readily available up until the great war. Then the population was disarmed, the homicide rate was lower than it is today in the UK… Sherlock was written for those times, and guns were not unusual.

      • huppakee@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        22
        ·
        edit-2
        13 hours ago

        This particular series takes the characters and puts them in present day London, what was normal in the 19th century doesn’t apply for the character in the example

      • tetris11@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        12 hours ago

        The majority of the UK had guns readily available up until the great war.

        [sic] there were no firearm restrictions in effect, but less than 1% of the population had firearms. The Firearms act of 1920 disarmed this percentage over fears of surges in crime, as well as worries that the working class would get too unruly

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          7 hours ago

          I don’t know what % of the population had firearms but they were as you said no restrictions…and let’s be honest…it wasn’t about crime, it was about disarming the working class.

      • Forester@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        14 hours ago

        Sherlock is also armed in several of the original sir. Arthur Conan Doyle stories. Iirc most the time he borrows a revolver from Scotland Yard.

      • General_Effort@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        14 hours ago

        I have no knowledge about the UK, but I can say that was the case for Germany. Gun control in the modern sense only began after WW1 when large numbers of weapons fell into civilian hands.

        In the 19th century, shooting practice was mandatory as part of the military system; reserve and conscription. Kinda like how it still survives in Switzerland. But as the UK rarely had a need for large land armies, the population was not militarized to such a degree.