The early firearm forums were something special. They were products of the late 90s and early 2000s. It’s where I gleaned a lot of great information and a lot of bad information. Young Travis would browse these forums for hours, often stressing our dial-up internet connection to its max. I miss these forums, and I miss some of the characters. Characters like GunKid.
There are a lot of forum legends. Guys like mcUzi and Gecko45. These guys were more or less your dedicated trolls. They weren’t serious in their posts and often created some degree of hilarity. Where GunKid was different was that he was serious. He wasn’t a troll, and he was absolutely relentless.
I’d love to pull up some of the old conversations he had to show his insanity, but because of it, mods on websites like the High Road, ARFcom, The Firing Line, and Glock Talk would nuke and delete his threads instantly. They’d ban him, and he’d come back. Other aliases include gunkid2000, Californiakid, Hardin, and Tommy10mm.
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Mods nuked the threads and banned the accounts in an effort to get him to go away. If I remember correctly, he wasn’t just the occasional poster with a crazy idea. He’d lash into tirades if you disagreed with him. He’d post dozens of replies in an hour, so much so that containing him looked like a second job for the forum mods.
With that in mind, I want to talk about some of the concepts I remember him espousing and some the internet helped me remember.
The Tactical Wheelbarrow
Gunkid’s legacy will always be tied to the tactical wheelbarrow. He’d often lament that carrying a heavy pack was for idiots. Real survivors would dump their gear into a garden wheelbarrow and move it from place to place. The tactical wheelbarrow would allow him to move hundreds of pounds of gear, guns, and food across the wasteland when the lights went out.
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If you asked him how he planned to move the tactical wheelbarrow in a sandy environment, muddy environment, through forests, or anywhere that basically wasn’t a road, you’d be met with a hurl of profanity. Maybe a lawsuit is threatened, and you’d certainly be called an armchair commando.
Who cares that if you have to move fast you’d have to ditch the wheelbarrow and leave all your gear behind. The tactical wheelbarrow was the supreme means to move your gear after the apocalypse.
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The Debarked Chihuahua
Life after the end of the world will be tough. You’ll be facing roving bands of raiders, thieves, and killers looking to steal your tactical wheelbarrow. How do you sleep at night, rest, and watch your back? Do you organize and create a community? No, no, no. Who needs human allies when you have a debarked Chihuahua?
GunKid’s thoughts were that a small little dog known for being yappy and alert would be the ultimate alert system. What’s a stereotypical yappy little dog? A chihuahua. The problem was that they made too much noise being yappy. So you needed to debark them.
Then you had the ultimate post-apocalypse alarm system! First, it’s a little racist to assume all chihuahuas are yappy; my sweet girl would never. Second, can you debark a dog? It certainly doesn’t seem humane.
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.22LR Supremacy
Gunkid’s preferred caliber for SHTF situations was the .22LR. The little .22LR makes some sense for a survival weapon. It’s small, you can carry hundreds of rounds in a pocket, and pick off rabbits, squirrels, and other small game. That’s not a bad idea, but GunKid didn’t just see it as a hunting round for small game.
He was convinced it was the ultimate defensive caliber. Gunkid claimed 5.56 and 7.62x39mm were useless. He could use .22LR and make headshots out to 300 yards. I’m pressing X to doubt that. Gunkid stated that larger calibers made him flinch too much.
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His .22LR platform of choice was an AR with a 10-inch barrel with a .22LR conversion kit. He also insisted it was suppressed. Gunkid wasn’t a fan of the NFA and didn’t seem to realize it existed. Arguably, that’s the most based thing about him.
Raider Grindset
Gunkid’s survival plan wasn’t to bug in or bug out. He wanted to become a raider. He’d push his tactical wheelbarrow, loaded with a debarked chihuahua and suppressed .22LR SBR, and dreamed of ambushing people. He wanted to kill and steal from other survivors simply.
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He also proclaimed that he would drift up and down the Mississippi River, offering his hitman service to warlords that would surely arise in the area. How the tactical wheelbarrow would fit into his boat is beyond my memory.
I appreciate Gunkid’s honesty; at least we knew for sure that one mad man would be out there trying to prey on other survivors. The good news is that in times of disaster people tend to cling together, and I’m pretty sure Gunkid wouldn’t last long with his mindset.
The End of GunKid
Gunkid’s real name was John Melvin Davis. It seems like he was a felon and would later be arrested for possessing weapons and firearms as a felon. These were reportedly stolen from his ex-wife, who informed the police of his actions. He served roughly four years in prison and was released in 2010. Since then, it seems like he’s been quiet, no longer showing up on forums spouting insanity. Is he truly reformed? Who knows, but he’s drifted into legendary status amongst the early internet gun community.
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