Where did Grady get the shotgun?
At the beginning, they said they remove all of the liquor for insurance reasons, so I doubt they would keep a shotgun on the premises or allow him to bring one for the same reason.
shareWalmart
Great answer
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MovieChat Forums > The Shining (1980) Discussion > Where did Grady get the shotgun?
This is America we're talking about, you're practically born with a shotgun in your hand.
shareYup. Its a Constitutional Right to own a gun in America, but it doesn't answer the question. If they couldn't keep liquor on the premises for insurance reasons, they sure as hell wouldn't allow a gun!
shareIn King's novel, Jack and Wendy do go into town a few times before the blizzard had taken effect so based on that it's possible that Grady might have done the same at one point and got the strap. Jack could have bought liquor in if he really wanted to, but he was still "good Jack" at that stage so didn't.
sharePossibly, but Grady worked at the hotel before he became the caretaker, so I don't think he would put his job on the line for that. Of course I'm over analyzing this, but I was just watching it and it made me wonder.
I'm not really a King fan, but I do like The Shinning. I'm reading Doctor Sleep right now and its just ok in my opinion. Still looking forward to the movie though.
The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart.
shareHail to the king baby.
shareMaybe they started removing alcohol after the Grady murders. In those days people had more common sense and there are many reasons a shotgun would be useful to a caretaker of such a place for that duration of time. It’s very possible it was allowed.
That is a worthwhile finding, Padeen. However, I imagine that the hotel staff has a gun in storage for a caretaker in case if a dangerous animal needs to be shot. If you are in a gargantuan field of the wilderness that is covered in thick snow, and a creature such as a bear, wolf, or coyote heads for you or another individual, then there might be no alternative but to kill the animal. A person in the middle of a lawn like the one at the Overlook Hotel would never reach the indoors in time under those circumstances.
shareMaybe Grady brought it along with him when he and his family went to work at the Overlook for the winter. The reasons for bringing it could include protection from animals, trespassers or maybe he likes to hunt wild game. That's my guess.
Hmmmmm what is there to do at a resort in the middle of the wilderness? Clay birds, actual hunting or just incase of animal attacks. The setting is the 70's and recreational shooting was a lot more popular back then, that's like asking what was a croquet mallet doing at the hotel from todays context.
shareAgain, I'm looking at this from a policy standpoint concerning insurance. Alcohol isn't allowed on the premises during the off season, but a shotgun is?
shareI would have to know what the policy was specifically trying to prevent. Someone drinking and starting a fire, or it becoming a target for theft, who knows. We aren't really given the context. They left them with a giant supply of food so they aren't trying to prevent the caretakers from having parties. I assume you would think the policy is there to prevent someone from getting drunk and falling down, then suing the hotel, or getting drunk and shooting each other up. But in that case the man does not need a gun, there is no physical competition there.
But Ullman says they won't do well with a party unless they brought their own supplies. So it is not like they are prohibited from driving to town and buying a bunch of booze, then bringing it back to the overlook.
Plus car insurance isn't void if you are driving with a gun in the car. But if you have been drinking alcohol it is.
From a legal standpoint, the hotel is not responsible if Grady brought his own shotgun and didn't tell the management. If they had an anti-gun policy in place, which is frankly unlikely out there in grizzly bear country, then if the hotel had made a good-faith effort to keep their employees from keeping guns then the insurance would have to consider the gun safety issue dealt with. The booze that was removed was the hotel's property and expensive property at that, and the insurance wouldn't care if staff members had a bottle or two in their own rooms.
It's also possible that an isolated hotel in grizzly country would have hunting guns in stock, I have no idea what the legal issues would be on that front.
Well, there haven't been grizzly bears in Colorado since the 1950's, but I guess the best explanation is he brought the gun himself. I still see it as a minor plot hole though.
shareDidn't Grady go to his home in Florida after leaving the hotel for the winter? If he's from Florida or the South, or much of the country, he might not be aware that there are grizzlies in Wyoming but not Colorado. Or maybe he grew up in cities and doesn't feel safe up in the high mountains, or maybe he just likes guns.
Also, I don't know if the Overlook's location is ever established, I always vaguely assumed it was in Montana. Where there are definitely grizzly bears.
You're thinking of Halloran. Grady is the man who killed his family in 1970. The bald ghost who spills avocaat on Jack's jacket in the bar.
shareMy bad!!!
But again, the likeliest explanation is that it was Grady's own gun, which he brought there because he was afraid of grizzlies or liked hunting birds or liked guns in general or wanted to keep his wife terrified of him, whatever. Even in those days, if the hotels did have rules against employees bringing guns to their seasonal jobs, they wouldn't have been searching the employee residences unless there was a complaint against a particular person. It's also possible that the hotel had guns for the convenience of residents who wanted to hunt and who didn't want to travel with their own armaments. Or that the hotel had guns to deal with unwelcome wildlife or to provide the kitchen with low-cost venison and grouse. Whatevs, there are a lot of possibilities, back in those days when people weren't very concerned about gun safety.
Oh, and WAS the Overlook's location ever established, even to the state it was in?
Colorado. In the novel and movie the Torrances live in Boulder and at least in the novel, Colorado is mentioned as the state the Overlook and nearby town of Sidewinder are located in.
I think in the early 70s, the hotel would not have cared at all if Grady brought guns with him. In that era, boys brought hunting rifles and shotguns to school in their cars and left them there all day to go shooting after school. Not too long before that, people like Lee Harvey Oswald could buy guns for 20 bucks through mail-in ads in magazines. The "No Guns or Booze" policy was most likely enacted after the Grady murders to prevent a repeat occurring with a later caretaker.
Yeah, I'm old enough to remember those days, and nobody thought anything about gun safety. A kid at my California school in a "good" liberal neighborhood shot himself and died, while goofing off with his dad's gun in front of his buddies.
Thanks for the location info.
I recall an incident like that too. There were these two kids in my 6th grade class in 1976. Best buddies. One of them had a dad who was a cop. They were both at the cop's son's house and started playing with the dad's unsecured service revolver and the visiting buddy got shot in the head and died.
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