Re: New Mexican vs. Texican

eldrwy wrote: "...and was startled at the sight of a sawed off shotgun he had clipped to the seat of his car."
Why should you be startled? In most parts of the rural west where I've lived, a rifle or shotgun in a vehicle is standard equipment. It is simply a tool used for dispatching an injured game animal caught in a fence, a rabid rodent, an injured horse or cow, or even to defend one's self in case of the inevitable attack by the ubiquitous sabre-toothed tin can. It also can, and most certainly would, be used to defend one's self from the two-legged snakes that abound, if needed to do so. It is, indeed, a deterent to violence of the first order.
I won't bother to comment on your mistaken observation on the breeding and background of folks in the ranching community. My college professor aunt made the same mistake too many times, and it cost her a number of good friends good friends, including my late wife. Ladies like Ethel Mundy are cherished among ranch folk. I never knew her, of course, but I'd bet a year's supply of USDA prime rib eyes she'd fit right in here in west Texas.
Keep outa the wire...
Ed