Did "shotgun weddings" actually happen?

Question

Would somebody really stand there with a gun forcing someone to marry?

Answer 1

I am from Kentucky and I can tell you YES.

I found out that I was pregnant just before leaving for college. I had 2 weeks to get married and was informed by my Dad that my college days would have to be put on hold...I never went back.

In the south, having a baby out of wedlock was more of an embarressment on the family than anything. It's less like that now but there is a huge focus on family there...honoring the family name is a huge deal. So huge that Daddy's get guns and force a wedding. (No, my Dad didn't have a gun...but he WAS going to kick some azz.)

Answer 2

yes. they did. It use to be that woman lived with their parents until they found someone. Normally the parents were involved in finding her a husband. If the woman was caught with the man doing things unwed couples are not suppose to do (even kissing or being left alone) The father of the woman would make the man marry her. It was assumed that being alone with a man and being unmarried was very wrong. Now the shot gun comes into play when the man gets the woman pregnant or she is assumed so. That is when the father of the woman made the man marry her in front of the pastor and town with a shotgun in hand.

by the way, it happened here in the US. About 100 years ago or more.

Answer 3

Home » Opinion » Article
Harking back to good old days of backyard abortions and shotgun weddings
Email Print Normal font Large font Lisa Pryor
January 13, 2007
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AdvertisementHave you ever wondered how young women still manage to fall pregnant accidentally when they have ready access to contraception and sex education? Have you ever concluded that it must be only the sloppy or irresponsible who face the horror of seeing two purple lines emerge from the plastic window of a home pregnancy test? I have cobbled together some statistics to show why this is not so, why young couples who take all the care in the world can still end up with a surprise pregnancy.

In generations past, couples married a couple of years after losing their virginity. Now it can be more than a decade between the first time you have sex and the time when you settle down and consider children.

Back at the end of the supposedly swinging '60s, women typically lost their virginity at 19 and married at 21. Now they typically lose their virginity at 16 and marry just before 30.

Where once women had two years of premarital sex in which to avoid pregnancy, they now have 14.

Even if a woman is not fussed about marriage, if she has other reasons for wanting to wait until 30 to have a baby the same calculations apply. The figures are similar for men, who have gone from having five years of premarital sex (between 18 and 23) to having 16 years of premarital sex (between 16 and 32).

But, you might ask, what about contraception? Surely it is not that hard to pull your finger out and pull on a condom?

You're a bloody idiot if you don't use contraception. But even if you do, there are no guarantees. Especially if you look at the anxiety-inducing failure rates of the most popular methods.

If you use a condom perfectly, there is a failure rate of 5 per cent, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. For the pill, it is a much more reassuring 0.3 per cent.

But who uses contraception perfectly? If you vomit or take antibiotics, the pill may be rendered ineffective. Condoms can slip or break. And so we must consider the failure rate when contraceptives are used in this "typical" way. The typical failure rate for condoms is 21 per cent. With the pill it is 8 per cent.

When you consider that these failure rates represent the percentage of women who will fall pregnant within a year, you can see how things can go wrong when you are trying to avoid pregnancy for 14 years. Suddenly those couples who end up facing more than one abortion during their 20s look less like careless dolts and more like the victims of bad odds.

Answer 4

I think many moons ago, and I am sure the end result really sucked,,,,,in the long run,,,,,,but I still think that many shotgun wedding still happen, but they are used with attorneys and or financial pressure instead of the actual gun,,,

Answer 5

no...
shotgun weddings just means getting pregnant before getting married and the pregnancy had 'forced' the couple to get married.

Answer 6

i easily desire to believe that they are all real. i will supply you the finished element relating to the doubt, and a celebrity, because of the fact 2 of them have been VERY humorous or perhaps the middle one made me smile.

Answer 7

Hell yeah they happened. Its how my parents got married.

Answer 8

Dnt knw.sounds abit ubsurd to me

Answer 9

yes

usually only happened in the south though. up north we would beat them to a pulp.

Answer 10

Yes, you would not believe how it is deep in hill country.