Used in a sentence: "After spending my whole life yelling 'shotgun!' when approaching a car with friends, one of whom was most definitely driving, it took a History channel special to forcibly connect the dots that the phrase originated from the days of the stagecoach, when someone needed to quite literally be riding shotgun."
Of course, some folks take the concept too far -- as in the miscreants ridin' dirty in the 'hood with illegal firearms OR thug-apprentices trying to mug pit-bull-dog-walkers next to the governor's mansion back in Harrisburg (I feel like I've told that story before, but yet I couldn't locate it when searching keywords on the blog, so maybe I'll have to file that for another day -- suffice it to say that the story had a "happy" ending as no one was shot [thanks to one way streets and some fast running] and that the perpetrators were caught [thanks to pulling Demon the pit bull back behind the car so he wouldn't jump in the window, allowing me to get the license plate number in the process]).
NOTE: I have not yet found the historical connection between the days of stagecoach and the rapid consumption of beer through a punctured hole in the side (nor the communal sharing of the wacky weed) -- but I would posit that riding shotgun was a stressful job, leading to these characters committing these acts ... just a theory ... still waiting on the History channel special about that type of shotgunning ...
PERHAPS A CORRECTION -- THE PHRASE CAME FROM FICTION ABOUT THE TIME:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2158/whats-the-origin-of-riding-shotgun
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR SHOTGUNNING A BEER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXp_z0FjL1o
CO & WA READERS ONLY-STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR SHOTGUNNING WEED:
http://www.420magazine.com/forums/general-420-talk/76657-shotgunning-joint.html
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