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Like the swords of ancient kings, these artifacts bear the scuffs, rust and scabbard wear of use, or the curious vanities of their owners: engravings, inlays, plating and hand carved notches commemorating survival, and defeat of a rival who was two seconds too slow. The mythology of their lives and skills is a dense thicket of hearsay, facts, fantasies, truths, delusions and steaming heaps of once or twice digested lore that makes great stories, but can be bottomless traps for the historian. The gunfight at the O. Corral is a virtual blizzard of half-truths and mis-directions, and at least one unique gun is widely described in great historical detail, but never existed.
Most of the outlaws who packed their pistols and left home were victims of real or imagined injustice. Some inherited old feuds.
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Others fled from broken homes that were crushed by a hard scrabble existence. Many famous outlaws were semi-literate losers with entire careers based on one chance encounter. Justice was meted out by men not far removed from the lawbreakers they pursued and captured — when convenient — or killed when desired. Dedication in a lawman was rare, but highly prized when discovered.
The pay was low and often second incomes were needed to buy bullets or feed a family. It was not unusual for outlaws to put on a badge, or for admired lawmen to stray across the line and considerably raise their standard of living. Watchdog volunteers were at hand in many communities to level the playing field when dishonest men — and women — became annoying nuisances. Quick judgments rendered by flinty-eyed vigilantes often ended with premature application of a short noose dangled from a tall tree.
The national conversation needs to shift from one extreme—an acceptance, ranging from complacent to enthusiastic, of an individual right to own guns—to another, which requires people who are not politicians to speak their minds.
And this will only happen if the Americans who are quietly convinced that guns are terrible speak out. There are other reasons as well, not least a fear of getting shot. Then there is the privilege argument. As if gun ownership were simply a cultural tradition to be respected, and not, you know, about owning guns. Progressives who might have been able to brush off accusations of anti-rural-white classism may have a tougher time confronting arguments about the disparate impact gun control policies can have on marginalized communities.
These, however, are criticisms of certain tentative, insufficient gun control measures—the ones that would leave small-town white families with legally-acquired guns well enough alone, allowing them to shoot themselves or one another and to let their guns enter the general population. Ban Guns, meanwhile, is not discriminatory in this way. That could never happen, right?
Bureau of the Census , an estimate of 19, white men, women and children were killed while the Indians killed numbered between 30, and 45, casualties during the American Indian Wars. Among them was civilian Billy Dixon , who made one of the longest recorded sniper kills , by shooting an Indian off his horse almost a mile away with his Sharps rifle , during a standoff in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls.
General George S. Patton himself had a gunfight when he was a young second lieutenant chasing Pancho Villa all over northern Mexico in Patton and 10 enlisted men had been sent to San Miguelito Ranch to look for Villa, who had recently raided the city of Columbus, New Mexico. Patton positioned his men by the south gate and was making his way up to the north gate when a trio of Villa's men came into the ranch on horseback.
Patton drew his obsolete single-action Colt Peacemaker revolver and shot two of the men. The first man had been fatally wounded in the exchange and tried to draw his pistol before Patton killed him with a single shot.
After his troops took down the remaining outlaw, Patton tied the three dead men to the hood of his touring car and drove the bodies back to his commanding officer. The image of two gunslingers with violent reputation squaring off in a street is nothing more than a Hollywood invention. The most famous and well-recorded duel occurred on 21 July , in Springfield, Missouri. They arranged to walk towards each other at 6 p. Wild Bill's armed presence caused the crowd to immediately scatter to the safety of nearby buildings, leaving Tutt alone in the northwestern corner of the square.
When they were about 50 yards apart, both men drew their guns. The two fired at the same time, but Hickok's shot hit Tutt in the heart, while Tutt's shot missed. This was the first recorded example of two men taking part in a quick-draw duel. The following month Hickok was acquitted after pleading self-defense. The first story of the shootout was detailed in an article in Harper's Magazine in , and became a staple of the gunslinger legend. The famous lawman Wyatt Earp gave an account of having participated a duel once during his vendetta.
One account says that after the party recognized Cruz, they chased him down and a gunfight ensued. During that time, Wyatt allowed Cruz to keep his revolver to "give him a chance to fight like a man. Gordon wanted her to stop working.
When she told him to leave her alone, he became angry, went outside the saloon, and started shooting out the windows with his pistol. As bullets went through the saloon, Doc unflinching, holstered his Colt Peacemaker revolver, and walked outside. Gordon then started shooting at him but missed. Holliday then drew his pistol and shot Gordon at long range with one shot. He then went back to the saloon. Gordon died the next day and Holliday fled. Doc Holliday has also been credited with wounding and shooting a pistol out of saloon owner Milt Joyce's hand when he tried to brandish it at Holliday.
Commercial agency in Fort Worth, which provided "protection" to gambling dens and saloons in return for a portion of their profits. At the same time, Luke Short , a former friend of Courtright's, was running the White Elephant Saloon and Jim was trying to get Short to utilize his services. But the Dodge City gunfighter told Courtright to "go to Hell," that he could do anything that was necessary to take care of his business.
On February 8, , the two quarreled, and with Bat Masterson at Short's side, Courtright and Short dueled in the street. They drew their pistols at close range, and Short fired first, blowing off Courtright's thumb. Courtright attempted the "border shift", a move where a gunfighter switches his gun to his uninjured hand, but he was too slow. Short shot him in the chest, killing him.
In the saloon, Frank sat down at a long table, Richardson turned around and took a seat at the same table.
Get to Know Us. Manufacturers, suppliers and others provide what you see here, and we have not verified it. Seller Image. No—I want to keep shopping. Aug 09, Checkman rated it liked it Shelves: firearms , history , non-fiction , my-fathers-books , true-crime. As settlers moved further west, away from authority and soft city life into the Great Plains, the push for survival through the endless prairies and jagged isolating mountain ranges bred ruthless men.
The two were then heard speaking in low voices. After the conversation, Richardson drew his pistol, and Loving drew his in response. The Long Branch Saloon was then filled with smoke. Both men were still standing, although Richardson had fired five shots from his gun and Loving's Remington No. Deputy Sheriff Duffey threw Richardson down in a chair and took his gun, while Bassett disarmed Loving.
Richardson then got up and started toward the billiard table, when he fell to the floor with a fatal gunshot in the chest, as well as a shot through the side and another through the right arm. Frank Loving, who had only a slight scratch on the hand, was immediately taken to jail. Two days later, the coroner's inquest ruled that the killing had been in self-defense and Loving was immediately released. Harrison shot first, but missed.
Levy aimed carefully and hit Harrison, who died a week later. Not as well known today but famous in his time was the dapper, derby -wearing train robber Marion Hedgepeth , who despite his swell appearance, "was a deadly killer and one of the fastest guns in the Wild, Wild West ". William Pinkerton, whose National Detective Agency had sought to capture Hedgepeth and his gang for years, noted that Hedgepeth once gunned down another outlaw who had already unholstered his pistol before Hedgepath had drawn his revolver. Most Old West men who were labeled as being "gunfighters" did not kill nearly as many men in gunfights as they were given credit for, if any at all.
They were often labeled as such due to one particular instance, which developed from rumors into them having been involved in many more events than they actually were. Often their reputation was as much "self-promotion" as anything else; such was the case of Bat Masterson. Corral in Tombstone , Arizona Territory. He has been said to have been involved in more than one hundred gunfights in his lifetime.
But Prof. He wrote in a letter to John Hays Hammond on May 21, , that "notoriety had been the bane of my life. After his brother Virgil was maimed in an ambush and Morgan was assassinated by hidden assailants, the men suspected of involvement were provided alibis by fellow Cowboys and released without trial. Wyatt and his brother Warren set out on a vendetta ride to locate and kill those they felt were responsible.
Wyatt has been portrayed in a number of films and books as a fearless Western hero. Corral , at least in part because he was the only one who was not wounded or killed.