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Dispelling the myth of “The Wild West”
Minneapolis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 17 February, 2009 | John Pierce

Posted on 02/18/2009 2:21:54 AM PST by marktwain

These are interesting times in the fight to protect and enhance our rights as gun owners. In Wisconsin, we stand on the eve of an historic court ruling regarding open carry. In Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas, local activists have succeeded in making their voices heard regarding restoring open carry to these otherwise gun-friendly states. With all of this pro-gun activity, it should come as little surprise that the anti-gun forces are out in-force repeating their aged mantra … “This isn’t the wild west.”

And this rhetoric is not limited to anti-gunners. Recently, I was quoted in a USA Today article about the open carry initiatives around the country and in that article, Texas Senator Jeff Wentworth (R), a supposedly pro-gun legislator denounced open carry saying "I think that's harkening too far back to the Wild West."

With all this talk of “The Wild West”, I thought it might be informative to look at the reality of crime in the “wild west” cattle towns and compare them to the peaceful streets of such eastern, gun-control paradises as DC, New York, Baltimore and Newark.

In his book, Frontier Violence: Another Look, author W. Eugene Hollon, provides us with these astonishing facts:

In Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City, and Caldwell, for the years from 1870 to 1885, there were only 45 total homicides. This equates to a rate of approximately 1 murder per 100,000 residents per year. In Abilene, supposedly one of the wildest of the cow towns, not a single person was killed in 1869 or 1870.

Zooming forward over a century to 2007, a quick look at Uniform Crime Report statistics shows us the following regarding the aforementioned gun control “paradise” cities of the east:

DC – 183 Murders (31 per 100,000 residents) New York – 494 Murders (6 per 100,000 residents) Baltimore – 281 Murders (45 per 100,000 residents) Newark – 104 Murders (37 per 100,000 residents)

It doesn’t take an advanced degree in statistics to see that a return to “wild west” levels of violent crime would be a huge improvement for the residents of these cities.

The truth of the matter is that the “wild west” wasn’t wild at all … not compared to a Saturday night in Newark.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; constitution; crime; wildwest
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This is a fact that has been conveniently left out of the "gun control" discussion. The left lives in a fantasy world informed by the fantasies on the television.

It is bitterly ironic that they consider themselves "reality based".

1 posted on 02/18/2009 2:21:54 AM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Well, if they mention that, they’d have to mention *why* homicide was so low then and so high now....

And they can’t have that, can they?


2 posted on 02/18/2009 2:25:55 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr

Let me guess! Demographics have anything at all to do with the present murder rate?

Just as demographics have a huge impact on the voting base of the democrat party. How strange this thing called reality.


3 posted on 02/18/2009 2:45:32 AM PST by wita
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To: wita

No, something more direct than that. Check out the signature line.


4 posted on 02/18/2009 2:52:51 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: marktwain

Yes, open carry is very important. It’s not politically wise at all to try to restrict Second Amendment rights only to some, or to allow the population to develop a phobia against seeing firearms on their neighbors in public.


5 posted on 02/18/2009 3:12:02 AM PST by familyop (combat engineer (combat), National Guard, '89-'96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote, http://falconparty.com/)
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To: marktwain

Anti-gun people like to say it “isn’t the old west” because they want to kill people themselves.


6 posted on 02/18/2009 3:12:25 AM PST by MichiganConservative (You are a slave. The government is your owner and master. For many slaves, it is also their god.)
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To: marktwain
Everyone should rent or buy the full season of the sci-fi TV series, Serenity to get a better idea that the "Wild West" will never die, not then, not now and definitely not in the future. Be prepared.
7 posted on 02/18/2009 3:12:37 AM PST by Eye of Unk (How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words! SA)
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To: Spktyr

Aack? Ok, I thought I was pretty direct. Apparently not enough. I’m lost, maybe. By signature line you mean? Give me another hint. Maybe I’ll get it, but I’m not promising anything.


8 posted on 02/18/2009 3:34:50 AM PST by wita
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To: marktwain

Another thing I love about Arizona!


9 posted on 02/18/2009 3:50:01 AM PST by Prince of Space ("Your weapons have no effect on me!")
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To: marktwain

nice article, but it neglects one important fact - many towns nabbed guns within city limits. IIRC the famous “gunfight at the OK corral” was about sherriff Earp attempting to enforce this ordinance on teh Clantons. That is if I get my history channel right...


10 posted on 02/18/2009 3:50:22 AM PST by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
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To: marktwain

I love it when liberals use wild west rhetoric. The reason why the Gunfight at the OK Corral was such a big story was because gunfights were so rare. And what caused the OK Corral? The Earps tried to disarm the Clantons because they came into town armed and Tombstone was a gun free zone.


11 posted on 02/18/2009 3:52:50 AM PST by Jaxter (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum.)
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To: wita

The reason why there were fewer homicides in the Old West wasn’t because of demographics or lack of diversity.

It was because everyone was armed, sometimes heavily armed, and few people were stupid enough to want to try conclusions when winding up messily dead was a very likely option.


12 posted on 02/18/2009 4:01:08 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr

The reason why there were fewer homicides in the Old West wasn’t because of demographics or lack of diversity.

Which kind of indicates what wave length I was on, and not getting yours. My perspective was “today” where demographics are a huge issue. Open carry would perhaps provide the data base to show how disarming the public has been too kind to certain portions of the population more inclined to the “big city victim” solution.


13 posted on 02/18/2009 4:21:04 AM PST by wita
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To: marktwain
In his book, Frontier Violence: Another Look, author W. Eugene Hollon, provides us with these astonishing facts:

In Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City, and Caldwell, for the years from 1870 to 1885, there were only 45 total homicides. This equates to a rate of approximately 1 murder per 100,000 residents per year. In Abilene, supposedly one of the wildest of the cow towns, not a single person was killed in 1869 or 1870.

Eugene must have used today's population numbers to get to a murder rate of 1 per 100,000. My 2008 Rand McNally road atlas populations for these "cities" totals 391,480. Supposed to be 2,000 census or later estimates if available.

Closest 1800's populations I can find are: Wichita, 1880 - 4,911; Abilene, 1871 (peak) 1,000; Ellsworth, 1871 - 600; Caldwell and Dodge City, 1871 - 2,000 each. These all total 10,511. This is the peak for all of these towns except Wichita, which had some growth, but it was not a "cow-town" after about 1875.

Anyway, 45dead/16yrs/10,511= 26.758 per 100,000.

14 posted on 02/18/2009 4:48:27 AM PST by tdscpa
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To: marktwain
"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."
- Robert A. Heinlein
15 posted on 02/18/2009 4:56:08 AM PST by P8riot (I carry a gun because I can't carry a cop.)
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To: Jaxter
"The reason why the Gunfight at the OK Corral was such a big story was because gunfights were so rare."

You are right about the fact that gunfights in the wild west towns were rare. However, the reason that the gunfight at the OK Corral became famous is because Wyatt Earp eventually moved to Hollywood. He rubbed elbows with famous cowboy actors Tom Mix and William Hart and then unknown John Wayne. He told them all his stories. These guys and other hollywood types carried on his stories in movies and that's what made him famous. He was a good self promoter.
16 posted on 02/18/2009 5:18:44 AM PST by Old Teufel Hunden (I)
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To: tdscpa
Dodge in 1871 didn't have 2000 people. It was still a stopping point and camp on the Santa Fe Trail. It did grow rapidly, especially when the railroad arrived in 1872. It became a transport point for buffalo hides. The cattle came later, building rapidly into the late 1870's.

The number of permanent residents doesn't mean much in most of these towns. Dodge was a safe stop where travelers could rest and prepare for the next leg of the Trail and there were a lot of travelers. There were also a lot of soldiers and buffalo hunters and occasionally the Indians would camp nearby. As the cattle started coming up from Texas some times the different herds would stretch for hundreds of miles as the owners fattened them up from the trip. They would get denser the closer you got to town. With the herds came thousands of drovers, all with money in their pocket and looking for excitement. The population was large and very transient.

17 posted on 02/18/2009 5:22:30 AM PST by MARTIAL MONK
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To: Eye of Unk

Everyone should rent or buy the full season of the sci-fi TV series, Serenity to get a better idea that the “Wild West” will never die, not then, not now and definitely not in the future. Be prepared

The Movie was named “Serenity” the excellent series was known as “Firefly”.


18 posted on 02/18/2009 6:43:54 AM PST by TEXASPROUD
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To: TEXASPROUD

I forgot about that, I have the DVD set, hopefully but probably unlikely that there will be a revival of the series, at least we had the movie.
But getting to the point was that guns still played a pivotal role in this view of a futuristic frontier mentality.

And even further to stress the need to eliminate religions or pogroms like Islam and Communism is that they basically have no endeavor to break free and develop true off world colonization plans, possibly China would and THAT did have an emphasis in all of the Firefly episodes.

Iran touts space but they are still 50 years behind technology wise, the USSR I would guess is better prepared with China making very good advances, problem is everyone copies from the US so if we slow down achievements in space so does the rest of the world.

If the Obamination had a lick of sense he would do a Kennedy and promise that America would have a colony on Mars, what Kennedy did was a very good boost for the economy back then and we have much to say thanks for the by products that were engineered in the space race.

But if only we had a President with foresight.


19 posted on 02/18/2009 7:12:46 AM PST by Eye of Unk (How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words! SA)
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To: marktwain

Thank you

I was hoping somebody would post this.

There was nothing “wild” about the Old West. That’s what this New Yorker calls it.


20 posted on 02/18/2009 10:38:06 AM PST by wastedyears (April 21st, 2009 - International Iron Maiden Day)
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