18. Guns in the Old West
Cowboys, criminals, lawmen, and practically everyone being armed as they went about their business in the towns and cities of the American west is part of America’s folklore. The gunfights in the streets, as depicted in the dime novels of the day and the films of a later age, are believed to be common, as armed men defended themselves against potential harm. What the folklore fails to take into account is that the battle at the OK Corral in Tombstone, and the gunfights involving Wild Bill Hickok in Abilene and other towns are notable because they were relatively rare. Nearly all towns of the west established gun laws and laws against the concealed carry of deadly weapons. Visitors were required to disarm at a hotel or at the town jail. Many of Hickok’s fights took place because someone refused to surrender his gun.
The first town ordinance enacted by Dodge City, Kansas, was a law prohibiting the carrying and discharging of firearms within the town, other than by lawfully deputized peace officers. Officially the Earps and Doc Holliday were attempting to disarm the Clantons and their allies at the OK Corral, but longstanding grudges assured that a gun battle was inevitable. Tombstone’s gun laws in the 1880s were more restrictive than they were at the beginning of the twenty-first century, as was the case in most other of the towns of the Old West. In Abilene, bartenders were prohibited from serving alcohol to anyone carrying a weapon openly, and the image of a bar lined with standing cowboys, drinking whiskey while wearing holstered guns, is part of American folklore.