Some people believe that by allowing more carry laws, states will lead to a return to the Wild West. Quote in point . . .
I wonder what a resident of a 19th Century Western landscape would think of us today were he transported here? There, men and women were armed and were often trained in the defense needed of home and property. Yet in such places, homicide was rare and usually involved a transient shooting the same,
in violation of local law, or a professional gunman who took care to protect innocent life while bringing a fugitive to justice. The "Per capita" robbery rate was only a single digit fraction of today's urban city. The burglary rate was less than 1%. Rape,though likely still not reported sometimes, was almost unknown.
The notion that the Wild West was one of chaos and violence was popularized, not by actual historical accounts, but by Hollywood entertainment and fictional literature. Crime records and historical research suggest otherwise. For instance, in one record, "Only two towns, Ellsworth in 1873 and Dodge City in 1876, ever had five killings in any one year.” Abilene, which was considered one of the most “wild” cow towns, had records that cited that “nobody was killed in 1869 or 1870.” The earliest cowtowns actually had strict gun laws that soon proved what we all know today. There were guns on the streets, but they were only in the hands of the bad guys.
But firearms
were prevalent, not only to protect against wild animals, Indian raids and the like, but also against the rustler and the poacher, to whom the laws, gun or otherwise, meant nothing.
What was of note in the time, if you study history, which apparently many of our elected representatives do not, was
not the gun laws. What is notable was a new code of behavior was becoming acceptable in the West. People no longer had a
duty to retreat when threatened. This was a departure from British common law that said you must have your back to the wall before you could protect yourself with deadly force. In 1876 an Ohio court held that if attacked you were not “obligated to fly.” My own state also upheld the legality of ‘no duty to retreat.” The code of the West dictated that a man did not have to back away from a fight. He could also pursue an adversary even if it resulted in death. He needed to retreat no further than “the air at his back.” He could legally fight back, with deadly force, and if threatened, he would.
Yet crime in the Wild West was not higher than anywhere else in the country at the time, even though almost all individuals owned a gun. In some areas it was
lower, the "Wild" West not being as "Wild" as one would think. In fact, in some places it was downright peaceful. I think of the Robert Heinlein quote -
An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. Incidentally, the historical accounts on the West underline a fact that the writers of the scripts of the old Westerns barely touch upon, that the "Wild West" was "tamed" not by any large officialdom, not by increased government oversight, but by private enterprise and the rights and means a citizen had to protect that which he had worked and built up. The "public officials" of the day were more interested in keeping their jobs, than in actually doing them, unwilling to risk their own personal holdings and hide for the safety of a community far away, not at the wages that were likely paid.
What was far more effective in bringing a degree of order to the West, as towns built up and people grew and thrived, was the fact that every man (and many women) carried their own government with him - there in his holster as he worked his home and land.
Private protection that carried a strong voice. When needed, the citizen of the town could work to employ private enterprise to augment it, such as local "police", armed and deputized, as well as organizations such as Pinkerton. The citizen decided what was needed for the town and how much, knowing it was there to help, not replace what he could do on his own to defend and protect. He knew too, that there were larger entities, the U.S. Marshall service starting as far back as 1789, but he also knew, that in the day to day of survival when times were tough it might be HIS weapon that would be on hand, the Sheriff or Marshals miles and miles away from his land, spread thin in a population ever growing. He valued the professional lawman, but he trusted in the judgment of his own hand on his own weapon in the defense of his person or property at home.
What would he think of us now, with so many of our law-abiding citizens in large cities unable, by law, to carry a weapon or have one in their home to defend and protect while criminals run rampant with them? How would the Old West resident transported here today, take the news that when confronted by a thief who kicks down his front door, he would be expected to meekly surrender what he had worked hard for months to obtain. Or perhaps to feign sleep and hope he's not murdered in his bed or forced to sit by helpless while his loved ones are ravaged in his own home.
Would he ask us how in these last 150 years that we lost our way? Would he look at us and ask, what weakening of our personal will led to this change, what power did we give to the officials we elected that slowly stripped us of these things that could be counted on to protect and provide? Would he ask us how the courage of a nation was muted into blind acceptance? Even more troubling, would he ask how long it is until we hand the barbarians at the gate the very keys to the lives we built on the principals of our forefathers.
Would he then, in response to the silence of too many of us, take a deep breath and remind us of that which he brought with him to this day and time. That being the knowledge that when we give up our right as legal, law abiding citizens to protect ourselves and our homes, the protection of our culture, our language and our very borders will soon be next. Then we will see a land of chaos and violence that he never knew.
An American of the Old West, trusted with a weapon to protect his life and property, would look at all that is around us now, the murder rate soaring the highest in cities with gun bans, even as I write this. He would see our country flooded with people that respect neither our values or our past, and nations far and wide pointing their own guns in our direction as we sit and attempt to play the peacemaker. He would ask more than how. He would ask WHY?
Dedicated to SP4 Ryan Campbell and the Stryker Battalion stationed in Southern Afghanistan.
