To hear defenders of unrestricted gun possession and the inevitably resulting violence one would think it had always been true. 'Tain't necessarily so. Here's a sampling of research into those self-serving claims.

"'Tombstone had much more restrictive laws on carrying guns in public in the 1880s than it has today,' says Adam Winkler, a professor and specialist in American constitutional law at UCLA School of Law. 'Today, you're allowed to carry a gun without a license or permit on Tombstone streets. Back in the 1880s, you weren't.' Same goes for most of the New West, to varying degrees, in the once-rowdy frontier towns of Nevada, Kansas, Montana, and South Dakota."


"The Wild West wasn't exactly full of quick-draw shootouts, clean-shaven cowboys, and tumbleweed. Historically inaccurate Western movie tropes change how we view the bygone era, from erasing certain groups to promoting a fictional view of the frontier that distorts the truth. Most frontier towns followed strict gun control laws, for example, which banned open carrying. And men avoided duels on main street - instead, it was easier to ambush your enemies outside of town." (Gun-totin' "real men" haven't changed much, it appears. -Ed.)