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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYOU'LL TAKE MY GUNS WHEN YOU PRY THEM FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS!!!
One might presume that was the position of the Clanton gang, when they violated the gun control ordinances of the town of Tombstone, Arizona... (no carrying guns within town limits).
After not only violating town ordinances by carrying guns within town limits, but when at least one member of their gang (Ike Clanton) spent the previous night and part of the next day threatening the lives of law enforcement officers, (sound familiar??)
THEY LOST.
(Not sure who pried the guns from their cold dead fingers afterwards, and neither were they.)
On another site, someone mentioned their intention to watch the movie 'Tombstone', which brought all these thoughts to my mind... besides the fact that I once made that 'famous walk' myself, in the same location.
Tombstone is very entertaining but Kevin Costners Wyatt Earp would seem to have been much more historically accurate and Dennis Quaids performance as Doc Holliday is priceless
He went to a great deal of trouble to lose so much weight to appear tubercular
Dont get me wrong, I love Val Kilmers performance too, Im your huckleberry, but Tombstone seemed written more to please audiences than to portray the story accurately
(I am a great fan of history, and a student of the famous Tombstone gunfight, and have actually BEEN there to the site of the shootout which really took place on the street BEHIND the OK corral, next to Flys photography studio and boardinghouse
. It only became known as the Gunfight at the Ok Corral because the 1950s rendition of it starring Burt Lancaster was so titled. That movie title was catchier than Gunfight behind the OK corral next to Flys photography studio and boardinghouse...)
This gunfight between the Earps and Clanton gang was actually not typical, as a standup fight in the street with the High Noon walk hardly ever happened in real life, but the story of this fight became the dramatic standard for later western movies. In fact, most gunfights in the old west were ambushes where one party was bushwhacked without prior notice. One of the other most famous policeman of the west, Wild Bill Hickok, was shot in the back during a poker game where his friends, as a sort of joke, denied him his preferred seating arrangement with his back against a wall.
What I find particularly ironic about the Tombstone story, is that the Earps, like most law enforcement of the time, were advocates of gun control indeed, the gunfight came about because the Clantons were armed, in defiance of town ordinances
. and the Earps made the long walk for the purpose of disarming them.
They enforced gun control, and they were Republicans.
Most Republicans today probably think of them as heroes, because they used guns to subdue criminals
but they do their best to ignore the crime in question-- that the "criminals" were violating local gun control laws....
Further, by my research of the question, they seemed to have been somewhat "surprised" by the fact that the local law enforcement came forward to enforce that particular law against them... and Virgil Earp asked them to throw down their guns. They thought they could run their mouths off, without any consequences...
By my reading of the surviving historical testimonies, one of the Clanton party drew first---
and the Earps, although charged with 'murder' in the shooting, the charges were dismissed by a judge who subsequently was subject to death threats from partisans of the losers....
The biggest takeaway for me here, is that
"once upon a time, Republicans fought for 'gun control' "
of course, back in those days, I believe I would have been a Republican myself--
supporting the anti-slavery party...
The big change might have come in the 1890s, when the the Democrats became the party of 'free silver', and money for the masses--
but I would have had a problem with the remaining racist sentiments, which survived through the 1960s, especially in the south...
but I am a Northern Democrat, of course. Northern Democrats and Republicans did pass the civil rights laws of the 1960s...
Srkdqltr
(6,228 posts)Whenever I hear someone say the title of your post my first thought is....... that can be arranged.
DemocraticPatriot
(4,306 posts)also!
hahahahaha
dchill
(38,441 posts)Permission.
DemocraticPatriot
(4,306 posts)Perhaps I was a tiny bit "trollish" there, lol
dchill
(38,441 posts)Like "cold, dead fingers!" Thanks, Charlton!
DemocraticPatriot
(4,306 posts)but took advantage of their biggest "tagline"...
I have no sympathy with Charlton Heston-- but no problem with pointing out their hypocrisy in this specific case, and further, in general...
DemocraticPatriot
(4,306 posts)all of the Clanton gang were white... as well as all of the law enforcement officers...
DemocraticPatriot
(4,306 posts)Rhiannon12866
(204,742 posts)It was years ago, but what sticks in my mind were he lifesized statues of the Earp brothers - Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil. And the cemetery:
DemocraticPatriot
(4,306 posts)I viewed a review of it in the wax museum in Niagara Falls, in my childhood, and photographed it.
That is actually in a Tombstone cemetary ??
New to me, but I do not contest it.... I never knew where it was presumably located...
thanks.
Rhiannon12866
(204,742 posts)However, whether it's "genuine" or not, or just part of a tourist display, I do not know.
DemocraticPatriot
(4,306 posts)I never visited any "historical cemetary" in my visit to 'Tombstone'... only the rebuilt town...
I was staying with my life-long best friend, who lived in the Phoenix suburbs, and we made the long drive south to visit that town... south of Tucson ...
Despite Arizona's reputation as a very warm place, Tombstone has a higher altitude, and we dealt with actual "sleet" on the day of our visit... it was a "winter month", in the rest of the country..
No matter, it was good. The worst part was, that some member of the TSA apparently STOLE my camera out of my luggage, on the way home, which contained exposed film of the visit--- so I never got any of the pictures I took. That was sometime between 2004-2008....
DemocraticPatriot
(4,306 posts)inside my bags, which said, in effect 'we have searched your luggage... if anything is missing, TOO FUCKING BAD, you have no recourse'
God Bless America! lol
I phoned my best friends and made them search for my camera at their house where I had stayed-- but they never found it...
The camera was worth about $20 at the time, but the film inside was worth more to me... guess I should have sacrificed the last exposures and put it into my damn pocket! JR SHRUB was president at the time...
Rhiannon12866
(204,742 posts)I was in school and my grandmother was spending the winter in Florence (near Phoenix), she liked to stay someplace warm. And for Spring Break she invited me to come for a visit, so I went with my Dad (she was his mother) and since my Dad was the driver, we visited all over, seeing the sights. We visited Mexico, Tombstone, Roosevelt Dam (my Dad was an engineer), even the Grand Canyon! I will always regret missing out on a chance to go down into the Grand Canyon by mule - my grandmother made arrangements for me to go on that tour, but I didn't want to go by myself. Silly me!
House of Roberts
(5,162 posts)and my favorite portrayal of Doc Holliday remains, to this day, Douglas Fowley, in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. It's on GRIT-TV afternoons at 5 eastern, two episodes every weekday. Depending on what portion of the series one encounters, it might be Myron Healey playing Holliday, but Fowley was the better choice.
DemocraticPatriot
(4,306 posts)I don't have any cable anymore---- unless i can see it on the internet...
I will watch for the replay of that movie, I recognize the title...
Better Days Ahoy
(698 posts)Lead with next time.
Good post.
Lengthy.