Gun Safety Instructor Shoots Student In Ohio

[happyslug]

112. Partly because guns did not go out of common use

Now, if you mean PISTOLS, that is a different subject. In the period from the Civil War to the 1960s, guns sales went up, but the ratio of pistols to rifles was 1 in 10 (i..e for every 10 rifles sold, one pistol was sold).

That changed starting in the 1960s. Right now, 40% of all gun sales are pistols.

In the days when the West was young, the weapon of choice was still the muzzle loader (and I am talking the post Civil War West). It was reliable and cheap. This was the case till the 1880s, when most of them finally reached the end of their life span and were replaced by breech-loaders and repeaters.

Annie Oakley used her deceased father's muzzle loader right after the Civil War, when she became know as a crack shot. When she married and went on the show circuit she obtain breech-loaders and repeaters (Her favorite weapon was a 22) but many old farmers retain their breech-loaders till after 1900 (many were still being made of local gun smiths till the 1960s, ball and powder was much cheaper then brass cartridges).

Side note: While local gun smiths made muzzle loaders till the 1960s, more and more such production ended after 1900, just few survived till the 1960s, to catch the start of the modern Muzzle loading shooting that started about then.

If you see photos of cowboys with pistols on them, most were "fakes". i.e. the guns were props provided by the photographers, for the cowboys rarely owned a weapon (and then most likely a shotgun or rifle rather then a pistol). The cowboys, read the dime novels of the time period (or if they could not read and write, had them read to them, group readings were quite common at that time period) and read that they were "Armed to the teeth" and wanted their pictures to show them "armed to the teeth". After the photo was taken, they went home (after returning the pistols used in the photo to the photographer), after taking care of their saddle (which, on average, only lasted 18 months of hard use) they horses (Most needed shod and extra shoes to be made for the trip home), jeans (most cowboys were down to rags by the time they hit the "Cow town&quot , shirts and boots. In simple terms, pistols were available in cow towns, but cowboys rarely, if ever had one. The Town Marshall would have a pistol, but that would be about all.

By the time cowboys purchased what they needed to go home AND what they needed back home, they did not have money for weapons. If a weapon was needed, they would purchased one, but almost always a rifle or shotgun. These two types of weapons were very useful on the trail, unlike a pistol which was just extra weight. A Bowie knife or tomahawk was often preferred to a pistol, for these could be used for other purposes, unlike a pistol.

If you read the actual reports of the cattle drives, Native Americans were almost never an issue. This was true even as the first cattle drive drove through Comanche territories to the rail heads in Kansas. During the same time period of the cattle drives, the Comanches were at war with the US. How did Chisum and the rest of the cattle barons get through the Comanches lands without extensive losses? The easy way, Chisum and the rest paid for the right to go through untouched. No gun fight, just hard untraceable cash (Quanah Parker knew the value of Cash, after he signed a peace treaty, he demand $1 a head for any cattle crossing his lands. That appears to have been the going rate even BEFORE he signed a peace treaty).

In the famous shoot out in the OK Corral, three of the "Cowboys" i.e. Clantons and their allies, did not have a pistol on them, and two of the three that were killed appears to have been killed, after firing their pistols and going for their rifles. The third person Killed had had a pistol earlier in the day, but did not have it at the time of the shoot out. Please note this was a group KNOWN to carry pistols do to their criminal nature, and at least 2/5 of them did not have a pistol that day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunfight_at_the_O.K._Corral#Rural_Cowboys_vs._Tombstone_interests

Remember most people out west lived on the farm, i.e in the country NOT in the towns and cities. Even as late as 1910, the US as a whole had more people living in Rural Areas then Urban Areas (the 1920 US Census is the first Census when that is NOT the situation). In rural areas, the range of a pistol is so short as to be useless when compared to a Rifle or even a shotgun. Thus most people in rural areas did NOT carry pistols (A Bowie knife was considered almost as good among people who did participate in pistol gun fights, in fact in the sand bar duel, which is the days before revolvers, pistols were present, but so were Bowie knives).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbar_Fight

We get our impression of massive use of pistols in the West from Movies, Books and TV stories. Pistols were known, but no one had them. My father told me when he was a teenager being impressed when the local sheriff showed up to arrest someone and was armed with a pistol. He had used shotguns and rifles, but that was the first time he saw a pistol other then in the movies (and that was in the 1930s).

In the Broughton School Shooting in Allegheny County in 1928, none of the striking white coal miners are reported to have had pistols as they defended the school (The only school in the coal fields of Western Pennsylvania that stayed open to children of striking coal miners during that strike, all other school would take in only children on miners NOT on strike).

On the other hand, the African American coal miners had been given pistols by the Coal and Iron Police to "Protect themselves" from the striking miners. The African American claimed they only returned fire on the school, after the strikers fire first. The Strikers report they only return fire. Several bullets were found in the School. My problem was the distance from the School and the railroad tracks is to far for pistols to be effective. At the same time the Miners had no real reason to shoot the African American Coal miners. The distance was well with the range of the rifles the strikers had and thus had the coal miners opened fire, all of the strike breaking African Americans would have been killed. My suspicion is that the Coal and Iron police set up the African Americans, gave them pistols to give them the impression they could protect themselves (but in reality could not) and then went on the hillside behind the railroad tracks and opened fire with rifles, On being fire upon the Strikers would see the strike breaking African Americans, and assumed they were firing on the strikers, and then the strikers fire on the African Americans. I suspect the Coal and Iron Police were hoping the Strikers would kill the African Americans so they could bring murder charges on the Strikers. i.e. the ineffectiveness of pistols in an non-urban area would lead to the African American trying to stand their ground instead of running for cover. The Coal and Iron police were known to set up strikers including framing them when possible and other times, out right murdering strikers.

Now, we have well known pistol experts at that time period, Sargent York of WWI fame was a dead shot with a pistol as well as a rifle. His exploit in shooting several charging Germans with his 1911 45 caliber pistol was considered remarkable (so remarkable that when his story was made into a movie in 1939, he was shown doing it with his Springfield not his 1911, to make it more believable to the audience).

Just before WWII, my father was on detached duty from his called up National Guard unit with a Captain of Russian descent (who he called the "Russian Captain", a well known way to describe someone in that time period). The Captain was known to snap shot crows out of trees with his 45 1911 (i.e. pull the pistol out of the holster, take quick aim and shoot).

I mention these two shooters, for they were the exceptions to the general rule of most people being bad or worse shots with pistols. The US Calvary was the only organisation that took the time to train people on how to shoot with pistols (and after WWI, they was 26 regiments of Calvary, including the Philippine Scouts who were based in the Philippines and made up of of citizens of the Philippines, thus no more the 25,000 men in the US was getting adequate training on pistols at that time period).

For this reason most police departments used 38 Specials for it is the most powerful revolver one can fire adequately with minimal training (the 9mm Parabellum has the same reputation when it comes to automatics). Neither were know to be as accurate as the 45 auto, but then you did not need the training to fire them adequately, unlike the 45 which people have to live with the weapon to shoot accurately.

Yes, I am going into details, some of which is unneeded, but the point I am trying to make is first our impression as to pistols and the west is more a product of TV, Movies and books then reality. Second, there was NO decline in fire arm use after the west was settles, for most use was rifles and shotguns NOT pistols and then to shoot game or pests, not people.

Pistols tended to be marketed to urban residents and police departments NOT rural areas. When you dealt with outlaws from the rural areas, they first choice of weapons were rifles (Bonnie and Clyde like the Browning Automatic Rifle NOT pistols for example). John Dillinger (whose first place to rob was local police departments for sub machine guns, rifles and pistols, then he rob a bank) also seems to have preferred rifles and shotguns. Even The Chicago gangsters of the 1920s, their first choice was shotguns (and the Thompson Sub Machine Gun) over pistols and this given Dillinger's preference for close quick in and out operations where pistols would be better the rifles (through less effective then shotguns or sub machine guns).

Just pointing out, there was no drop off in firearms after the settlement of the west, firearm sales have always been overwhelmingly Rifles and Shotguns not pistols till the 1970s. The most popular firearm after 1894, was the Winchester model 1894, and would remain the most popular rifle sold in the US till at least the 1980s (it was light and effective on deer and smaller animals). It is only as the US became more and more urban did the sales of Pistols start to climb in relations to rifles and shotguns, and then only from the 1960s onward. The US has more pistols per person today then we had in the late 1800s, and given the effectiveness of Pistols (Short range) is a questionable "improvement" over the late 1800s.