FAST-GUN MOVIE SHOOT-OUTS

I had an argument some time back with a buddy of mine about stand-up fast-gun shoot-outs in the Wild West. He believes they took place. I don't.

Both of us grew up on western movies where characters played by John Wayne and Clint Eastwood faced up to the bad guys and fired first.

Would you do that? I would not. I think you'd have to be drunk or high on something to walk out into the middle of the street and bet your life that you could draw first, fire first, and hit the other guy first.

Utter poppycock.

I did some research, and most of the time the old cowboys bushwhacked each other, ambushed each other. One famous lawman, I believe it was Wyatt Earp, would challenge some badass and say something like, "Meet you outside in ten minutes."

Then he would sneak around and climb upstairs and wait on the balcony. When the other guy came out, Earp would shoot the guy from above and behind. Surprise. You thought I was gonna stand and fight. Think again, dead man.

Once the guy is dead, who cares? Especially if Earp is the sheriff and the other guy is wanted for cattle rustling or something. Who cares if he was guilty or not?

I called a famous cowboy museum, I think it was in Wyoming, and the curator there told me that these movie-style shootouts happened very seldom, maybe once or twice, in the Old West.

I took a police shooting class a few years ago, and the instructor, from Long Beach PD, told us that most police shootings these days take place indoors, in people's living rooms, within 10-15 feet, and 80-90% of the shots miss.

Why is that? Because people don't hold still when you shoot at them, and because people shoot back. And it isn't that easy to shoot another human being.

In World War II, the U.S. Army found out that most soldiers, no matter how well trained, could not bring themselves to shoot people when they could actually see them.

So in the Viet Nam war, the U.S. military used a new tactic. They had our guys lay down fields of fire. In other words, the enemy is in those trees. Open fire. And they would blast away, firing like crazy as long as they could not actually see the people they were trying to kill.

Now back to the Old West. Were people that different back then? Were they more accurate and more deadly and more willing to kill people? I doubt it.  

I say the Wild West shootout was an invention of the movies, where it worked very well. It was very dramatic.

But did it happen in real life? Horse manure. 

-- Roger

© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle