Wild West Myth - Debunked

imported post

AWDstylez wrote:

KansasMustang wrote:

Course there were killings and such, but truth is it had a lower crime rate than Chicago and DC today.

Click to expand...

Having 1/500,000 of the population might have something to do with that... just a thought.

Click to expand...

Crime RATE, not absolute number of incidents. Rates are compensated for population differentials.


Population of theUS in 1875 about 44 million. about 1/6 of today.


Regards

imported post

I loved the movie Tombstone, but I hated the glorification of this gun-grabbing puke Earp. The whole gunfight was caused because he and his badged gang wereenforcing a gun banin town. The movie, like most Wyatt Earp stories,protrays the Clanton gang as bad guys, and they probably were in real life. But gun bans are gun bans. It's like the Clantons were Plaxico and Earp is Bloomberg. You can't justify either one.

Still, though, it's an great fun movie to watch. (The Kurt Russel version, of course, not the boring, self-centered Kevin Costner Show version).

imported post

KansasMustang wrote:

It's the God's honest truth man. It was actually a very polite society. Course there were killings and such, but truth is it had a lower crime rate than Chicago and DC today. And also the truth is, that per capita there are less homicides in Iraq than DC and Chicago right now, maybe we should pull out of those places?

Click to expand...

Could that be partly because people were raised with a little more respect back then, as well asthe fact that if you stepped over the line you would end up hanging from one?:celebrate

imported post

Gordie wrote:

KansasMustang wrote:

It's the God's honest truth man. It was actually a very polite society. Course there were killings and such, but truth is it had a lower crime rate than Chicago and DC today. And also the truth is, that per capita there are less homicides in Iraq than DC and Chicago right now, maybe we should pull out of those places?

Click to expand...

Could that be partly because people were raised with a little more respect back then, as well asthe fact that if you stepped over the line you would end up hanging from one?:celebrate

Click to expand...

I believe Gordie has a good point. Folks were raised to be respectful of others more so than today. Today it seems that respect has become a oneway street, in that some people feel that they are suppose to be respected without reciprocation. That simply doesn't work very well.

They were also taught to have self-respect. Out welfare system has done more to undermine self-respect in a large segment of our society than anything else. In the old days, before there was a welfare program, people took pride in providing for themselves and their families. If they could keep a roof over their heads, food on the table, and clothes on their backs, without anyones help they felt they were doing good. Having to take a handout to survive was hurtful to their pride (that is if they had any).