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NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
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| Myths About Gun Control |
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The number one reason criminals acquire handguns is not to commit crimes but, like noncriminals, to protect themselves. Criminals keenly feel the need for self-protection because they associate with other criminals and are likely to be victims as well as victimizers. As Figure II shows:
• In a survey of imprisoned felons, 58 percent said protection was a very important reason for getting a handgun and 26 percent said it was a somewhat important reason.
• Only 28 percent cited use in crime as very important and 20 percent said it was somewhat important.
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There was violence along the frontiers, but most of it was related to clashes with Indians, bandits or foreign nations. There was not a great deal of "ordinary" crime. From 1870 to 1885, the era of the Wild West when "everybody wore a gun," arrest rates per 100 residents were much lower in the West than in eastern cities. Moreover, "the Western frontier was a far more civilized, more peaceful, and safer place than American society istoday." Contrary to the impression left by movies and Western novels, crime and homicides were rare. For example:
• In 1880, wide-open towns like Virginia City, Nev., Leadville, Colo., and Dallas had no homicides.
• By comparison, Cincinnati had 17 homicides that year.
• From 1870 to 1885, the five Kansas railheads of Abilene, Caldwell, Dodge City, Ellsworth and Wichita had a total of 45 homicides, or an average of three per year - a lower homicide rate than New York City, Baltimore and Boston.
• Sixteen of the 45 homicides were committed by duly authorized peace officers, and only two towns " Ellsworth in 1873 and Dodge City in 1876 " ever had as many as five killings in any one year.
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With a few legendary exceptions, law enforcement officers in the Old West were
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"There was not much ordinary crime in the Old West, primarily because almost everybody was armed." |
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rather ineffective. Still, there were few robberies, thefts or burglaries in western towns, primarily because almost everybody carried or possessed firearms and was willing to resist. "The citizens themselves, armed with various types of firearms and willing to kill to protect their persons or property, were evidently the most important deterrent to larcenous crime," said one author. Unlike "Gunsmoke's" Matt Dillon, the much-heralded western peace officer actually faced fewer problems than his counterpart elsewhere. The westerner, said one student of the era, "probably enjoyed greater security in both person and property than did his contemporary in the urban centers of the East." "It's a fairly recent idea that guns aren't a good thing," says Jon Weiner, a professor of history at the University of California. "The image of the lone man defending his homestead . . . is deeply embedded in the American psyche."
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