The Wild West Had Stricter Gun Laws Than America Today

The Wild West is remembered as a land of gunslingers, saloons, and shootouts - but the real frontier was a lot stranger than the movies told us. In towns like Dodge City and Tombstone, cowboys were often forced to hand over their guns before entering the business district. Some of the wildest towns in the American West had strict ordinances against carrying firearms inside city limits. And the most famous gunfight in Western history, the shootout near the O.K. Corral, began because several men refused to obey one of those gun laws. This video follows the real story behind gun control in the Old West - from Dodge City’s firearm bans and Tombstone’s Ordinance Number Nine, to Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, the Clantons, the McLaurys, and the violent thirty seconds that became one of America’s most famous legends. The Wild West was dangerous, but not in the way Hollywood sold it. The truth was more practical, more commercial, and in many ways, more familiar than most people expect. If you enjoyed this story, subscribe for more gripping history every week. Leave a comment - did the real Wild West surprise you? #WildWest #OldWest #GunLaws #DodgeCity #Tombstone #OKCorral #WyattEarp #VirgilEarp #DocHolliday #AmericanHistory #WesternHistory #Cowboys #WildWestHistory #HistoryDocumentary #HistoryYouTube 00:00 Intro 01:05 The Wild West Myth Hollywood Sold Us 02:18 Dodge City And The Gun Check Rule 03:36 Tombstone’s Ordinance Number Nine 04:42 Why Western Towns Banned Guns 06:08 The Business Logic Behind Disarming Cowboys 07:15 Tombstone Before The O.K. Corral 08:27 Virgil Earp Moves To Enforce The Law 09:31 The Thirty Second Gunfight 10:42 What The Movies Leave Out 11:36 Other Wild West Towns With Gun Laws 12:29 How Violent Was The Real Frontier? 13:13 Dime Novels, Hollywood, And The Myth 14:02 The Real Wild West