Small Town Gun Violence

Here's an angle of thought from a place most people in America will think of as outrageous. Even in America, it's a bit much to base an areas entire existence on one thing. Be it a product or service, if everyone is beholden to it, there is an aire of complacency about that product or service. After-all, if it is everywhere, it becomes part of our lives. Fishing, Coal Mining, Logging, Firearms... In some cases, these become part of our character.

In nearly every small town in the United States, gun violence is not a worry at all. You can be assured that there are more guns on a Farm, Ranch and Country Estate than you can shake a stick at, yet the accident and murder by gun rates are very low in rural towns under 2000 residents. Even suicide rates by gun are much lower in small rural towns. Life is slower, people interact with each other more and after awhile, you've seen or heard of nearly everyone in town. Maybe it's because there is no-one anonymous to kill. The neighbor lady down the street would certainly drag you home by the ear and tell your parents if you shot up the school.

Some of the folks reading this may know that I spent a little time in Tombstone, Arizona. Tombstone is the wild-card in this peaceful small-town statistic. Tombstone is why we can only say... "almost" about small town gun violence in the United States. Tombstone actually has several notable incidents each year that help to hold these national statistics down. There were several of these types of incidents put in the books while I lived there, but one was most notable.
I wrote about it then, here is what I wrote:

"Yesterday a real nice guy, Tombstone fixture at the Birdcage Theater and I’d like to call him friend, was murdered at the hands of a fool with a gun under the pretense of unrequited love. Two lonely old men liked the same woman and the answer to the problem came with a wisp of cordite.

Not unlike my own experience of gun violence, this incident is but a blip on the American conscious but it is actually a bit more for those that can recognize true irony when they see it.

Let me tell you a little about it…

It all started in April of 1881 here in Tombstone Arizona and is entirely true.

1881 was the third year in the life of Tombstone, a silver mining town, and because of the wealth of silver, a very rowdy place. There were not only miners and their families here but also area Cowboys, thieves, drifters, gamblers, no-accounts and killers. Just three years in, the town was rife with violence and mayhem in such deadly detail that the Marshal of this town took it upon himself to champion a law requiring that there be no weapons carried within the city limits. This Marshal was one Virgil Earp, older brother of Wyatt Earp and the law became known as “Earps Law.”

As a matter of fact, the “Shootout at the O.K, Corral” happened because a group of local cowboys being enemies of the Earps, refused to obey this law.

Something many don’t know is that this law was in force and in effect until 1992. For one hundred and eleven years there were no guns allowed to be carried in the open within the 4.3 square miles that is Tombstone Arizona. Although not always strictly enforced everybody was happy with that.

Fast forward to 1992. The tourist inspired carnival atmosphere that is now Tombstone holds several licensed “Shootout Gun Shows” using real guns shooting blanks. There are horses pulling Stage Coaches through town for the tourists but of course automobiles are the norm in 1992 and seldom is seen an actual horse bearing a rider. Of course horses and their riders are welcome and encouraged to help with the old West atmosphere of the town and occasionally a group would ride through. Here’s where the twist comes.

A group of these riders from outside the city limits including a loudmouth local Bounty Hunter liked to come through in full blown Old West gear. This full gear included side arms and saddle guns. This seems reasonable but being unlicensed they were breaking the one law that is itself historical and steeped in the true history of the town. Certain folks and the local law pointed this situation out and the group although welcomed was asked to not bring their guns. Thinking that their right to carry a gun anywhere they wanted overshadowed Tombstones history, these people created a stink and soon the NRA was involved.

Long story short, part of Tombstones heritage and the very law that made Tombstone famous was overturned and free gun glorification began. The law that gave Tombstone its livelihood and gave people here a small sense of security was thrown under the stage.

Since then no-one here cares to remember “Earps Law” and it seems that nearly everyone in town with small shoes or anger issues has a gun on their hip. I’m not talking about licensed guns with blanks either. I’m talking Glock, S&W, and even old style single action .45’s loaded and “ready” for anything the imagination can dream up. Unfortunately as a whole, the people that carry these guns have been trained via the riddled can method.

There are mock gunfights in town 3 or 4 times a day and even the street hawkers are packing iron giving the impression to tourists that Tombstone has always been a gun toting shoot em’ up town. Apparently the town now depicts through its theater the three years of insolence before Earps Law even though the mock O.K. Corral shootout happens 2-3 times a day at the gun toting hawkers call. 
A true contradiction in history if you know better.

So now just yesterday a bad man packing a gun killed a good man with no gun at all, and it isn't the first time since 1992 that gun violence has occurred within the city limits. Gun violence from both locals and western fervor incited tourists happens quite often here in Tombstone. I hate to say it but it is truly a jagged little pill to swallow, and unlike the song I'm referencing here, truly ironic when consumed with the actual history of Tombstone.

What’s more disturbing to me about this atmosphere and the people that perpetuate it, is that as I was passing one of these gun toting hawkers on the street just two hours after the killing, she was talking to a UPS driver about the incident. I happened to overhear her infer that it was the victims fault for not having a gun at the ready.

What? Did I hear you right? I asked her. 
When she answered the same short-sighted drone, I tore into her and gave her a loud and embarrassing tongue lashing in public.

Folks, It is not an Americans fault for being killed by a gun because they don’t wear a gun. If you feel that you need a gun at every turn you have a sad life. No life at all is better than spending your days on earth clutching a gun in fear. By this failed logic everyone in America should wear a gun because they are paranoid of what another American will do to them. That’s not the America of our forefathers and certainly has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. 

Does anyone else see the comparisons to be made? The lack of respect for humanity and the Americans around them? The lack of Patriotism? YES, lack of Patriotism.

We are all Americans here and supposedly on the same team.

It was a famous American black man that once said “Can’t we all just get along?”

Not while half of us are packing heat we can’t. Don't get me wrong, guns are fine and have a time and place. A guns place is not out in the open on your hip as a daily affront to the Americans around you.

Get training, glean knowledge and respect for others if you want to use guns.

Now back to what was mentioned in the first paragraph...
We as humans inundate ourselves with our favorite things, an embarrassment of riches in many ways. Things attach to the human psyche by repetition of thought, sight, sound, etc. When one of these things are firearms and they are everywhere within our sight and thought, the results are not good. Tombstone, Arizona and the statistics it holds down is proof of this theory. No other small town in the country has as much gun violence as Tombstone. It lives up to its name in many ways.

By-the-way, actual certified gun training teaches you to think of others and to keep your gun invisible in public. 

Open carry is for fools.

LL/ Mac/