Revealing Utah History: Cowboys Didn’t Actually Carry One Of These?

“Can I move? I’m better when I move.” One of my favorite scenes from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where Sundance demonstrates his skill with a pistol for a mining boss. After missing the target, he crouches down and nails it twice.  

More Hollywood Magic than How it Really Was 

Turns out, most cowboys didn’t carry a pistol and if they carried a gun, it was a rifle on their horse. Then again, many cowboys didn’t have a horse to ride except for work. Not surprisingly, movies have given us a different view of the reality of cowboy life. 

There have been many pieces written about how the west really was. Even in these explanations there is an agenda that can give you a slanted view. People always seem to relay the past through their current perspective. 

Cowboys and Guns is Somewhat Controversial 

Just like everything these days, cowboys carrying side arms has become political. Those who lean away from the 2nd Amendment have written articles about how cowboys and people in the west never carried guns. 

Those who take the other side say a man was never far from his gun in the old west. It was his protection for his family and property. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. 

The Old West Wasn’t as Wild as We Think 

Much of the west was settled by people seeking to own some land and maybe a place to live their religion unmolested. There were occasional conflicts, but for the most part, people just wanted to build a life and tried to avoid confrontation. 

Cowboys were generally a peaceful lot who avoided conflict. They kept a rifle for hunting or protecting their animals rather than a pistol on their hip to gun down opponents. They were as often as not family men who spent time raising kids as much as livestock. 

Read More: Tiny Town In Utah Where Woolley Mammoth Was Discovered

If you want the rowdier types in the old west, it was in the mining towns that flared up for a brief time. Here the quick money and high turnover caused the kind of conflict that could make a good movie.