Did cowboys open carry?

[sonofeugene]

Not so very long ago (in the greater sac area) my pop's buddy used to ride his bike to school in Folsom, across the handlebars rode a long gun for that day's hunt........ Simple, an American boy hunting the fields after school. How the times have changed!

I more or less did the same thing. I'd claimed my father's bolt action 22 as my own and when I wanted a scope installed, I just slung it on my shoulder, hopped on my bicycle, and rode the 4 or 5 miles to the local gunsmith. That was about 1966 in Mountain View.

Yes, time's have changed.

[k1dude]

I remember walking down the neighborhood streets with our BB guns and later, our 22's in the 60's and 70's. All the kids did. We would walk from our houses to the countryside to shoot. No one thought anything about it. We would even get occasionally stopped by a housewife or husband to quickly dispatch a varmint in their yard.

[eraser7278]

I recall hearing, but can not verrify, that even in the cow towns that instituted a no carry ordinance it was widely understood by the "townies" the policy didn't apply to them... just those rowdy Cowboys and other undesirables (indians, mexicans, Chinese, Irish catholics...). Also if I recollect propperly, the enactment of those laws was about the same time shoulder holsters showed up in the sears/Montgomery ward catalogs... to be used only by the "right" people that silly law didn't really apply to

[AKSOG]

They did what ever they wanted to patna

[wpage]

Yes Dorothy this is not Kansas,,,

Here in the land of Oz things have certainly changed!

[stix213]

The main argument I hear against open carry is someone will take your gun..

Since its basically unheard of in modern times anyone know if "cowboys" or our "ancestors" used to have their guns taken from them? Were they worried about this issue as well???

Any accounts of people having their guns taken from them?

The main argument I heard was if we keep open carrying in and around the city and suburban coffee shops we'll frighten enough soccer moms and open carry will end up banned..........

Were they right?

[Zayne85]

Umm, open carry is only unheard of a small group of states.


This is from late 2014.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-NB-1715

WOW I had NO IDEA open carry was legal in that many states... Such a shame Cal gun laws are terrible. Might be moving within the next few years, next decade for sure.

[eraser7278]

The main argument I heard was if we keep open carrying in and around the city and suburban coffee shops we'll frighten enough soccer moms and open carry will end up banned..........

Were they right?

wasn't that the idea though, get the morons in sacramento to ban open & unloaded carry so in the courts we would have been stripped of ALL carry options? could have sworn there was some decision pre open carry ban saying that because you could open/unloaded carry it wasn't a total ban so rights were not infringed.

[PyroFox79]

The main argument I heard was if we keep open carrying in and around the city and suburban coffee shops we'll frighten enough soccer moms and open carry will end up banned..........

Were they right?

It also had to do with said open carriers being complete douche canoes to everyone they came in contact with.

[Pardini]

This is about the dumbest argument I've ever heard, and ALL anti's are mouth-breathing, sub-40 IQ, troglodytes.

If you'd STARTED to reach for a man's gun - WHILE it was on him - you'd of been dead before you ever touched it. People weren't into 'niceties' 130 years ago, & they SURE as shiite didn't cotton to hysterical, numbtarded, ideas like, 'gun control.'

Somebodys been watching too many Hollywood Westerns.

[elx144]

The whores couldn't have guns, but still had them, concealed. But now days if we allowed everyone to carry a gun it would be like the wild west. Then again, during the wild west times they weren't allowed to have guns in town. However, when you finished your work you could go in to town, turn in your gun, and get drunk with a whore. Comparing a different time to the time we live in is a skewed comparison. As is comparing a different country to the country we live in.

[Cheezle56]

Do Cowboys open carry?.........................................
Does a bear **** in the woods?
Does a fish **** in the water?

[slamfire1]

I just spent 20 minutes trying to find a collection of vintage Cowboy pictures that I remember viewing within the last ten years. Can't find them. It is my recollection the Cowboy pictures were from the 1910's to the 1920's. They were taken by a working Cowboy of other working Cowboys.

I remember how lean they all were and how few guns were visible. Most of the working Cowboys were not wearing a pistol. There were a few pictures, I remember law men, who were wearing revolvers, but gun toting Cowboys were the exception. The rigs I saw were the typical Mexican loop holster, so it would be "open carry".

Guns were always expensive and Cowboys were not paid much. Just read up on that part, herding cattle was not the road to riches. This was an era where people went hungry, even if they had a job. Once the Indian threat was gone, sure there were Cowboy's who open carried handguns, but if the Cowboy planned to do any hunting, a rifle would be first choice.

Hollywood would have us believe that every Cowboy was armed to the teeth and looking for a fight. Guns were expensive and people who got into gunfights did not live long.

[huntercf]

Yes, and they still do.

[geoint]

I just spent 20 minutes trying to find a collection of vintage Cowboy pictures that I remember viewing within the last ten years. Can't find them. It is my recollection the Cowboy pictures were from the 1910's to the 1920's. They were taken by a working Cowboy of other working Cowboys.

I remember how lean they all were and how few guns were visible. Most of the working Cowboys were not wearing a pistol. There were a few pictures, I remember law men, who were wearing revolvers, but gun toting Cowboys were the exception. The rigs I saw were the typical Mexican loop holster, so it would be "open carry".

Guns were always expensive and Cowboys were not paid much. Just read up on that part, herding cattle was not the road to riches. This was an era where people went hungry, even if they had a job. Once the Indian threat was gone, sure there were Cowboy's who open carried handguns, but if the Cowboy planned to do any hunting, a rifle would be first choice.

Hollywood would have us believe that every Cowboy was armed to the teeth and looking for a fight. Guns were expensive and people who got into gunfights did not live long.

1910-1920 wasn't exactly the golden age of cowboys either.


But youre right, once the wild west lost the "wild" part, people didn't have to live like the indians or cutthroats might be just over the next hill.


Look at Alaska for modern day wild lands and people where people have to live accordingly (look up Alaska crime stats, they blow most peoples minds)