Wyatt Earp Gun Grabber?

[ElvenSoul]

How far back does this Law Enforcement Gun Grabbing Go?

No guns in town! You must surrender your guns!

Did it stop any violence back then?

[Rock6.3]

Those who forget history are destined to repeat it.


April 19, 1775 British troops attempted to disarm Concord by seizing its supply of black powder.

At Lexington and Concord, forcible disarmament had not worked out for the British. So back in Boston, Gage set out to disarm the Bostonians a different way.

On April 23, 1775, Gage offered the Bostonians the opportunity to leave town if they surrendered their arms. The Boston Selectmen voted to accept the offer, and within days, 2,674 guns were deposited, one gun for every two adult male Bostonians.

Gage thought that many Bostonians still had guns, and he refused to allow the Bostonians to leave. Indeed, a large proportion of the surrendered guns were “training arms”—large muskets with bayonets, that would be difficult to hide. After several months, food shortages in Boston convinced Gage to allow easier emigration from the city.

Gage’s disarmament program incited other Americans to take up arms. Benjamin Franklin, returning to Philadelphia after an unsuccessful diplomatic trip to London, “was highly pleased to find the Americans arming and preparing for the worst events.”

The government in London dispatched more troops and three more generals to America: William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne. The generals arrived on May 25, 1775, with orders from Lord Dartmouth to seize all arms in public armories, or which had been “secretly collected together for the purpose of aiding Rebellions.”

The war underway, the Americans captured Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York. At the June 17 Battle of Bunker Hill, the militia held its ground against the British regulars and inflicted heavy casualties, until they ran out of gunpowder and were finally driven back. (Had Gage not confiscated the gunpowder from the Charleston Powder House the previous September, the Battle of Bunker Hill probably would have resulted in an outright defeat of the British.)

On June 19, Gage renewed his demand that the Bostonians surrender their arms, and he declared that anyone found in possession of arms would be deemed guilty of treason.

As the war went on, the British always remembered that without gun control, they could never control America. In 1777, with British victory seeming likely, Colonial Undersecretary William Knox drafted a plan entitled “What Is Fit to Be Done with America?” To ensure that there would be no future rebellions, “[t]he Militia Laws should be repealed and none suffered to be re-enacted, & the Arms of all the People should be taken away, . . . nor should any Foundery or manufactuary of Arms, Gunpowder, or Warlike Stores, be ever suffered in America, nor should any Gunpowder, Lead, Arms or Ordnance be imported into it without Licence . . . .”

Credit to the source: http://www.davekopel.org/2A/LawRev/a...n-control.html

[ElvenSoul]

Well that account sure caused violence!

[Wrangler John]

I seem to recall that Wyatt Earp was not the chief law enforcement officer in many of his jurisdictions. Wyatt worked as a policeman in Wichita, Kansas, where he was fired and eventually had to leave town. He followed elder brother Virgil Earp to Dodge City, Kansas where Virgil operated a brothel, and worked part time as a lawman, eventually being appointed marshal of Dodge City, Kansas. Otherwise Wyatt always served as a deputy. In Tombstone, AZ his brother Virgil Earp, previously a U.S. Deputy Marshal, was the acting town marshal responsible for enforcing the town ordinance prohibiting carrying of firearms. At the OK Corral gunfight, Virgil Earp was the town marshal, Morgan Earp a deputy marshal, with Wyatt Earp and Dr. John H. (Doc) Holiday both deputized citizens.

Read about Tombstone here at the University of Arizona site: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kurze/VirgilEarp.html

Read a more complete biography at: http://www.wyattearp.net/wichita.html

Fascinating history, but Wyatt Earp was more the background player until popularized by Stuart Lake's book, "Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal." The book transformed Wyatt into a popular western hero. Nonetheless, history often presents us with characters that fiction writers envy.

[blazeaglory]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[IVC]

Even then it was about controlling gangs and the "undesirables," not about guns.

[sigstroker]

I seem to recall that Wyatt Earp was not the chief law enforcement officer in many of his jurisdictions. Wyatt worked as a policeman in Wichita, Kansas, where he was fired and eventually had to leave town. He followed elder brother Virgil Earp to Dodge City, Kansas where Virgil operated a brothel, and worked part time as a lawman, eventually being appointed marshal of Dodge City, Kansas. Otherwise Wyatt always served as a deputy. In Tombstone, AZ his brother Virgil Earp, previously a U.S. Deputy Marshal, was the acting town marshal responsible for enforcing the town ordinance prohibiting carrying of firearms. At the OK Corral gunfight, Virgil Earp was the town marshal, Morgan Earp a deputy marshal, with Wyatt Earp and Dr. John H. (Doc) Holiday both deputized citizens.

Read about Tombstone here at the University of Arizona site: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kurze/VirgilEarp.html

Read a more complete biography at: http://www.wyattearp.net/wichita.html

Fascinating history, but Wyatt Earp was more the background player until popularized by Stuart Lake's book, "Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal." The book transformed Wyatt into a popular western hero. Nonetheless, history often presents us with characters that fiction writers envy.

It was funny because I lived fairly close by to Tombstone, and I used to shoot in combat matches at the range just outside town. The club would warn us that after the match, be careful not to be wearing our guns in town, because that ordinance was still in place (AZ had only open carry at the time, except in Tombstone).

[Mitch]

Fascinating history, but Wyatt Earp was more the background player until popularized by Stuart Lake's book, "Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal." The book transformed Wyatt into a popular western hero. Nonetheless, history often presents us with characters that fiction writers envy.

Yeah, for much of his career he was a pimp. Some hero.

[diverwcw]

Interesting info

I seem to recall that Wyatt Earp was not the chief law enforcement officer in many of his jurisdictions. Wyatt worked as a policeman in Wichita, Kansas, where he was fired and eventually had to leave town. He followed elder brother Virgil Earp to Dodge City, Kansas where Virgil operated a brothel, and worked part time as a lawman, eventually being appointed marshal of Dodge City, Kansas. Otherwise Wyatt always served as a deputy. In Tombstone, AZ his brother Virgil Earp, previously a U.S. Deputy Marshal, was the acting town marshal responsible for enforcing the town ordinance prohibiting carrying of firearms. At the OK Corral gunfight, Virgil Earp was the town marshal, Morgan Earp a deputy marshal, with Wyatt Earp and Dr. John H. (Doc) Holiday both deputized citizens.

Read about Tombstone here at the University of Arizona site: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kurze/VirgilEarp.html

Read a more complete biography at: http://www.wyattearp.net/wichita.html

Fascinating history, but Wyatt Earp was more the background player until popularized by Stuart Lake's book, "Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal." The book transformed Wyatt into a popular western hero. Nonetheless, history often presents us with characters that fiction writers envy.

Very interesting information. Wyatt's legend continues to this day. I am personally aware of two boys (now adults) named Wyatt specifically after Wyatt Earp.

I'm also reminded of one of the closing lines in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" where one of the characters says, "When you have a choice between the truth and legend, always go with legend."