Amusing tidbits like this are why I study History. A conflict between an association of large cattle ranchers and smaller ranchers went on for three days when the former tried to lead an expedition to quash the latter group, but were eventually besieged.

They shot at each other for THREE DAYS without anyone managing to hit each other. There was, however, one death from the shootout. One of the invading company shot himself in the groin and later died. You simply love to see it.

It's just hilarious seeing these romantic myths of lone gunmen dueling in empty streets completely dismantled.

Interpersonal violence did happen, but was mostly restricted to mining camps and seasonally in cattle towns, which was largely controlled by taking guns off the drunk men. Most of the violence was racialised and between social groups, which these mythic narratives obscure.

There's one horrific story of white scalp hunters (think blood meridian) keeping a native American child alive after massacring their community as a servant because he has 6 toes. Eventually he found a shotgun and blew the masters' brains out. He had nowhere to run, and was hung.

There's this narrative I've seen in some historical circles that there was no genocide in the expansion era, and that most of the native population was destroyed by force or disease in the earlier colonial period. It's just blatantly untrue and kind of disgusting to see it erased

So the point of this thread: behind amusing yeehawin' gun totin' sharp shootin' wild west stories are obscured stories of collective violence against minority populations.