Gunfight at the OK Corral

How many of us have watched an old western movie only to see the typical scene where a bar room fight starts , either over a poker game or a woman and someone immediately  runs to get the Marshall?


As a consequence, chairs would be flying through the room, glasses were breaking against the mirror behind the bar and many whiskey bottles would be broken over the bad guys heads. Meanwhile, In comes the sheriff to save the day.

A fist fight ensues and eventually the mayhem spills out into the street , with horses and buggies full of women and children scurrying to flee the flying bullets.  Soon the Marshall and the outlaw face off , standing not 20 feet from one another, each daring the other to draw first.

Because the sheriff is always noble and just , the bad guy  draws first, but to his dismay and early demise, the sheriff

House of Ill Repute Jerome        wins, his aim is accurate and true. The outlaw slowly

 collapses in front of the towns people , the sheriff becomes a local legend and everyone retreats back to the Long Branch for another drink and to reminisce about the evening’s entertainment.


Why did the good guy always win? Surely the sheriff wasn’t always the fastest gun or the most accurate, there had to be a reason for this. What could it be? We have all watched these movies and no one has ever questioned it  before. We were all to happy to see the sheriff as our hero ,so he had to be the fastest and most accurate, besides that, he wore a white hat.

The way I see it, there is some truth in all of this, but the real reason is  simple. You see, the outlaw had spent the entire evening in the saloon, he was drunk. He couldn't hit the broad side of a red barn. He was seeing at least two people, so he never knew which person to aim at. Further more, by being inebriated his reactions were slower than Gomer Pyle walking through molasses in January, by the time he found his gun and tried to draw, the sheriff had fired off several rounds, and chances are at least one of them found it’s mark..

The moral of the story is : if you are going to be in a gunfight, don’t drink. Even in the fantasy land of television, there are lessons to be learned.

“Accuracy is more important than speed.” Wyatt Earp.

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