Old west gun safety

[Tommygunn]

Does anyone believe that people today are that much different than in the 19th century?
People in 1885 knew that if they kept a Colt Peacemaker, they should load only 5 rounds in .... but some loaded 6.

Look at how people drive today. They know there are speed limits, rules of right-of-way, stop on the red light and marked intersections.
But still many ignore these rules. Some wind up with expensive repair jobs. Others without their cars, others injured, and too many dead.

We're the same people today we were in 1885.....and 1803....and 1755 ....and Waaaaaaaaay back then.

 

[ATLDave]

Gun safety has dramatically changed in the last 40-50 years. You don't have to go back as far as the "Old West." Look at photos of troops posing in WWII, Korea, or even Vietnam. You will see fingers on triggers, muzzles pointed at each other, etc.

Modern gun-safety is based upon redundant, prophylactic rules/concepts. They are intended to prevent people from even getting near the edge of the cliff of accidentally shooting themselves or others, like guard railings built several feet from the cliff's edge. That's relatively new.

 

[ATLDave]

We're the same people today we were in 1885.....and 1803....and 1755 ....and Waaaaaaaaay back then.

No. We're actually both more safety-conscious and less violent today. It's all there in the data.

 

[cheygriz]

Sometimes I wonder if perhaps we are too safety conscious.

I remember when shooting bullseye high power rifle I once asked why we loaded one round at a time in slow fire. The range officer immediately answered "SAFETY." Safety had nothing to do with it. He finally admitted that we load singly because we had always done it that way. But they continued to whine that it was done for "SAFETY!"

 

[Tommygunn]

No. We're actually both more safety-conscious and less violent today. It's all there in the data.

Believe it if you choose. I don't think we really know enough about the statistics of accidents back in the 19th century to really know, or find out if we even really wanted to.

As far as violence .... did we have antifa, skinheads, neo-Nazis in 1880? Yea, we had the Civil War, and Plains Indians Wars. But we had two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the War on Terror more recently.

New York City in the 1960s- 1990s was far more violent than Dodge City at its most violent.

 

[arcticap]

132-year-old Winchester rifle found propped against desert tree in Nevada

https://www.cnn.com/2015/01/15/us/nevada-century-old-rifle-park/index.html

Some modern cowboy shooters remove the lever safety from these 1873 rifles.

See here:--->>> https://www.sassnet.com/forums/index.php?/topic/213738-1873-rifle-lever-safetywhy/

 

[ATLDave]

Tommy', historians have done a lot of work over the past 20 years reconstructing things like homicide rates in medieval Europe, accidental death rates from the 17th century, etc. We've been a written-record society for quite a long time... it just takes digging.

For example, here's one chart (taken from Steven Pinker's Better Angels book, I believe) showing research on homicide levels (not war deaths) in the U.S. over time.



To be sure, New York specifically had a crazy run-up lasting from the 60's to 90's, but, overall, we are more safety-conscious and less violent than our great, great, grandparents were.

 

[cheygriz]

I am still convinced that whether we're discussing firearms, boating, workplace or anything else, the ONLY REAL safety is between your ears. That was true in the day of Moses and it will be true on intergalactic Starships.

 

[Slamfire]

Some of are old enough to remember that cars didn't have seat belts, or crumple zones. Steering wheels were hard, edges on dash boards were sharp with protruding knobs. We rode in the back of open pickup trucks (often standing up looking over the roof), babies were carried on laps, etc.

In other words, we did things that are unthinkable today.

What will the future think of the present day practice of talking, texting, surfing the web on a smartphone while driving? Drivers are so addicted to the things, when they pull up to a traffic light, drivers reach for the smartphone and check the screen. Sometimes they are tapping away well after the light has turned green, and I can see, they are tapping away as they are moving. I consider this dangerous as heck, and these characters weave around oblivious to the traffic conditions around them. The future will consider obvious that distracted driving is dangerous. Today's society tolerates it. And, I believe it will be a primary reason for automated vehicles, because you can't get the crack berry addicts off their electronic devices. Hence, technology has to advance to driver less cars. It will be obvious in the future, but present day society ignores the mass slaughter on the highways and thinks nothing of it.

 

[44 Dave]

We live in "the entitlement mind set" where ones safety is other peoples responsibility. I have worked in pre-OSHA mills with exposed line shafting, saw blades and open gears. It was the workers responsibility not to get hurt.
I am sue that often cartridge revolvers were carried on an empty chamber and rifles un-chambered but in time of certain danger loaded to the max. I don't even trust a semi auto with a chambered round.

 

[expat_alaska]

I don't even trust a semi auto with a chambered round.

Off topic and I'll keep it very short. I keep my 1911 .45 cocked and locked with a round in the chamber for HD and SD, and CC in and around the property. It has 2 safeties. No kids or grandkids around. If one knows the gun, all is well.

Done here.

Jim

 

[cheygriz]

I will carry a DA or striker weapon loaded chamber, but not a SA.

 

[Tommygunn]

Tommy', historians have done a lot of work over the past 20 years reconstructing things like homicide rates in medieval Europe, accidental death rates from the 17th century, etc. We've been a written-record society for quite a long time... it just takes digging.

For example, here's one chart (taken from Steven Pinker's Better Angels book, I believe) showing research on homicide levels (not war deaths) in the U.S. over time.

..........

To be sure, New York specifically had a crazy run-up lasting from the 60's to 90's, but, overall, we are more safety-conscious and less violent than our great, great, grandparents were.

All still best-guess. NO ONE was keeping good records back then. We are now; but trying to piece together accident stats from America in 1874 when records were often sparse, people were still moving west and relatively isolated is NOTHING like it is today, with the Internet and vast computer records, insurance companies compiling zillions of accident stats and the F. B. I. collecting and studying crime stats nationwide through computer tech.

We may be ...."less violent".... I tend to doubt it. We certainly have the same potential for violence we did; we're still basically upper paleolithic hunter-gatherers driven by the same instincts that motivated Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble.

I suggest all the safety labels the lawyers insist be pasted on everything actually shows with regards to be safety conscious, we're not really very different, we just have more laws and more lawyers.

As gun owners, I also think WE are usually more safety conscious than non gun people.

 

[44 Dave]

Off topic and I'll keep it very short. I keep my 1911 .45 cocked and locked with a round in the chamber for HD and SD, and CC in and around the property. It has 2 safeties. No kids or grandkids around. If one knows the gun, all is well.

Done here.

Jim

I carry my "cap guns" loaded 6, hammer lowered between chambers but not my cartridge SAs.

 

[ThomasT]

Slamfire beat me to it in post #34. But if people are stupid enough to text, talk, read the newspaper or a book( I have seen both) while driving then people were dumb enough or just didn't know better than to carry a single action with all chambers loaded. And who hasn't seen a drunk driver weaving down the road or saw a huge wreck on the news because of a drunk driver? There are no time lines on stupidity or poor decisions. They go all the way back through human history.

So did they carry 5 or 6 rounds? I am guessing they did carry 6 and did it all the time.

 

[Kookla]

People are the same as they've ever been. We do have much, much better access to information these days.

 

[forward observer]

One should always heed these wise words from the late great comedian--George Carlin:

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are stupider than that."

If this were not true then, then electric hair dryers would not actually have to have these warnings printed right on the box
stating:

1. Do not operate in the shower or bath tub!
2. Do not use while sleeping

Cheers

 

[John Joseph]

People are the same as they've ever been. We do have much, much better access to stupid information these days.

Fixed it for you!