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.
Now, follow me on Kindle.
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Common Sense 