Gunfighters of the American West

The American Wild West was often unruly and chaotic; with no lawmen to keep the peace or even rules for a code of living for decent folk; most of whom were trying to find and build a better life for themselves in unchartered on the plains and beyond, to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Homesteaders, gold prospectors, miners, hunters, trappers, ranchers, and of course, criminals; all joined the march West into the new territories. Among the criminal faction were the murderers, the wanted, the escapees, deserters, gamblers and gunslingers. The gunslingers could be protecting cattle for a cattle baron one day and robbing a bank on the next. They were hired as lawmen and be robbing trains and stagecoaches on their day off. However, not all gunslingers were criminals, with many being listed in history as the good guys. Gunslingers were portrayed by Hollywood as the bad men with low-slung guns and black hats, an evil eye and a mustache who usually ended up on a mortician's slab, but in reality, it was not like that at all; at least for some. Gunslingers during the period of the Wild West were not even called that. They did not wear low-slung guns in holsters, although most did favour the handgun, but carried a rifle, preferably a shotgun. There were a few, mainly theatrical people, that made public exhibitions of their skills with fancy shooting or one-to-one face-offs; but the criminal gunslinger moved in, made his kill and moved on!