Yes, people in the days of the wild west carried firearms.  However in many frontier towns you were simply not permitted to carry in public.  Gunfights were rare in Frontier Towns during the days of the Wild West.  They had more restrictive gun control than the laws that we have today.  Some Frontier Towns also required you to check your gun in with the Sheriff when you came to town.  


You know the famous shootout at the OK Corral?  It was the local Sheriff and Marshall trying to enforce Gun Control.  The Earp brothers were trying to disarm the Clanton gang.  


So yeah, people owned guns back in those days (mostly for protection from bandits, which were far more common than they are today).  But they certainly had gun control, and carrying in public was rarely allowed unless you were an officer of the law.


 

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