and collected upon departure. 12 This is not to say that there was a connection between cowboys and guns on the frontier. Historian John Jennings, a specialist in the American and Canadian frontiers has classed guns as “essential working tools for the American cowboy”. 13 However, this is in reference to their official occupation as a cattle handler, not in reference to their mythical occupation as a protector of American morals. Despite the wealth of evidence exposing the popular narrative of the cowboy as mythological, it still remains the dominant narrative. As a result, the representation of the gun in this mythical narrative is still of great importance. It is through this representation that Americans continue to understand their own connection to the gun. The perception is that throughout American history there has existed a legendary figure who implements American values through his use of the gun. This originated with the Revolutionary War, where this was truthfully the case. This idea was then transplanted into the distinctly Western cowboy narrative. Where although there is still some evidence to support the idea, the connection between the gun and American values became largely symbolic. In the case of the cowboy narrative, the connection between the gun and American values was solidified by a range of media outlets, partaking in what author Erik Larson has described as “calculated myth-making”. 14 This began with dime novels and entertaining recreations of the frontier such as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Buck Taylor was a member of Bill’s Wild West referred to as ‘King of the Cowboys’. 15 Taylor was a genuine cowboy from Texas, whose reputation was boosted through Bill’s Wild West and a series of dime novels centred around him. By the 1920s, Hollywood had become the key factor in the proliferation of the cowboy narrative, and as a result the popular representation of the gun. Between 1950 and 1961, Hollywood created 1200 films about the past, half of these taking place between 1886 and 1890. 16 The typical representation of the gun in Westerns during this time is evident in Shane (1953). The title character describes the gun as a tool, “as good or bad as the man using it”. 17 David T Courtwright raises an interesting argument that the chronological imbalance created a stronger association between Americans and this period of their history than any other. 18 The figures and argument provided by Courtwright go a long way to supporting the argument of historian John Jennings. Jennings argues that 12 Briggs, p. 6. 13 John Jennings, The Cowboy Legend: Owen Whister’s Virginian and the Canadian-American Ranching Frontier (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2015), p. 8. 14 Erik Larson, Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun (New York: Vintage Book, 1995), p. 38. 15 Marshall Trimble, Buck Taylor: The Original King of the Cowboys (2017) <https://truewestmagazine.com/buck-taylor-original-king-cowboys/> [accessed 7 December 2020]. 16 Courtwright, p. 99. 17 Shane , dir. by George Stevens (Paramount Pictures, 1953). 18 Courtwight, p. 99.
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