VIEWSrnTreat Them to a Good Dose of Leadrnby Roger D. McGrathrnWhile working my way through traffic snarls on the freewaysrnof Los Angeles I listened intently to a radio talkrnshow, when a caller urged that all citizens should go aboutrnarmed, the program host exclaimed, “My God, that would bernlike the Old West. We can’t go back to that.” The host obviouslyrnthought that by invoking the image of the Old West hernhad made a damning argument against gun-toting. It was thernumpteenth time I had heard such a response to a proponent ofrnan armed citizenry. Yet the facts of frontier life suggest that thernOld West had far less crime and far fewer innocent victimsrnthan America has today, and that the young, the old, and thernfemale—those most vulnerable—were far safer in the mostrnwild and woolly frontier towns than they are in any Americanrncity today. We could do worse than return to the standards andrnvalues of the Old West.rnTwo frontier towns with widespread reputations for violencernwere the mining camps of Aurora, Nevada, and Bodie, California.rnIn their heydays, 1861-1865 for Aurora and 1878-1882rnfor Bodie, they each boasted populations that exceeded 5,000,rnwere alive 24 hours a day, contained dozens of saloons andrnbrothels, and produced gold and silver bullion worth a billionrnin today’s dollars. The economies were boom and bust, withrnnew veins being discovered and old ones being pinched out.rnThe populations were transient, half were foreign born, andrnmen outnumbered women ten to one. The people were adventurous,rnentrepreneurial, brave, young, unmarried, intemperate,rnand armed. A few had struck it rich, but most had not.rnRoger D. McGrath is a professor of history at the University ofrnCalifornia, Los Angeles, and the author, among other works,rnofGunhghters, Highwaymen & Vigilantes (J 984).rnAll the ingredients were there for an epidemic of crime, butrnnone occurred. An examination of robbery, burglary, theft,rnrape, and homicide in Aurora and Bodie reveals not how far wernhave come but how far we have sunk.rnWhile robbery occurs with alarming frequency in Americanrncities today, only rarely was a resident of Aurora or Bodiernrobbed. During the boom years there were fewer than 20 robberiesrnof individual citizens in the towns. The stagecoach wasrntargeted more often, suffering a couple dozen robberies. Whenrnhighwaymen stopped a stage, they nearly always took only thernexpress box and left the passengers untouched. Passengers frequentlyrnremarked that they had been treated courteously byrnroad agents. Only twice were passengers robbed. In the first instance,rnthe highwaymen later apologized for their conduct; inrnthe second, the robbers were drunk. Highwaymen understoodrnthat they could take the express box and not arouse the generalrnpopulace, but if they insulted or robbed passengers theyrnwould precipitate a vigilante reaction.rnIf the passengers were not the target of highwaymen, neitherrnwere stagecoaches carrying the great bullion shipments. Withrnshipments worth millions in today’s dollars, they would seemrninviting targets. Yet not one was ever attacked. Unlike the regularrnstages, the bullion coaches were guarded by two, and oftenrnthree or four, rifle- and shotgun-wielding marksmen. Roadrnagents preferred to prey on the unguarded coaches, take whateverrnwas in the express box, and escape with their health intact.rnOnly once did highwaymen and guards exchange gunfire, andrnon that occasion the road agents had not expected to encounterrnany guards. The miscalculation cost one of the highwaymenrnhis life. For similar reasons none of the several banksrnthat operated in Aurora or Bodie ever experienced a robbery.rn16/CHRONICLESrnrnrn