Posted on 09/22/2022 5:45:01 AM PDT by marktwain
A version of the above image was published in the April 19, 1884 issue of the National Police Gazzette. The publisher was located at Franklin Square and Dover Street, New York. The location is in Manhattan, New York City.
The probably earlier version, shown above, is found in The Remington Historical Treasury of American Guns, published in 1966, taken from the New York Public Library Picture Collection.
Harper’s publishing house is shown at the Franklin Square location in this map from January of 1885. In 1884, cable car lines were just starting to be considered in New York City, and electric trolleys were not yet in use. The street car in the image was almost certainly a horse-drawn street car, which existed in New York City until 1917.
The relevance of the image is pistols were commonly carried in New York City for self-defense in close proximity to the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. Only six passengers are shown seated in the street car. Of those, four are not obscured by other people. All four of the unobscured passengers are shown as carrying pistols or revolvers in the illustration.
Public transportation was not considered to be a “sensitive location” where arms were not permitted.
The street car image was likely created before 1884; even so, 1884 is only 14 years after the Fourteenth Amendment was passed. There was no controversy. One of the major purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment was to ensure everyone in the USA had an enforceable right to keep and bear arms. One of the co-sponsors of the amendment pontificated on exactly that purpose.
Spur trigger guns were not uncommon, but they are all single action. So you only need to worry about sitting across from Alec Baldwin.
He has been a freeper for 20 years.
“Looks to me like the guy with money in hand is propositioning the young woman. “
He’s holding a writing pad and pen.
As I recall, Big Mike Robinson said that about his husband Barry.
Want to add that the map is a Sanborn fire insurance map.
https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/?fa=subject:insurance+maps&st=gallery
Different colors indicate building material, i.e., brick, wood, adobe, etc.
O K Corral in this image: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4334tm.g001791904/?sp=4&st=image&r=0.343,0.831,0.577,0.366,0
With all due respect, this image is an illustration rather than a photograph, and might have been drawn with all those guns to make some sort of point rather than because that was actually the reality of the day. I’m not sure how heavily it weighs on the question of how common carry was back in the day.
He was more concerned with meeting his deadline and getting paid.
Everyone carried guns on the train in The Wild Wild West movie/TV show which was depicted in 1869, does that count? :)
If they are single action revolvers, then you cannot fire them until you pull back on the hammer. In which case, they are all pretty safe.
What was the NYC murder rate in 1884?
I grew up in a medium-size city in upstate NY, in the mid-1960s.
My parents wanted me to learn to swim, so they sent me to swimming lessons at the YMCA, which was located right in the center of downtown, almost across from the main library.
So three times a week I would board a city bus, pay thirty-five cents, and be trundled downtown to swim at the "Y".
Pretty much every time I went, there would be three or four boys in the back of the bus with rifles. I assume they were .22s, but I'm not sure.
The reason? They were going to the "Y" too, because the "Y" had a shooting range in the basement. It was a long room that extended completely across (and under) the street in front of the building. They were going to practice their shooting, and perhaps to take shooting lessons.
There was a young man who was a big-time gun enthusiast who was closely associated with the "Y" at that time. He was nerdy, and studious. I'm sure he was studying engineering, because on the occasions when I went to check out the shooting range (which any kid was perfectly free to do, as long as you stayed behind a red line on the floor), I noticed that he had his calculus homework on his little desk behind the firing line. This would be when he was up, showing someone how to clear his gun, or how to hold his gun, etc. He wore heavy glasses, and when I see the logo of the "X For Dummies" books I always think of him. He kind of looked like the guy in that logo.
Anyway, the boys on the bus carried their rifles out in the open usually, aiming them at the ceiling as they rode in the wide rear seat. Some had cases, but most carried them out for anyone to see.
I was in third and fourth grade at the time, and the boys were definitely "boys," not much older than I. Perhaps in junior high school, maybe high school.
I'm almost certain there were no girls permitted in the "Y" at that time.
Well put. I’d add that the Police Gazette tended to place sensationalism above factual accuracy.
Although I am a ccw holder and pack a big ole .45 most everywhere I go as well as openly carry here on my farm that picture scares me silly . Every one is pointing that firearm at others with absolutely no safety precautions at all . My dad would have slapped them all and proceeded to give them a safety briefing . Our home had cops coming and going daily and that carelessness would have been soundly rebuked .
I'd love to find them.
Don’t forget......... Help is needed
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4095195/posts
So basically everyone was a Bernie Goetz.
They were just going about their business, free Americans behaving themselves as citizens.
Pictures were not a common as in the digital age, but there were people with cameras who took pictures. Little point and shoot cameras were popular.
It is possible, of course.
“If they are single action revolvers, then you cannot fire them until you pull back on the hammer.”
Unless your name is Alec Baldwin. Then they fire all by themselves.
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