Actually a minority of people in the Wild West were armed but the potential that any given intended victim might be armed was a great deterrent. Same thing happens in CCW states today. If all newspapers would print all the bad-guy-gets shot news items from around the country every day, there would be further decrease in violent crimes.
Well, I guess that just makes my comment that the media's portrayal of the old west that much more valid. Would you put the numbers pretty close to the numbers in CCW states now?