Out here in very rural northwest Illinois, all of my neighbors are armed to the teeth and no one can remember a shooting incident harming anyone other than coyotes and deer. Those animals are not armed. One group are predators and the other (the deer) are tasty.
Whether here or in Chicago, when seconds count, the police will be there in minutes to document but not prevent the carnage. As it was 150 years ago, we trust in government for protection in vain.
BTW, the reputation for violence of the American Old West is greatly exaggerated by Hollywood. Whatever violence afflicted early modern Europe, the disarming of the European public and the emasculation of its men gave us Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, et al. The death toll rose dramatically and not just among the equivalent of our gangbangers. Artists, musicians, teachers, small business people, children, old folks and just plain innocent people were victimized.
In our country, before it is too late, we could use a man (or many of them) like Stonewall Jackson (or Enrique Gorostieta) again. It would also be nice if a code of honor like Japanese Bushido might spread among our upper middle class.
Finally, while William Quantrill, Bill Anderson, Jesse, Frank and Cole roamed the lower Midwest, they targeted those worth targeting on behalf of an otherwise helpless public. You may not care for their politics but their neighbors in the Ozarks did. If you want to bring up the massacre of the abolitionist men in Kansas, then simultaneously you should defend John Brown and his slaughter by machete of Southerners living in Kansas.
It was Illinois which produced Wild Bill Hickok and the Earp brothers among others. Some Earp family members attended my very traditional Catholic Church before shaking Illinois off their boots and moving to Idaho.
I agree the rep for violence of the West is overstated. I am always particularly amused by the trope of the townsfolk cowering in fear of two or three gunthugs. Probably a majority of the men running around the Old West had fought in the WBTS, and I find it hysterical that men who held the line a Antietam or Gettysburg hide in terror from a few bad guys.
The more common scenario when somebody tried it was Northfield, MN or Coffeyville, KS.
The 20th century was more violent in total killings than probably any previous, but it’s way back in the pack as a percentage of the population killed. For instance in the 30 Year’s War of the 20th, WWI and WWII, Germany lost somehwhere around 15% of its population. Roughly 12M.
In the original and still champion 30 Years War, they lost 25% to 35%.
Believe it or not, civilians died at much higher rates during the old time wars than in those of the 20th century.