WEBVTT - Guns Part 2: Getting out of Dodge 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Pushkin. 0:00:20.396 --> 0:00:23.556 It isn't often that a writer or any man is 0:00:23.596 --> 0:00:26.676 given an opportunity to destroy a figure he's always hated, 0:00:27.476 --> 0:00:30.196 a character that all his life has cluttered his landscape 0:00:30.476 --> 0:00:34.436 like a slum. And to be able to do so and 0:00:34.516 --> 0:00:37.676 get paid for it to boot is to be doubly blessed. 0:00:38.476 --> 0:00:41.396 The co creator of the greatest television western of all 0:00:41.436 --> 0:00:43.916 time was a man named John Meston. 0:00:45.116 --> 0:00:48.916 My needed figure is the Western hero who rides along 0:00:49.276 --> 0:00:53.676 plomping his guitar, nasily singing a synthetic ballad and looking 0:00:53.716 --> 0:00:56.436 for all the world like a fugitive from a cheap circus. 0:00:57.636 --> 0:01:00.516 I spit in his milk and he llleft to go 0:01:00.556 --> 0:01:02.716 elsewhere to find somebody to pour the lead for his 0:01:02.876 --> 0:01:07.636 golden bullets. Now, the best way to destroy something bad 0:01:08.356 --> 0:01:11.516 is to write it down. Was something better, And I've 0:01:11.556 --> 0:01:14.076 got a guy I think out classes any of these 0:01:14.196 --> 0:01:15.156 phony big heads. 0:01:16.596 --> 0:01:20.676 Meston gave the world gun Smoke, which ran on CBS 0:01:20.916 --> 0:01:25.036 for an astounding twenty seasons from nineteen fifty five to 0:01:25.116 --> 0:01:28.436 nineteen seventy five, one of the most widely watched TV 0:01:28.516 --> 0:01:32.276 shows ever. When it's run finally ended, the La Times 0:01:32.316 --> 0:01:36.396 film critic referred to it as our own Iliad and Odyssey, 0:01:36.916 --> 0:01:40.396 only in the place of Odysseus and Achilles, Meston gave 0:01:40.476 --> 0:01:46.476 us Matt Dillon, lanky, laconic, impossibly brave, one of the 0:01:46.516 --> 0:01:49.996 great reluctant heroes in television history. 0:01:52.156 --> 0:01:54.956 This hair is probably red. If he's got any left. 0:01:56.596 --> 0:02:00.276 He'd be handsomer than he is if he had better manners. 0:02:00.396 --> 0:02:03.316 But life and his enemies have left him looking a 0:02:03.356 --> 0:02:07.756 little beat up. And I suppose having seen his mother 0:02:07.956 --> 0:02:11.156 back about eighteen four body struggling to take a bath 0:02:11.196 --> 0:02:14.996 in a wooden washtub with a fully undressing left his 0:02:15.076 --> 0:02:19.476 soul a little warped. Anyway, they'd have to be something 0:02:19.516 --> 0:02:21.876 wrong with him, or he wouldn't have hired on as 0:02:21.876 --> 0:02:24.396 a United States Marshal and the heyday of Dives City, 0:02:24.516 --> 0:02:29.116 Kansas Dodge at that time was the wildest town in America, 0:02:29.996 --> 0:02:32.996 and it was populated by men just as warped and 0:02:33.116 --> 0:02:34.596 more so than Matt Dillon. 0:02:36.996 --> 0:02:40.316 My name is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History, 0:02:40.516 --> 0:02:45.956 my podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood. This episode is 0:02:45.956 --> 0:02:50.356 about Westerns and the long shadow they've cast across American life. 0:02:51.236 --> 0:02:54.836 It's possible you've never thought about westerns, maybe you've never 0:02:54.916 --> 0:02:59.636 even seen one, but your parents and particularly your grandparents 0:02:59.916 --> 0:03:04.236 most certainly did. In the mid nineteen fifties, westerns took 0:03:04.356 --> 0:03:07.916 up a third of all evening television viewing time. If 0:03:07.956 --> 0:03:10.156 you lived in a major city, lake New York, you 0:03:10.196 --> 0:03:13.356 had your choice of fifty one different westerns in a 0:03:13.396 --> 0:03:17.196 given week. And what were westerns? Well, they were stories 0:03:17.196 --> 0:03:20.036 about big strong men. The heroes of the top six 0:03:20.076 --> 0:03:23.476 westerns of nineteen sixty two averaged six foot four and 0:03:23.516 --> 0:03:27.276 two hundred and ten pounds, white, big strong men. There 0:03:27.316 --> 0:03:30.316 wasn't a lot of ethnic variation in the TV Western. 0:03:30.596 --> 0:03:33.476 There weren't a lot of women or families, even though 0:03:33.596 --> 0:03:36.156 the reason all those pioneers moved to the Wild West 0:03:36.396 --> 0:03:39.636 was of course to provide a better life for their families. 0:03:40.276 --> 0:03:44.756 There wasn't a lot of moral ambiguity or introspection or 0:03:44.836 --> 0:03:49.196 shades of gray. These were action shows. But what was 0:03:49.236 --> 0:03:52.396 there a lot of There were a lot of guns. 0:03:54.796 --> 0:03:57.556 And in this installment of our series on gun violence, 0:03:57.876 --> 0:04:00.356 I want to figure out what it means that an 0:04:00.636 --> 0:04:04.516 entire generation of Americans grew up watching a world in 0:04:04.556 --> 0:04:08.116 which big strong men shot at each other. With guns 0:04:08.716 --> 0:04:11.356 in the act absence of any kind of cultural or 0:04:11.436 --> 0:04:17.516 moral or psychological ambiguity. Our case study gun Smoke, the 0:04:17.556 --> 0:04:21.556 greatest of all the TV westerns, and one episode in particular, 0:04:22.356 --> 0:04:30.316 Season one, episode eight Kites Reward. Picture a long, dusty 0:04:30.356 --> 0:04:34.036 street straight out of the Old West, downtown Dodge City, 0:04:34.396 --> 0:04:37.516 the most infamous of the cattle towns of the eighteen seventies. 0:04:38.116 --> 0:04:43.276 Long row of ramshackle wooden buildings, bars, stables, a general store, 0:04:43.556 --> 0:04:47.716 cowboys sauntering to and fro. Our hero Matt Dillon is 0:04:47.756 --> 0:04:51.116 sitting on a porch talking to his friend Chester. They 0:04:51.156 --> 0:04:55.316 spot a man, a stranger, lurking around the long Branch saloon. 0:04:55.676 --> 0:05:00.396 Then a second stranger, much younger, handsome, blonde, approaches on 0:05:00.556 --> 0:05:03.076 horseback and dismounts. 0:05:03.596 --> 0:05:03.996 Who's that. 0:05:13.236 --> 0:05:15.356 Some betrayal hand come to lose his wages? 0:05:16.236 --> 0:05:22.116 Probably The blonde man walks into a bar orders a beer. 0:05:22.436 --> 0:05:25.156 The older man, the one who had been lurking, follows 0:05:25.236 --> 0:05:28.476 him in, pulls out a sick shooter and says, in 0:05:28.476 --> 0:05:33.116 that biting tone peculiar to this era of TV villain, turn. 0:05:32.956 --> 0:05:42.636 Around, keep your hand away from that gun. I'm gonna 0:05:42.676 --> 0:05:43.396 take your gun. 0:05:44.436 --> 0:05:45.116 No, you're not. 0:05:47.476 --> 0:05:49.436 You want to die, don't matter none to me. 0:05:51.396 --> 0:05:53.796 Go ahead, all right, But. 0:05:53.796 --> 0:05:55.956 The young man is much too quick for his foe. 0:05:56.196 --> 0:05:59.156 He pulls out his revolver in what seems like a heartbeat. 0:06:00.436 --> 0:06:03.956 His pursuer lies dead on the floor just as the 0:06:04.036 --> 0:06:07.316 man of the law, Marshall Matt Dillon, comes rushing in 0:06:08.156 --> 0:06:08.756 self defense. 0:06:08.796 --> 0:06:14.556 Marshall, I want your gun. I ain't right of a 0:06:14.636 --> 0:06:18.676 self defense, pure and simple. I said, I want your gun, 0:06:24.556 --> 0:06:25.556 all right, take it. 0:06:26.476 --> 0:06:31.876 And Matt Dylan takes his gun away. Now let's pause 0:06:31.956 --> 0:06:36.836 here because this is a hugely significant moment. First thing, 0:06:37.156 --> 0:06:40.076 maybe an obvious thing, this whole scene is very American. 0:06:40.716 --> 0:06:43.036 CBS made a Western sett in Canada at around the 0:06:43.036 --> 0:06:45.756 same time. It was about a mountain named Sergeant Preston 0:06:46.156 --> 0:06:49.196 who went around saving damsels in distress with the aid 0:06:49.276 --> 0:06:54.196 of an adorable dog named King. Sergeant Preston never resorted 0:06:54.236 --> 0:06:57.716 to violence. He relied on his wit, his courage, and 0:06:57.756 --> 0:07:01.796 the assistance of his adorable dog King. How did every 0:07:01.916 --> 0:07:06.716 episode end? Sergeant Preston turns to King and says, well, King, 0:07:07.156 --> 0:07:10.716 this case is closed. I mean, how Canadian is that? 0:07:11.076 --> 0:07:14.476 It's one of my greatest regrets that during my Canadian childhood. 0:07:14.596 --> 0:07:16.956 We didn't have a television in our house, and so 0:07:16.996 --> 0:07:18.716 I never got a chance to learn of the role 0:07:19.356 --> 0:07:25.276 large fluffy dogs played in Taming the Canadian North. Oh, 0:07:25.996 --> 0:07:30.236 but gun smoke, that's a different story. Episodes of gun 0:07:30.276 --> 0:07:33.996 Smoke did not end with Matt Dillon saying good Doggie, 0:07:34.596 --> 0:07:38.876 Good dogie. Second thing, why do we care so much 0:07:39.076 --> 0:07:43.836 about gun smoke? Because, and this is important, I'm trying 0:07:43.836 --> 0:07:46.636 to solve a puzzle having to do with the twenty 0:07:46.756 --> 0:07:49.996 twenty two case of New York State Pistol and Rifle 0:07:50.036 --> 0:07:54.676 Association the Bruin the Landmark decision, where the Supreme Court 0:07:54.756 --> 0:07:58.436 ruled that a New York state law restricting handgun licenses 0:07:58.876 --> 0:08:02.956 was unconstitutional. If you listen to the first episode of 0:08:02.996 --> 0:08:05.836 this mini series, which I dearly hope you do before 0:08:05.876 --> 0:08:08.876 you listen to this one, you'll know I have strong 0:08:08.956 --> 0:08:12.876 feeling about the Court's infatuation in that case with a 0:08:12.916 --> 0:08:17.556 certain disputatious seventeenth century slave trader named Sir John Knight. 0:08:18.196 --> 0:08:22.556 But here we are concerned with a broader puzzle. It 0:08:22.636 --> 0:08:27.396 came during oral arguments. Oral arguments are a big deal. 0:08:28.036 --> 0:08:31.716 Lawyers of both sides gathered to present their arguments publicly 0:08:32.156 --> 0:08:36.956 before all the assembled justices. Arguments are tested, questions are asked, 0:08:37.196 --> 0:08:39.836 the whole thing goes on for hours. It's Daniel in 0:08:39.916 --> 0:08:43.236 the Lions, then one lawyer versus nine of the keenest 0:08:43.316 --> 0:08:49.516 legal minds in the country. So November third, twenty twenty one, 0:08:49.596 --> 0:08:52.076 the Solicitor General of the State of New York is 0:08:52.156 --> 0:08:56.036 up at the front of the palatial hearing room. Barbara Underwood, 0:08:56.596 --> 0:09:00.556 serious glasses, kindly smile, kind of looks like your grandmother, 0:09:00.796 --> 0:09:03.876 that is, if your grandmother had argued twenty two cases 0:09:03.916 --> 0:09:05.196 before the Supreme Court. 0:09:05.796 --> 0:09:10.036 Mister Chief Justice, and may have please the Court. For centuries, 0:09:10.156 --> 0:09:13.636 English and American law have imposed limits on carrying firearms 0:09:13.636 --> 0:09:15.996 in public and the interest of public safety. 0:09:16.636 --> 0:09:19.956 She begins with a detailed explanation of how New York 0:09:19.956 --> 0:09:23.436 State is justified in not letting anyone carry a handgun 0:09:23.516 --> 0:09:27.196 who wants to carry a handgun. But then she's interrupted 0:09:27.476 --> 0:09:31.076 by Samuel Alito, one of the most conservative members of 0:09:31.116 --> 0:09:34.396 the Court and almost certainly the grumpiest. 0:09:35.996 --> 0:09:40.916 Could I explore what that means for ordinary law biding 0:09:41.476 --> 0:09:46.156 citizens who feel they need to carry a firearm for 0:09:46.196 --> 0:09:49.156 self defense. So I want you to think about people 0:09:49.316 --> 0:09:53.436 like this, people who work late at night in Manhattan. 0:09:53.596 --> 0:09:56.276 It might be somebody who cleans offices, might be a 0:09:56.356 --> 0:09:59.636 doorman at an apartment, might be a nurse or an 0:09:59.756 --> 0:10:03.276 orderly might be somebody who washes dishes. None of these 0:10:03.316 --> 0:10:06.916 people has a criminal record. They're all law biding citizens. 0:10:06.996 --> 0:10:11.196 They get off work around me, maybe even after midnight. 0:10:11.236 --> 0:10:15.036 They have to commute home by subway, maybe by bus. 0:10:15.516 --> 0:10:19.556 When they arrive at the subway station or the bus stop, 0:10:20.116 --> 0:10:23.836 they have to walk some distance through a high crime area. 0:10:24.436 --> 0:10:27.276 They're scared to death, Alito said, So why shouldn't they 0:10:27.276 --> 0:10:31.556 be allowed to carry a handgun on their subway ride home? Now, 0:10:32.036 --> 0:10:34.996 it should be pointed out that Barbara Underwood has spent 0:10:35.156 --> 0:10:39.196 years working in the DA's office in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. 0:10:39.836 --> 0:10:45.156 She's a New Yorker. She's familiar with the subway. Alito, meanwhile, 0:10:45.396 --> 0:10:48.076 is a kid from New Jersey, went to school at Princeton, 0:10:48.236 --> 0:10:50.756 worked most of his life in the New Jersey suburbs 0:10:50.916 --> 0:10:54.956 before moving to the Washington, DC suburbs. I'm going to 0:10:55.036 --> 0:10:56.916 guess that most of what he knows about the New 0:10:56.996 --> 0:11:00.036 York subway is from old beastie boys. Videos that he 0:11:00.116 --> 0:11:05.956 was trying to stop his kids from watching. So Underwood says, 0:11:06.276 --> 0:11:08.676 as any long time subway rider would say. 0:11:09.236 --> 0:11:13.316 I think the extra problem in Manhattan is that you're 0:11:13.396 --> 0:11:19.316 hypothetical quite appropriately entailed the subways, entailed public transit, and 0:11:19.396 --> 0:11:22.796 there are lots of people on the subways even at midnight. 0:11:22.836 --> 0:11:27.276 As I can say from personal experience and the particular 0:11:27.356 --> 0:11:31.116 specter of a lot of armed people in an enclosed space. 0:11:32.116 --> 0:11:35.396 There are a lot of armed people on the streets 0:11:35.396 --> 0:11:37.356 of New York and in the subways late at night 0:11:37.436 --> 0:11:38.236 right now, aren't there. 0:11:40.356 --> 0:11:42.476 I don't know that there are a lot of armed people. 0:11:42.636 --> 0:11:47.036 No first thing here. Alito clearly thinks New York City 0:11:47.356 --> 0:11:50.556 is some kind of modern day dodge city. It's not, 0:11:50.676 --> 0:11:53.116 of course. It's one of the safest big cities in 0:11:53.156 --> 0:11:56.076 the country. The number of gun crimes per capita in 0:11:56.116 --> 0:11:58.556 New York City is a fraction of what it is 0:11:58.596 --> 0:12:04.356 in say, Jacksonville, Florida, or New Orleans or Birmingham, Alabama, 0:12:04.516 --> 0:12:08.196 or literally dozens and dozens of other American cities. New 0:12:08.276 --> 0:12:11.636 York City is an exception to the general tide of 0:12:11.716 --> 0:12:14.396 violence in the United States, in part because of the 0:12:14.476 --> 0:12:17.796 law that the bruin case seeks to overturn. But whatever, 0:12:18.436 --> 0:12:22.436 something about the idea of New York City makes Justice 0:12:22.556 --> 0:12:27.196 Alito very nervous, and he thinks, as a result, the 0:12:27.236 --> 0:12:30.956 prudent course for any late night commuter is to be 0:12:30.996 --> 0:12:35.756 packing heat. But underward knows different. There are a lot 0:12:35.796 --> 0:12:38.396 of people on the subway even at midnight. As I 0:12:38.476 --> 0:12:42.836 can say from personal experience, lawyers work late, lots and 0:12:42.876 --> 0:12:44.996 lots of times. She's taken the two, or the three 0:12:45.116 --> 0:12:47.156 or the eight train back home at night. She did 0:12:47.156 --> 0:12:51.316 not find the experience as terrifying as Justice Alito apparently 0:12:51.556 --> 0:12:55.556 believes it to be. And as he's talking, she's clearly 0:12:55.556 --> 0:13:02.316 imagining the alternate universe where Alito gets his way. It's 0:13:03.036 --> 0:13:06.276 late at night. There's a confrontation at one end of 0:13:06.316 --> 0:13:10.036 the car. One guy pulls a gun, because per Justice 0:13:10.076 --> 0:13:15.836 Alito's instructions, he's come prepared for anything untoward happening. In response, 0:13:16.276 --> 0:13:19.116 the other guy pulls his gun. The two of them 0:13:19.316 --> 0:13:22.356 starts shooting, but of course they're terrified, and they're spraying 0:13:22.396 --> 0:13:26.156 bullets everywhere because handguns, as even the most devoted gun 0:13:26.196 --> 0:13:29.476 lover will tell you, are really, really hard to shoot accurately. 0:13:29.996 --> 0:13:32.916 Even under the best of circumstances, with people who know 0:13:32.956 --> 0:13:36.196 what they're doing and practice every day. And these are 0:13:36.236 --> 0:13:39.036 not the best of circumstances. And these are not people 0:13:39.316 --> 0:13:44.076 who practice every day. They are in justice Alito's hypothetical doormen, 0:13:44.396 --> 0:13:48.356 nurses and dishwashers, people who have worked long, hard days 0:13:48.596 --> 0:13:51.156 and are exhausted and have kids at home and don't 0:13:51.156 --> 0:13:53.436 exactly have the time to drive to a shooting range 0:13:53.436 --> 0:13:56.996 every weekend and fire through two hundred rounds. So there's 0:13:57.036 --> 0:14:00.836 bullets everywhere, and everyone else on the train is screaming 0:14:01.036 --> 0:14:03.436 and rushing to one end of the car and hammering 0:14:03.436 --> 0:14:05.596 on the doors and climbing over each other to get out, 0:14:05.636 --> 0:14:08.396 but of course they can't. There's glass everywhere because one 0:14:08.436 --> 0:14:11.116 of those errant shots took out a window, blood on 0:14:11.196 --> 0:14:13.836 the floor. A third person and then a fourth pull 0:14:13.876 --> 0:14:17.236 out their handguns because everyone's gotten a handgun fever. And 0:14:17.436 --> 0:14:20.156 just then the chain goes underneath the East River for 0:14:20.196 --> 0:14:22.796 like two minutes and the lights go out, which they 0:14:22.836 --> 0:14:27.516 sometimes do. I mean, I guarantee you, as someone who 0:14:27.556 --> 0:14:31.116 has taken the subways like Barbara Underwood for most of 0:14:31.156 --> 0:14:34.996 my adult life, this is the number one night mercenario 0:14:35.476 --> 0:14:40.676 of every single New Yorker, but not for Samuel Alito 0:14:41.196 --> 0:15:02.196 of Hamilton Township, New Jersey. 0:14:52.796 --> 0:14:53.636 With illegal guns. 0:14:53.636 --> 0:14:56.636 If what I'm talking about, how many illegal guns were 0:14:56.636 --> 0:15:02.036 seized by the New York Police Department last year? Do 0:15:02.076 --> 0:15:02.876 you have any idea? 0:15:03.076 --> 0:15:05.596 I don't have that number, but I'm sure there's it's 0:15:05.596 --> 0:15:06.436 a substantial number. 0:15:06.476 --> 0:15:09.116 But the people are all these people with illegal guns, 0:15:09.276 --> 0:15:12.076 They are on the subway, they're walking around the streets. 0:15:12.116 --> 0:15:15.876 But the ordinary hardworking law bonding people I mentioned, no, 0:15:16.276 --> 0:15:17.396 they can't be armed. 0:15:18.716 --> 0:15:21.916 Samuel Alito is in the grip of a peculiar and 0:15:22.076 --> 0:15:25.716 powerful fantasy. It says that below the surface of one 0:15:25.756 --> 0:15:28.516 of the safest cities in the country, late at night, 0:15:29.076 --> 0:15:33.396 all rules of civilization have been suspended. You're on your own. 0:15:34.036 --> 0:15:36.876 And Barbara Underwood, who no doubt prepared long and hard 0:15:36.916 --> 0:15:38.796 for this day before the highest court in the land, 0:15:38.996 --> 0:15:40.996 does not seem to have prepared for this. I mean, 0:15:41.036 --> 0:15:44.476 who would How would she have guessed that Samuel Alito 0:15:44.556 --> 0:15:46.956 thinks the A train is lord of the flies? 0:15:48.196 --> 0:15:50.876 Well, I think the subways. When there are problems on 0:15:50.916 --> 0:15:55.356 the subways are protected by the transit police. Is what 0:15:55.436 --> 0:15:59.076 happens because the idea of proliferating arms on the subway 0:15:59.356 --> 0:16:03.076 is precisely I think what terrifies a great many people. 0:16:06.396 --> 0:16:10.196 The other point is that proliferating guns in a populated 0:16:10.236 --> 0:16:14.516 area where there is law enforcement jeopardizes law enforcement because 0:16:14.556 --> 0:16:18.076 when they come, they now can't tell who's shooting, and 0:16:18.916 --> 0:16:23.636 the shooting proliferates and accelerates. 0:16:24.636 --> 0:16:28.356 She's trying really, really hard at this point, not just 0:16:28.356 --> 0:16:31.436 to say, are you effing kidding me, Jersey boy? Have 0:16:31.596 --> 0:16:35.956 you ever ridden a subway before? But Barbara Underwood is 0:16:35.996 --> 0:16:39.436 a lawyer of law experience. Her obligation is to her client, 0:16:39.796 --> 0:16:44.476 not her own mounting feelings of incredulity. So she takes 0:16:44.476 --> 0:16:46.876 a deep breath and holds it in. 0:16:47.716 --> 0:16:52.876 And in the end, that's why there's a substantial law 0:16:52.956 --> 0:16:58.756 enforcement interest in not having widespread caring of guns. 0:17:00.316 --> 0:17:04.796 So here's the puzzle. Where did this completely lunatic idea 0:17:04.876 --> 0:17:09.676 come from? How did Samuel Alito legal powerhouse come up 0:17:09.676 --> 0:17:12.596 with this weird, violent fantasy with the best path to 0:17:12.676 --> 0:17:15.956 ensuring the safety of a subway rider is to encourage 0:17:15.996 --> 0:17:19.276 that rider and all of his fellow commuters to stuff 0:17:19.316 --> 0:17:22.276 a handgun in their waistband and face down their assailant 0:17:22.556 --> 0:17:25.956 Mono Amano on the A train as it passes underneath 0:17:25.996 --> 0:17:30.996 the East River. There are countless law review articles devoted 0:17:30.996 --> 0:17:33.356 to the origins of the American love affair with guns, 0:17:33.996 --> 0:17:37.076 histories of the evolution of our thinking about the Second Amendment. 0:17:37.676 --> 0:17:41.076 When confronted with a powerful idea, we assume that it 0:17:41.116 --> 0:17:45.796 has deep and serious roots. But come on, this isn't 0:17:45.836 --> 0:17:51.556 an idea. It's a fantasy. And where do fantasies come 0:17:51.596 --> 0:17:55.356 from from? The stories were told in childhood. When I 0:17:55.396 --> 0:17:58.436 look at grown up Samuel Alito dreaming about bad guys 0:17:58.476 --> 0:18:01.596 on the A train, I think of little Sammy Alito 0:18:01.996 --> 0:18:05.836 growing up in the nineteen fifties in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, 0:18:06.556 --> 0:18:09.996 and I wonder did he watch one to many episodes 0:18:10.436 --> 0:18:16.476 of gun Smoke, in particular episode eight from season one, 0:18:16.796 --> 0:18:35.156 Kites Reward. In the eighteen seventies, cattle would be herded 0:18:35.196 --> 0:18:38.876 to market from Texas to Kansas up to the so 0:18:38.996 --> 0:18:42.716 called cattle towns that were junction points connected to major 0:18:42.796 --> 0:18:47.076 railway lines. The longest lived and most infamous of those 0:18:47.116 --> 0:18:52.356 cattle towns was Dodge City. It sits on the banks 0:18:52.356 --> 0:18:55.116 of the Arkansas River and was connected by rail to 0:18:55.196 --> 0:18:59.516 the east to Kansas City. In its heyday, Dodge City 0:18:59.636 --> 0:19:03.476 was like Fort Lauderdale during spring break, only with a 0:19:03.516 --> 0:19:07.076 fraction of the girls, just lots of young men, alcohol 0:19:07.436 --> 0:19:13.756 and guns. Hundred full time residents, nineteen bars, filled with 0:19:14.076 --> 0:19:18.756 fortune seekers, buffalo hunters, cowboys, gamblers, desperadoes, what they call 0:19:18.796 --> 0:19:23.716 in Western's hard characters. Here's a typical Dodge City story 0:19:24.076 --> 0:19:27.516 that appeared in the Witchtop Beacon in November of eighteen 0:19:27.556 --> 0:19:32.556 seventy two. Three or four Texas men, the paper reported, 0:19:33.036 --> 0:19:35.876 took over the Kelly and Hunt dance hall. One of 0:19:35.876 --> 0:19:38.876 them made whiskey and sugar free to everybody, while the 0:19:38.916 --> 0:19:42.796 others kept up the dance music and condiments until daylight. 0:19:43.636 --> 0:19:46.196 I think you're getting the picture. The article goes on. 0:19:46.676 --> 0:19:50.116 The dance room was also occupied by a gambling outfit. 0:19:50.756 --> 0:19:54.596 Oh okay, One of the Texas men who were giving 0:19:54.636 --> 0:19:57.156 away the free booze and sugar accuses one of the 0:19:57.156 --> 0:20:00.836 gamblers of cheating end quote, grabbed up the entire wealth 0:20:00.916 --> 0:20:05.356 of the concern to appropriate it unquote, whereupon one of 0:20:05.356 --> 0:20:09.236 the gamblers fractured skull of one of the Texans with 0:20:09.276 --> 0:20:12.276 a six shooter. He dies the cowboys come to the 0:20:12.316 --> 0:20:14.916 aid of their fallen comrade. There's a gun battle, two 0:20:14.956 --> 0:20:18.076 more shot dead, a third wounded. The bodies are thrown 0:20:18.076 --> 0:20:21.996 out onto the street, and here's the crucial detail, the 0:20:22.036 --> 0:20:28.516 party goes merrily on. That's Dodge City. As you can imagine, 0:20:28.636 --> 0:20:31.476 the tabloids of the era couldn't get enough of this. 0:20:32.276 --> 0:20:34.916 The expression, which I'm sure you've heard, We've got to 0:20:34.956 --> 0:20:39.436 get out of Dodge is a reference to Dodge City. 0:20:40.436 --> 0:20:43.876 So what is gun Smoke. It's a TV show set 0:20:43.916 --> 0:20:46.956 in Dodge City, where the hero, Matt Dillon, has the 0:20:47.076 --> 0:20:50.716 job of restoring law and order amidst the mayhem. Every 0:20:50.756 --> 0:20:53.476 other episode begins with a shot of Dylan squaring off 0:20:53.516 --> 0:20:56.476 against a bad guy in the main street of Dodge 0:20:56.516 --> 0:20:59.836 He outdraws him, shoots the bad guy dead. Then after 0:20:59.836 --> 0:21:03.036 the credits, we see Dylan walking through a cemetery where 0:21:03.076 --> 0:21:06.836 all the many dead are buried, and in voiceover, delivering 0:21:06.996 --> 0:21:10.956 a little homily about the enormous weight on his shoulders. 0:21:11.756 --> 0:21:15.036 They all drifted here to Dodge City one time or another. 0:21:15.636 --> 0:21:20.396 The buffalo killers, the saddle bums, the spoilers. It's the 0:21:20.476 --> 0:21:22.396 end of the track and the start of the wilderness, 0:21:22.476 --> 0:21:25.356 the dumping ground of odds and ands and beginnings and leftovers. 0:21:25.876 --> 0:21:27.716 It's a place to stop and take the kind of 0:21:27.756 --> 0:21:30.716 pleasure you need. It's a place to pass through, and 0:21:30.796 --> 0:21:33.836 sometimes it's a place to die. 0:21:35.276 --> 0:21:39.996 So episode eight, Season one, Kite's Reward. The young blonde 0:21:40.036 --> 0:21:43.076 man's name is Andy. He's just shot the stranger dead. 0:21:43.556 --> 0:21:46.396 Dylan has taken his gun. They go back to Dylan's 0:21:46.436 --> 0:21:48.716 office where Andy is giving a lecture. 0:21:49.156 --> 0:21:51.316 Trouble sure come running after you in a hurry, didn't it. 0:21:51.676 --> 0:21:54.476 What's a man supposed to do in this town? Stand 0:21:54.516 --> 0:21:56.236 there and take a belly full of bullets? 0:21:56.996 --> 0:21:59.916 Then Dylan says, I can give you back your gun, 0:22:00.356 --> 0:22:02.836 but I think you shouldn't wear one anymore. You're too 0:22:02.876 --> 0:22:05.756 good with it. You're going to get a reputation. People 0:22:05.756 --> 0:22:07.396 will come after you to see if they can. 0:22:07.356 --> 0:22:17.116 Best you on Sandy. That's happening to you. Anybody who 0:22:17.156 --> 0:22:18.756 can use a gun the way you can has to 0:22:18.756 --> 0:22:23.236 make a choice. You can go on using it, or 0:22:23.316 --> 0:22:24.356 you can quit before you. 0:22:24.276 --> 0:22:25.116 Get blood all of you. 0:22:26.236 --> 0:22:28.876 They have a heart to heart. Dylan is the wise 0:22:28.916 --> 0:22:32.956 father figure Andy clearly never had. Dylan, why don't you 0:22:33.036 --> 0:22:36.876 quit wearing it? Andy, I don't know, I'd feel kind 0:22:36.876 --> 0:22:37.756 of naked, I guess. 0:22:38.516 --> 0:22:41.996 Dylan persists, that's gonna be one man after the other 0:22:42.116 --> 0:22:43.876 from now on. You're gonna have to kill, whether you 0:22:43.956 --> 0:22:46.756 like it or not. But I'm not gonna watch it. 0:22:48.356 --> 0:22:48.516 Now. 0:22:48.556 --> 0:22:49.196 You leave that. 0:22:49.156 --> 0:22:50.876 Gun off, or you get out of dodge and go 0:22:50.956 --> 0:22:52.196 do your killing somewhere else. 0:22:53.276 --> 0:22:57.796 Finally, Andy agrees, unbuckles his gun belt, hands over his 0:22:57.836 --> 0:23:02.116 six shooter and holster. All right, let's pause once again 0:23:02.316 --> 0:23:05.876 because there are so many things to discuss. First of all, 0:23:06.076 --> 0:23:08.996 let's deal with the non trivial matter of the homicide 0:23:08.996 --> 0:23:12.916 that just occurred inside the Long Branch Saloon. To help 0:23:12.916 --> 0:23:16.396 put this event in some kind of statistical perspective, I 0:23:16.476 --> 0:23:20.516 recruited the services of my very able assistant and producer, 0:23:21.116 --> 0:23:27.116 Tali Emma. Okay, so I a couple of weeks ago, 0:23:27.196 --> 0:23:31.236 I gave you an assignment. Just just describe. Describe First 0:23:31.236 --> 0:23:31.836 the assignment. 0:23:32.676 --> 0:23:36.556 So the assignment was to watch Well, first you said 0:23:36.596 --> 0:23:41.676 to watch all of gun Smoke, which is bitish. Yeah, 0:23:41.716 --> 0:23:44.996 it's like twenty seasons something like that. But then the 0:23:45.036 --> 0:23:48.596 assignment turned into watching the first two seasons of gun Smoke. 0:23:49.356 --> 0:23:54.156 Tally ordered the complete Gun Smoke collection on DVD. Do 0:23:54.196 --> 0:23:55.996 you even know what a DVD is? 0:23:56.116 --> 0:23:56.236 Like? 0:23:56.476 --> 0:23:58.796 This is like so prior generation. 0:24:00.036 --> 0:24:02.556 Oh, I grew up watching DVDs. 0:24:02.796 --> 0:24:03.876 Just check just check it. 0:24:05.076 --> 0:24:07.556 But I don't. I don't have a DVD player. So 0:24:07.836 --> 0:24:10.476 I got the DVDs and and then I wound up 0:24:10.476 --> 0:24:14.596 having to watch on my roommate's PS four, which was 0:24:14.676 --> 0:24:15.396 kind of funny. 0:24:15.876 --> 0:24:18.076 This is the first time in human history someone watched 0:24:18.076 --> 0:24:22.836 gun Smoke on a PS four I think it's that station. 0:24:24.076 --> 0:24:27.716 There are thirty nine episodes per season, so Talie watched 0:24:28.036 --> 0:24:33.356 seventy eight in total, a statistically representative sample. Yeah. 0:24:33.396 --> 0:24:38.596 So the assignment was to watch every episode and make 0:24:38.596 --> 0:24:41.556 a note of anytime there's a gun shot and anytime 0:24:41.596 --> 0:24:45.156 there's a homicide. So I counted anytime somebody was killed 0:24:46.236 --> 0:24:52.036 on purpose. So there's a few instances of someone accidentally 0:24:52.076 --> 0:24:55.676 getting shot, and I didn't count that as homicide and was. 0:24:56.956 --> 0:25:01.036 And then you created a kind of an Excel spreadsheet. Yeah, 0:25:01.676 --> 0:25:08.716 and in which you also described the nature of the shooting. Yes, yes, 0:25:09.396 --> 0:25:12.516 And so give me the give me the bottom line 0:25:12.556 --> 0:25:15.956 on the statistics of number of gunshots and homicides in 0:25:15.996 --> 0:25:19.316 the first two seasons. Of Gun Smoke. 0:25:19.996 --> 0:25:23.996 All right, let me just pull this up really quick, Okay, 0:25:24.076 --> 0:25:29.676 So starting with season one, we had a total of 0:25:29.836 --> 0:25:34.436 two hundred and twelve gun shots in the whole season, 0:25:35.356 --> 0:25:40.036 and this includes gunshots in the air just to scare 0:25:40.116 --> 0:25:43.116 people or something like that. And then of those two 0:25:43.196 --> 0:25:47.036 hundred and twelve, one hundred and thirty two were shots 0:25:47.076 --> 0:25:51.876 specifically pointed at people. There were fifty nine homicides, and 0:25:52.036 --> 0:25:55.476 forty six of those homicides were from gunshots. 0:25:56.596 --> 0:25:58.356 Okay. And then season two. 0:25:58.756 --> 0:26:02.116 So the number of gunshots that I counted for season 0:26:02.156 --> 0:26:05.876