ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the reciprocal relationship between law and popular culture in establishing the western gunslinger as a dominant cultural figure. In cultural terms, however, the contradiction is easier to understand. The very legal tests required for adjudication resound with cultural references—reasonable person, due care, rational basis, appearance of impropriety, immediate fear. These standards, and others like them, can only be applied against a backdrop of assumed cultural values. The availability of mass-produced side arms, combined with lingering hostility from the concluded war, created a cultural environment in which many men had both the inclination and ability to act on their resentments. It cannot be forgotten that the Wild West attracted magazine and newspaper correspondents, many of whom had learned their skills covering the Civil War. In the entire history of the Wild West, the closest thing to an actual "slap leather" gunfight may have been the showdown between Wild Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt in Springfield, Missouri.
