In the mid-1870s, The Illustrated Police News published this image depicting Whiskey Bar, California, placer miner Erastus Bradley saving his wife from a knife-wielding attacker. Bradley shot the assailant in the head with his pistol, and a jury ruled it as “justifiable homicide.” Revolvers we think of as cowboy guns protected life and property nearly 150 years ago, and if that’s all you have at hand when trouble arises, they
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