Self-Defense TRAINING
Reenactors playing the roles of Town Marshal Virgil Earp, his brothers Wyatt and Morgan Earp, and friend Doc Holliday pose for author Paul Pawela during his trip to historic Tombstone, Arizona, and the OK Corral.
WHAT OK CORRAL GUNFIGHT TAUGHT ME Deadly-force encounter training lessons through the lens of famous Old West clash.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY PAUL PAWELA
o other gunfight has received more attention in America than the one that happened in Tombstone, Arizona, on October 26, 1881, at 3 pm. And while the gunfight at the OK Corral took place 140 years ago this month, it is a classic example of what to do – and what not to do – in a deadlyforce encounter. To understand the subject of deadly force, it is imperative to look at real-world gunfights that people can identify with. Two huge blockbuster movies about the gunfight at the OK
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Corral were made in the 21st century, one being Wyatt Earp starring Kevin Costner, and the other being Tombstone starring Kurt Russell. It is safe to say that a large part of the public has seen one or both movies, and therefore has some knowledge of the events that took place that day. Many lessons can be learned from the famous gunfight. For example, the first contributing factor that led to the fateful confrontation between the outlaws and the lawmen was alcohol. The lesson learned should be obvious: Guns and alcohol should never mix. During this period there was an ordinance in the city of Tombstone
forbidding people from carrying weapons on their person in the city. Another hard lesson learned: Debatable or not, when it comes to Second Amendment issues and constitutional rights, always obey the law. The narrative of the gunfight at the OK Corral was that the two parties simply did not like one another and were very much at odds, getting into verbal altercations and physical assaults. Finally, the trouble came to a head when one party threatened to kill the members of the other party on the spot if he saw them on the street. The learning objective here is that when one has the responsibility americanshootingjournal.com 119
