Tombstone Up in Arms Over Law Curbing Guns

The town where Wyatt Earp laid low a few black hats at the O.K. Corral may be headed for a showdown over guns.

At issue is a 1977 ordinance against carrying weapons in the open. Town leaders fear some urban cowboy watching one of the make-believe gunfights staged on Tombstone’s picturesque streets might slap leather and plug an actor or tourist.

“We’re going to have every wild-eyed flake in the country doing the Hollywood gun act down the street,” said Ben Traywick, who heads a mock gun-fighting group called the Wild Bunch.

But across town, Jack Fiske and his bunch are standing their ground.

“We’re celebrating the Bill of Rights, and when rights are taken away arbitrarily . . . then we are having a civil rights problem here,” said Fiske, a bookstore clerk who wants to ride his horse through town, a single-action .45-caliber revolver strapped to his hip, unmolested by the law.

A similar law led in part to the 1881 gunfight that etched Tombstone, once a silver mining center, into the annals of the Old West. It was at the O.K. Corral where Earp and his brothers along with Doc Holliday shot it out with the Clanton gang, killing Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury.

The day before, Earp had buffaloed one of the McLaurys, whacking him with a gun and dragging him before a judge for breaking a law against carrying a gun in public. Billy Clanton is among the outlaws buried at nearby Boot Hill cemetery.

The mystique of that gunfight and the Old West draws visitors to Tombstone. Tourism is the economic lifeblood of the southeastern Arizona town of 1,200 that bills itself “the town too tough to die.”

The ordinance exempts police and actors staging re-enactments and mock hangings along streets still lined with boardwalks and brick buildings.

City Marshal Edward E. Schnautz said the ordinance is meant to corral people such as the man a few years ago who fired two shots along the main tourist strip, hitting a mailbox. As the sun was setting, the man “just got a feel of the Old West and pulled out a gun,” Schnautz said.

Another time, a woman brandished a knife at a street show and nearly stabbed an actor. “So we know that this does happen. People get carried away,” Schnautz said.

Mayor Alex Gradillas said the City Council will not reconsider the ordinance at its March 17 meeting, despite a request by Fiske, who belongs to a re-enactment group, the Vigilantes, and who wants the right to tote a gun when he is not taking part in mock gunfights.

The state attorney general has said the ordinance appears to conflict with the Arizona Constitution by foreclosing the right to bear arms. Under state law, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon.

Fiske said he does not want to go to court but that the city has ignored compromises, including posting gun bans at certain times.

The mayor warned that if the gun ban falls, the city will halt re-enactment permits rather than risk injuries and lawsuits.