Between the Civil War and 1872, my great-great grandfather killed nine men (that I can confirm through court records and newspaper accounts) in gunfights and is alleged to have killed four more that I have been unable to prove thus far. There were different people that testified in court though that the total number was actually 13. And that wasn’t even out west but in eastern Kentucky. His picture is my avatar.
After he eventually went to prison in 1874, the rest of my family (on my father’s side) became embroiled in a feud that between 1881 and 1889 alone, both directly and indirectly, was responsible for the deaths of over 40 men, the vast majority of which I can confirm. Incidents (not all violent) involving this feud and its participants occurred not only in Kentucky but also in Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, what would become the Oklahoma Territory, and California. It ended with a skirmish called “The Battle of Poor Fork” in 1889. The leader of the opposition, Wilson Howard, is confirmed, along with his uncle in many cases, to have killed seven of those men. At one point during the feud, the governor put out a reward for them so they left the state and went to the Oklahoma territory where they allegedly killed two more men (stated by two different people in court testimony) then to Missouri where they, beyond the shadow of a doubt, murdered and robbed a man who was deaf and mute. Howard returned to Kentucky but left the state again after the final battle of the feud and went to California via train where he was arrested for robbing a stagecoach. He used an assumed name and immediately pled guilty hoping to fly under the radar. He was eventually discovered while incarcerated at San Quentin Prison, most likely because he mailed a letter to his girlfriend in Kentucky. After one of my cousins and a detective from Missouri, who was a former Pinkerton, went to California to identify him, he was transferred to Missouri where he was tried for the murder of the poor deaf-mute man and hanged.
I have true tales of an innocent after church dinner in 1884, at which my relatives were present, where a gunfight broke out that resulted in the deaths of five people including an innocent grandmother who was hit in the head by a stray bullet, though inside the house, while preparing to bring out more food to the tables outside. (I have copies of the court records) I had another cousin who was in law enforcement and assigned to keep the peace at the voting precinct in his county in the elections of 1890. A man he had arrested prior came at him with a butcher knife so he drew his pistol and shot him. The man’s brother came up and shot my cousin in the arm, causing him to drop the pistol. My cousin grabbed the butcher knife from the ground and charged the brother causing him to fire too quickly, the bullet grazing another nearby man. My cousin used the butcher knife to kill the other brother. (I have copies of the newspaper articles.) Unfortunately, after a few days the doctor told my cousin that his arm needed to be amputated, he refused, and died of gangrene.
These are just some of the many, many true incidents my family was personally involved in back in the non “lawless playground” days.
So, you will excuse me if I take a bit of umbrage with your statement. 
