Perhaps federal and state lawmakers could take a lesson from Ellsworth’s Cowtown past in the wake of recent shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

Then, just as now, residents in frontier towns across Kansas and other parts of the west feared for their safety, especially when the sounds of gunfire echoed across the prairie. That was fine with the cowboys, but those charged with making the west a more settled place had other ideas.

A sign that used to hang near Ellsworth’s Hodgden House Museum was typical of the times.“Check y’er Guns,” it read.

Historian Jim Gray said “no gun laws” were common in the cattletowns of Kansas. When they arrived in a town, cowboys were required to deposit their guns at their first stop, usually on a table in the backroom of a business or the sheriff ’s office.

“Every business in town was set up to do it,” Gray said.

The guns were returned when the cowboys left town.

Gray said legend claims that Abilene enacted a “no gun law” after a stray bullet struck a baby carriage. The baby inside was unharmed, but the episode frightened town folks so much that city leaders enacted the law for their protection.

Other cities reported similar experiences.

A visitor arriving in Wichita, Kansas in 1873, the heart of the Wild West era, would have seen signs declaring, ‘Leave Your Revolvers At Police Headquarters.”

Yet here we are more than a century later — arguing about the need for sensible gun laws. It can’t even be talked about on the floor of the U.S. Senate. The issue has become one of politics instead of safety. For the sake of our country, that needs to change — on both sides of the aisle.