(Rooters agency analysis) – “Quick draw” is a skyrocketing industry in America, and it has nothing to do with the graphic arts. Across the United States, in red states and blue, businesses providing “rapid-response firearm training” are springing up and flourishing overnight as gun purchases also soar.

While the immediate impulse for the surging interest in “quick draw” or “fast draw” may stem from the recent acquittal of young vigilante Wyatt Rottenhorse, it draws on a long American tradition. “It’s a revival of the Old West,” says Delbert Tombstone, proprietor of the new Wild Bill Hickok Rapid Fire Academy in Indians End, Ohio.

The Hickok Academy offers a fairly typical selection of courses. For the beginner, there are classes in the firing of various categories of firearms: pistols, rifles, semi-automatic weapons, and nearly any other weapon the student can afford. There is even a course in the use of the Gatling gun, although Tombstone stresses, “There’s no real way to start shooting quickly with that, and it’s hard to carry in a holster.”

Those already familiar with their firearm are then trained in all the aspects of face-to-face shootouts. This of course centers on the prime concern, which is shooting before, and more accurately than, one’s opponent.

But is also covers the finer points, including legal considerations. “It’s important before you open fire,” Tombstone explains, “to be reasonably confident that the other guy really intends to do you harm. That doesn’t mean you have to let him have the first shot, but it does mean he has to be threatening.” For this aspect, the Hickok course includes modules on “how to recognize a threatening look” and “how to recognize a threatening appearance.” “Getting these right,” Tombstone continues, “is really crucial, because it means you don’t have to wait until you see the enemy’s weapon, which might be concealed.”

Legal analysts consulted by Rooters say that Tombstone is right regarding the centrality of threat and recognizing it early. This was illustrated by the trial judge in Rottenhorse’s trial, Justice Shredder, who ruled that the people shot by the defendant could not be referred to as “victims” but could be called “looters,” “dangerous enemies,” “threatening nasties,” or, more simply, “the dead.”

Beyond the purely economic boom he and businesses like his are enjoying, Tombstone argues that the new industry will have a beneficial effect on American culture more generally: “We’re going back to our roots in the Old West: shooting anyone who seems dangerous. Or rude. Whatever.”