Editing Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (section)

=== Virgil and Wyatt Earp's reactions ===
Wyatt said that he saw Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury in Spangenberg's gun and hardware store on 4th Street filling their [[gun belt]]s with [[Cartridge (firearms)|cartridges]].<ref name="wyatttestimony"/> Ike testified afterward that Tom was not there and that he had tried to buy a new revolver but the owner saw Ike's bandaged head and refused to sell him one.<ref name="iketestimony"/> Ike apparently had not heard Virgil tell him that his confiscated weapons were at the Grand Hotel around the corner from Spangenberg's shop.<ref name="iketestimony"/><ref name="virgiltestimony"/>

When Virgil Earp learned that Wyatt was talking to the Cowboys at Spangenberg's gun shop, he went there himself. Virgil testified afterward that he thought he saw all four men, Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury, and Tom McLaury, buying cartridges.<ref name="virgiltestimony">{{cite web|url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/vearptestimony.html|title=Testimony of Virgil Earp in the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp Case|access-date=February 6, 2011|year=2005|editor-first=Douglas|editor-last=Linder|work=Famous Trials: The O. K. Corral Trial|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203142604/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/vearptestimony.html|archive-date=February 3, 2011}} From Turner, Alford (Ed.), ''The O. K. Corral Inquest'' (1992)</ref> Virgil went around the corner on Allen Street to the [[Wells Fargo]] office, where he picked up a 10-gauge or 12-gauge, [[coach gun|short, double-barreled shotgun]]. It was an unusually cold and windy day in Tombstone, and Virgil was wearing a [[Duster (clothing)|long overcoat]]. To avoid alarming Tombstone's public, Virgil hid the shotgun under his overcoat when he returned to Hafford's Saloon.<ref name=lubet/>{{rp|4|date=November 2012}}

From Spangenberg's, the Cowboys moved to the O.K. Corral where witnesses overheard them threatening to kill the Earps. For unknown reasons the Cowboys then walked out the back of the O.K. Corral and then west, stopping in a narrow, empty lot next to C. S. Fly's boarding house.<ref name=lubet/>{{rp|4|date=November 2012}}

Virgil initially avoided a confrontation with the newly arrived Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton, who had not yet deposited their weapons at a hotel or stable as the law required. The statute was not specific about how far a recently arrived visitor might "with good faith, and within reasonable time" travel into town while carrying a firearm. This permitted a traveler to keep his firearms if he was proceeding directly to a livery, hotel or saloon. The three main Tombstone corrals were all west of 4th Street between Allen and Fremont, a block or two from where Wyatt saw the Cowboys buying cartridges. Miner Ruben F. Coleman later told ''The Tombstone Epitaph'':<ref name="virgiltestimony"/><ref name=historynetgun/><ref name=epitaph171881/>

{{blockquote|I was in the O.K. Corral at 2:30 p.m. when I saw the two Clantons and the two McLaurys in an earnest conversation across the street at Dunbar's corral. I went up the street and notified Sheriff Behan and told them it was my opinion that they meant trouble, and it was his duty, as sheriff, to go and disarm them. I told him they had gone to the West End Corral. I then went and saw Marshal Virgil Earp and notified him to the same effect.<ref name=epitaph171881>{{cite news|title=Yesterday's Tragedy|newspaper=Tombstone Epitaph|url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/epitaph.html/|access-date=17 February 2014|date=27 October 1881|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213174107/http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/epitaph.html|archive-date=13 December 2013}}</ref>}}