Oh fantastic, no one else posted this concept yet

So, I think there's an important connection there you're touching on. Samurai and cowboys occupy the same space in media, and I'll give you some examples.

Someone else mentioned the movie, but Seven Samurai, a HIGHLY influential and well received film from japan in the 50s, helped inspire The Magnificent Seven, a key cowboy film from the early 60s.

The film Yojimbo (please watch it if you haven't, it's just very well done, really funny, have to get over the 'movies had NO real soundtrack back then' problem if you're not used to old films) is like watching The Matrix AFTER you've already seen the slow-mo and 'i know Kung fu' tropes in movies. The man rolls up into town, two sides opposed and neither really 'good' but innocents in the middle.

What were called 'spaghetti westerns' in the past due to the Italian directors at the time, a majority chunk of those movies utilized similar filmography techniques and plots. The kids who watched those westerns also watched samurai films (cheap movie is a cheap movie on a weekend night) and the concept sort of melded over time to where the Ronin of Japan and the Lone Ranger of America are two flavors of the same steel-wielding hero.

The way samurai in movies revere their swords, talking about the efficiency of a weapon, the artfulness or it, all VERY similar to how revolvers took/take a center stage for western fantasies. Add to that the individualism of the west, the rugged nature of a traveler with a weapon, the tie-in of 'honor' in both cultures, the 'only lawmen can have a weapon in city limits' laws that were featured in the America AND Japan at that time.

Super neat

Can't do this with a katana. Check mate atheists.

Drawing your katana with speed and faster than the other guy killing him in one blow

Drawing your revolver faster than the other guy and killing him in one shot

Checks out to me

Both weapons and users coexisted at the same period of time too.

In fact, you could write a story about a samurai and cowboy playing with Nintendo cards and drinking Coke and it could be historically accurate.

Are you at gun point @[email protected] ?

Ways in which revolvers are not the katanas of guns:

...

Revolvers are generally incredibly simple and cheap to build, operate and maintain compared to semi auto pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, light machine guns, etc.

Conversely, katanas require a significant amount of skill and practice to wield proficiently, as compared to many, but not all, other kinds of swords, and are/were also comparatively more difficult to properly forge and balance than many other kinds of swords, and were quite expensive.

...

Revolvers were incredibly common during 'the West', almost anyone could fairly easily equip themselves with one, and many did.

Katanas, for essentially all of their history, were only allowed to be carried by wealthy, royals or nobles or warlords, and their extremely small in number official bodyguards/goons, and soldiers. The vast majority of people were/are legally barred from owning or carrying them.

...

One on one revolver quickdraw duels almost never happened in real life.

One on one katana honor duels were actually somewhat/fairly common amongst those who actually had them.

...

Other points:

Revolvers are romanticized akin to Katanas because A Fistful of Dollars is basically a shot for shot remake of Yojimbo.

Kurosawa sued Leone over this, and won 15% of A Fistful of Dollars' sales revenue.

Nonetheless, A Fistful of Dollars was widely influential on future western films.

The modern, relative popularity of revolvers in real life is a result of their simplicity, reliability and inexpensiveness compared to other hand guns.

They would still be largely popular irl even without their depiction in media.

Katanas, on the other hand, are basically only popular in media in the West due to media, very few people actually own a katana, ever fewer have enough Iaido training to know how to use one.

Compared to revolvers, they would probably be far less popular irl were it not for the media exposure.

I can imagine a few hundred years from now the same thing will happen with AKs.

Single Action... maybe. But double action revolvers are a great choice for most people. They can be more reliable than semi-auto. They can hit harder too.

The m1 garand as a better example?

Single action is a godsend. Virtually no trigger pull, and the mechanism just feels satisfying. Very reliable as well.

Also, revolving rifles. Taurus Circuit Judge my beloved..

I thought the fedoralord firearm of choice was the Colt 1911.

Magnificent Seven is the western version of Seven Samurai. Prove me wrong.

I was told many years ago by a biker, who looked like Danny Trejo, "revolvers don't leave behind empties".

They're popular because they're reliable, easy to operate, easy to work on, and come in a wide range of calibers.

That being said, yee-haw motherfuckers!