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Just a historic side note, if I may. Tim Murphy is one of those legends who gets larger the farther away from the actual events that you are. If he saved the Valley in 1782, he saved it from the local inhabitants as the majority of the raids which constituted "The Destructives" ended in 1781. The incidence that he is famous or infamous for took place in October of 1780. The legend is that he was responsible for the bottled up inhabitants and garrison at the Middle Schoharie fort not surrendering. The truth of the matter is that he, contrary to direct orders, twice fired upon a Loyalist officer carrying a white flag. Had the situation been reversed and Murphy carrying a white flag had been fired upon by a Loyalist, the Loyalist would have been deemed a dastardly coward.

I am not sure of the abundance of double-swivel barrels in the Schoharie Valley. I know that Murphy's was an expensive piece made by a very famous, in his own time, Pennsylvania rifle maker name Joseph Gulcher.

For a short bio-sketch of Murphy you can go to: http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/historic/articles/murphy.htm or for more information you can visit: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyschoha/simms.html. For fictionalized version try "The Rifleman" by John Brick. For a look from the other side of the 1780 raid at Schoharie, I would suggest, "The Burning of the Valleys", by Gavin K. Watts.

I also believe that the inference of not many people owning firearms at the time period the original inquiry was looking for may be slightly off and referring to a later period. I believe that the time period was the first decade of the 1800's and if so the Militia Laws would still have been in effect. Therefore each male between the age of 16 and 60 would have been required to have some sort of firearm with accompanying accoutrements. Where I grew up almost everybody owned at least one gun and where I live today almost everybody owns at least one gun. No I didn't grow up in Dodge City and I don't live in Tombstone. (8^)