The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-11-02
If there is anything Illogical in this will
some legal luminary point it out

If there is anything Illogical in this will
some legal luminary point it out
Another ridiculous feature of these laws
is the impossibility of adhering to logic
and at the same time defining a class of
weapons the concealment of which shall
be a criminal act. For what is the con-
cealment in this connection ? Obviously
the carrying of a weapon which cannot be
seen by the public. The various laws are
evidently aimed at pistols alone, since these
are the weapons usually carried concealed.
But musket carried on the shoulder on a
dark night would be concealed weapon,
since the darkness would conceal it from
the passer by, and hence a man returning
home from hunt after dark would be
amenable to the law 1.-The word conceal
says whoever shall carry a concealed
weapon upon or about his person"
Then, too, although the fist is not speci-
fed in any list of prohibited weapons, it is
really concealed deadly weapon, for a
heavy blow on the temple has been known
to kill the recipient and the bones and
muscles which did the injury are really
as much concealed by the skin of the hand,
and clothes of the sleeve, as is the mechan-
ism of rife cane which has been decided
by some prussant legal expounder to be a
concealed weapon. Then again. the Yam
kee boys favorite tool, the iackknife
would logically be prohibited, for even the
the insignificant penknife has it's record of
death. The killing of John Statranch by
Van Meter some years ago, is a case in
point. But the heavy weight intellects
which framed these laws failed to prose
cute the penkknife, though belive some
of the state laws limit the length of blade
allowable in a pocket knife; again the law
is professedly against the carrying of con
cealed deadly weapons, and pistols are in
cluded in the list, but no distinction is
made betweensloaded and unloaded weap-
ons. though an empty pistol, pocket size,
would be about as harmless weapon as a
man could lay his hands on. The law is,
however, only deigned to get the people
unaccustomed to the use of fire arms. And
therefore the trainers were not particulars
But perhaps the most ridiculous thing
about this subject IS the motive ascribed
by the friends of these laws, to those who
carry concealed weapons. | have seen
some dozen articles on the subject which
declared that man who carried a con-
cealed weapon was in intention cold
blooded murderer; that when he put his
pistol in his pocket preparatory to making
a walk, he did so with the deliberate in
tcntion of killing some one before he came
back, just to get up an appetite suppose
This, IN so many words, has been seriously
urged as an argument by men who would
themselves feel like drawing a bead" on
the man who should whisper the fact that
such statement would make good pass
port for Jacksonville. The ahsurdity of
it may be best illustrated by an analogy;
Strychnine is a poison widely used as a
nerve tonic in medicine, but which has
also caused the death of many children
who have ignorantly swallowed it, sup
pose a husband and father, subject to fits
of nervous depression, and feeling the need
of some tonic should get bottle of the
poisonous preparation and take it to his
home. What would be the probable mo-
tive therefore? If we should reason as do
the advocates of the laws under discussion
we would recall some instances wherein
child had been poisoned by swallowing
strychnine kept in the house as a med1
cine, and declare that the man took the
preparation home with the deliberate in
tention of poisoning his children. One
case is not more ridiculous than the 9TH
er.
GUY RIVERS.