The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-05-22
FIREARMS AND FOOLS.


variety. 1t is a common disease else
where, and we seem to have struck an
epidemic of it here. What people want
with firearms in their pockets one can
not reasonably understand. 1t is pa
tently against the law and it would be
well if the law We're invoked more fire.
uuently and the carriers of weapons
punished promptly. Judge Robinson
the other day in giving sentence upon
the Williams brothers for attempted
burglary, gave one of them double time
because he had a revolver on his per-
son when captured, and the assump
tion is that if he has a weapon he in
tends to use it, and if he uses it he in
tends to kill. ...,
Here is one of the main points which
the wearers of concealed weapons seem
to lose sight of. If they carry such
weapons the assumption is just as in
the case of the burglar, that they in
tend to use them, and the ultimate re-
suit of their use would be the same as
the burglars, One never can tell when
will be realized shakespeare's line,
How oft the means to do ill deeds
makes i'll deeds done" Even where
firearms are used as a means of self
protection ill may come of it. The case
of an innocent man being shot and
killed under a terrible mistake has oc-
CURED here, as it has also in almost
every city of the Union. The less civil
Iians have to do with firearms, espe-
cially with the small class Of firearms
the better.
But this is DEPRESSING from the didn't
know it was loaded" cranks. For some
occult reason there is considerable
class of people who when they see
frearm Immediately have their fingers
itching to pick it up and point it at
some one They regard the matter as
extremely funny and will persist in it
against all remonstrance. A revolver
is picked up, the joker looks at the
chamber under the hammer, sees that
there is no cartridge in it, forthwith
cocks it, when the cylinder revolves, he
snaps the cock all is safe, he cocks it
again, and at the next snap forgotten
cartridge is exploded, and there is
dead girl or a dead companion or at
best one MANNED or blinded for life
That is the history of thousands of
cases of the didn't know it was load
ed" type
Accidents of this kind never occur to
those who are accustomed to the con-
slant use of firearms Such people re-
4 hot 10 1a.lRl
not never point a firearm against an
other person. If inexperienced and
fresh youth would realize their culpa-
BILE folly and never play with firearms
the number of deaths from carelessness
would be immensely curtailed. Fire
arms are not manufactured to be toys
This is another phase of the question
which might be seriously considered
We have laws which forbid the sale of
liquor to minors, in some states the
sale of certain classes of tobacco is for
hidden, but any boy can go into store
buy cheap revolver and no one will
say him nay. The cheap revolver is as
dangerous to himself as it is to other
people whom he may point it at. Why
should there not be law in our Terri
tory forbidding the sale OF reVolVers or
pistols to minors? The minor should
be fined for carrying the weapon, and
the storekeeper should be more heavily
fined for selling it to him. In this way
the evil might in some measure be
mitigated.
That any such law would eradicate
the evil is not to be supposed. 1t is the
tendency of people to have firearms
about their houses. This has in
measure come from the fact that dur
ing more than a decade past it was
necessary for every citizen to have
arms in his house. But that time has
passed, and we now have the arms left
and there +. is no longer any use for
them. The consequence is they are
rummaged out of old drawers and for
gotten receptacles, and we get the reg
ulation crop of didn't know it was
loaded" accidents.
1T may look to. some people as if The
Star has treated this subject with un-
necessary seriousness, but it is not so.
1t is a very serious matter that injury
and sometimes death can result from
pure carelessness and the unnecessary
fcolishness of youth. Moreover acct
dents of this kind cast gloom over
the future lives Of those through whose
folly they have occurred. Much per-
haps can be done by the elders Of a
community pointing out the dangers
that lie in the careless handling of
firearms and in the needless handling
OF them. If attention is called to this
this article will not have been written
il vain
THE WRONG TREE