The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-04-04
{ MORNING
SAVANNAH.
THE PISTOL IN SCHOOL.

| Principal Harper of the LOwndesN
school, in Abbeville county, SoutI.
| Carolina, was a day or two ago Sc
riously wounded with a pistol in the
hands of James Latimer, his seven
teen-year-old pupil. 1t appears that
Principal Harper deemed 1t necessary
| to punish certain OF the pupils, young
Latimer included, in order to MAIN
tain discipline. But the boy resisted.
First he produced an iron rod with
which to tight. When this was taken
from him he drew a self-acting re-
Volver and fired twice" Both shots, it
seems found their mark. That the
teacher was not instantly killed was
not young Latimer's fault If we are
rot greatly mistaken, this is the sec
ond school shooting that has occurred
within a few weeks in South Carolina.
In the other instance, If we remem-
Der rightly, a scholar was shot by the
teacher.
These incidents would seem to indi-
cate that the pistol toting habit ex-
tends even to the school children and
their instructors. The boy of seven
teen-young Latimer-attended the
school and engaged in games with his
fellow students, with a pistol in his
pocket. He was prepared for trouble,
or to make trouble, at all times. And
yet he is the son OF one of the leading
families of his section. His father is
a man of considerable means and his
uncle is a senator of the United States.
There is probably not state in the
union that has a greater number and
more drastic laws on it's statute books
directed against the pistol than South
Carolina. Heavy penalties are provid-
ed for those who carry the weapons
on their persons concealed, and there
is a law in force which practically
prohibits the sale or offer for sale of
pistols in the state. And yet the lieu
tenant governor of the state walks out
on the streets of the capital with two
pistols concealed in his pockets and
shoots to death a leading citizen, and
a school boy of seventeen draws his
revolver at school and shoots his
teacher. If the perpetrators of these
acts of violence were obscure persons,
there would be little room for criti-
cism. 1t could be said that they were
not representative of anybody save
themselves. But both of these pistol
toters and shooters are nephews of
United States senators. They belong to
families which, being in the public eye,
ought to set a good example in ODE
dience to the law for all of the state.
AS leaders, the Tillmans and the Lati-
mers are for the time among the fore
most families of the state And they tote
pistols and are quick of the trigger!
There is a moral in connection with
the incidents to which we have refer
red, of course. 1t is that laws that are
not enforced are worse than useless.
The anti-pistol laws of South Carolina
are VIGOROUSLY disregarded. Nobody,
apparently, pays any attention to
them. Occasionally a negro who is
caught at a crap game and found with
a pistol on his person is punished, but
that is about the limit of the enforce
ment of them. Another point is that
parents are too complaisant with re-
gard to the conduct of their boys. Did
Mr.. Latimer know that his son was a
pistol toter? And did the boy carry
the weapon with his fathers consent?
In place of passing a great number
of laws, what is needed is a campaign
of education against Iawlessness and
arts of yiolaOca and tho apforcar,ap4
of the laws already in existence.