Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1903-06-18
The Sale of Fire Arms.

Editor Press
The time of year is now at hand to
look out for the toy cannon and the
cheap revolver, as the ever glorious
Fourth of July is soon at hand. and
all Young America wants to cele-
brate by making all the noise possible,
and for some reason their minds ali
run to the cheap revolver and cannon.
'Ihese they can easily buy at any store
at this time of the year, and there is
nothing to hinder any "kid" with the
price, from buying guns and ammuni-
tlon. L think there should be some
change made in the laws regarding the
buying, owning, carrying of revolvers,
or all other weapons having a barrel
shorter than sixteen inches. AS the
law now stands "tramps, toughs, and
outlaws" are the only people that can
carry short gun, or revolver. as law
abiding citizens respect the law in re-
gard to carrying concealed: weapons.
This is illustrated by the following
sCory of two highwaymen who met on
street corner just as man had pass
ed:
No. says to No, "Why did you not
rob that man?'' No 1, "Because he
did not look like law abiding citizen"
No. 2, What difference does that
makeT' No. 1. ''He might have gun
with him" There is considerable to
this, as have noticed something of
this among certain people in my
travels. One place in particular, /
was working where the population
was mostly of low class, of Huns.
Slavs and Italians. 1t was a common
occurrence for robbery and murder
about once week, but noticed that
those who carrieda gun were known
to be good marksmen, and with grit
enough to use it, were rarely ever
stopped. Once man was stopped that
did have gun and knew how to use
it and the consequence was, one of the
highwaymen wae killed and the other
one sent to the hospital for repairs.
From my own experience l think the
law should be changed SO that a busi-
ness man could protect himself by
carrying gun if necessary, and SO
that tramps and young boys could not
obtain them. This could be done,
think, by some law that would require
all hardware and sporting goods deal
ers not to sell to any person that did
not have license to carry arms. This
license could be obtained of the justice
of peace, for fee of five dollars.
be alike, at least fifteen dollars. At this
price person would be able to buy a
good arm, and that price, with the five
dollar license to buy the arm, would
stop the sale of revolvers to tramps,
boys, and all people that did not have
anything to protect. And still the
twenty or twenty-five dollars for the
right to buy first-class gun and carry
it, would not be too high for business
man to pay that had anything to pro-
tect.
He would also have the satisfaction
of owning good gun, ore that is al
together safe and reliable BY the
license system the police could know
| just who owned revolver in each
county. The license should give a
man the right to carry revolver only
| for self-protection, and should require
person to have about fifty dollars in
money, or jewlery, or other valuables
on his person at the time of
carrying the gun. And any
time a man misused his right to carry
arms by reckless shooting, either by
false manipulation of the arm or by
reckless target practice, his license
should be taken away from him and
his revolver turned over to the police.
| buluk IL d law VI bulo hluu, Ut bOHlo
modification of it, would do much to
stop the practice of carrying re-
volvers by people that do not need
them, while the cost and publicity of
having right to carry arms would
keep many more from carrying them,
while the tough element could not
buy gun, for only respectable persons
would be given a license and no
dealer could sell without seeing the
license, and taking the number of
same together with the persons name.
These he would keep a record of for
his own protection, in case any damage
being done with any gun he had sold.
As soon as the revolver is bought it
should be taken to the police justice
and he should stamp number on it
corresponding to the number of the
license number. Then in case a re-
volver was found in house, or beside
a dead person, the number of same
would show the license number and
that would show the PERSONS name
that owned that particular revolver.
Many crimes could be traced in this
| WaV.