The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-04-24
PISTOL ToTlMG.

All, or nearly all, of the states have laws against
the carrying of concealed weapons. but that the law
is dead letter, or nearly dead letter in Utah is
evidenced BIZ the number of murders and shooting
scrapes which come before the courts for trial and
the number of men convicted and serving time in
the state penitentiary for offenses ranging from
manslaughter to murder. Supplementary to the
state laws on the subject of carrying concealed
weapons, several communities have made efforts to
restrict the possession of revovers and pistols of
all sorts. About year ago the city council of
Chicago passed weapons ordinance the prin-
cipal feature of which was that the purchaser of
weapon of any kind had to have license and per-
nit to purchase before the dealer could sell to him
The dealer was also required to keep register of
the person, his address, license and permit number
and he was required to report the chief of police
each sale of deadly weapons within twenty-four
hours No argument can be brought against such
a law. If man has legitimate use for a weapon
he could no doubt easily the license to own il
and the permit to buy it by application to the chief
OF police, and the possession of revolver would
be known to the police should the authorities have
cause to apprehend and arrest the owner for apv
reason If the ordinance were enforced it would no
doubt tend to reduce the number of shocking crimes
which daily backen the police records of all cities
of the country, and more civilized condition Would
perhaps obtain.
Ihat the new weapons ordinance is not en- forced
Is evident from story in the Chicago Record
Herald, which newspaper says there is in the win
dow of one dealer in that city sign with letters
several inches high reading, "Revolvers sold with
out permits" Other signs announce "Guns to
rent In addition there are pictures of men
drawing and firing revolyers, intended to show the
excellence of the repair work done by the dealer
According to the Record Herald, policemen mass
these signs, read them, if they are capable of read
lng and nothing is done to stop the advertising of
the statement that they violate the law. No doubt
the dealer does as he advertises most advertisers
do. But by what arrangement this dealer is ner.
mitted to defy the law is not apparent
Chicago is good ways from home. but there i
still lesson to be drawn from this incident fo
condluons IN Salt Lake are not so very different
IN the matter OF law defiance from the conditions in
Chicago 1t is against the law to carry concealed
weapons IN the state of Utah, yet there are bun-
dreds, perhaps thousands of,weapons carried e -
are to Judge by the number of times tbav orc
brought INTO use with deadly effect 1t is eond;.
ton which all good citizens should deprecste md
united effort should be made to suppress # Tbero
is entirely too much leniency felt bv Tho avoro,.
citizen IN the matter of law observance. anvbo7r
Each one seems to violate whatever law interforo,
with his desire. Automobiles violate tho snooJ
ordinance; bicyclists ride on the sidewalk drives
go up the left side of the street. oil l;+4l. IL.