The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-08-05
GOOD CITIZEN
HAS RIGHT TO GUN

Detective VIM. J. Burns, whose mag
azine article, THE Public and the Pts
toll" was widely quoted in newspa-
pers throughout the country, has is
sued a statement wherein he follows
up his attack against revolver laws
that deter law-abiding citizens from
recurring firearms for home protec-
ton. Detective Burns says, in part:
THE problem of decreasing our an
nual number of murders is difficult for
the reason that we have two distinct
and almost Numerically opposite
types of homcides-those committed
when an ordinary law-abiding citizen
suddenly goes wrong and kills a re-
spectacle citizen, and those committed
by crooks and criminals against law
abiding citizens. The danger is dras-
tic laws calculated to prevent murders
by the ordinarily respecta BILE citizen is
that these throw the door wide open
to murders of respectable citizens by
ruffians and criminals.
mo homicide, of course, stirs our
sensibilities so much as when a re-
spectacle citizen suddenly turns into
man killer When the weapon used
happens to be a pistol, and particular
ly when the murder is committed in
that suggests itself it to pass laws de-
terring citizens from procuring fire.
arms.
If the only type of murder perpe-
trated were that committed by respec
table citizens suddenly gone wrong,
the policy of disarming law biding
citizens would be an obvious one. But
the other kind of homicide, the muir
der of respectable citizens by Grim
mails, is by far the more common one.
According to the statistics compiled in
my office, pistol murders of citizens
by criminals outnumber pistol murders
of citizens by ordinarily abiding
citizens sixteen to one.
"To regard this problem properly ii
Is necessary to discard sentiment and
view it in the light of reason. Exper-
ience with the New York revolver law
ras proved that it is absurd to say
thou shalt not carry concealed weap-
ons' to the man depraved enough to
disregard thou shalt not kill. The rob-
Der, the burglar and the gangster, as
New York experience has shown, will
continue to prey upon the respectable
citizen with revolvers, knives. blud-
Seons and nitro-glycerine. Laws de-
tering all citizens alive from procur-
ing firms-arms result in dsarming
only the law-abiding and invite the
murder of these by criminals.
'As it is out of the question to dis
arm the criminal the question is: Shall
we guard the law-abiding citizen
against himself and prevent two and
q half per cent of pistol murders, or
shall we permit the lava abiding citi-
zen to arm himself against the Grim
cent of pistol victims and who add
forty per cent of other victims, slain
with knives, daggers, clubs and other
should answer.
Our state of civilization has not
reached the point where we can afford
to disarm the law-abiding citizen
Until the burglar, the highwayman
the vicious tramp and the robber have
been stamped out, the pistol Is the
sole weapon that equalizes the chances
between the frail woman and the weak
or the aged man against a burly as
>ailant. OF that vast number of in
nocent persons who are annually beat
en- or dubbed or choked to death, how
many would have saved their lives If
only they had been armed with pis-
tolls?
1T is no eXaggeration to claim that
-fourths OF our pistol homicides
can be prevented by checking gun
toting.' Pass laws enabling RESPONSE
bic citizens who can show cause for
arming themselves to obtain licenses
20 carry revolvers. Provide a sliding
scale punishment for the gun toter-
an adequate jail sentence for the or
binary respectable citizen who hap
pens to slip up the first time, and a
super-adequate prison sentence for the
criminal gun toter'
THE problem OF checking the gun
toter' is not matter of new laws. 1t
is question Of enforcing existing
laws. As to the pistol in the homes Of
respectable citizens, it is a crime de-
tcrrent and the most valuable adjunct
of our police system"