The Sentinel=record., 1912-08-04
DETECTIVE BURNS
 ON 'PlSTOL LAWS
TOO DRASTIC STATUTES, HE BE. LIEvEs, INCREASES THE
 NUMBER OF CRIMES.
Disarming Law Abiding Citizens En- couraees Crooks and
 Criminals.

New York, Aug. 3.-Detectiye Will liam J. Burns. whose magazine article 'The Public anu the Pistol" was widely quoted in newspapers through out the country Ihas issued a state ment wherein inc follows mp his at tack against revolver laws that deter law abiding citizens from procuring firearms for home protection
 Detective Burns says. in part:
 The problem of decreasing our an nuai number of murders is difficult for the reason that We have two dis tinct and almost diametrically oppo site types of homicide-those com mitted when an ordinary lawabiding citizen suddenly goes wrong and kills a respectable citizen, and those committed by crooks and criminals against gaw-abiding citizens. The danger in drastic flaws calculated to prevent murders by the ordinarily respectable citizen is that these throw the door wide open to murders of respectable citizens by ruffains and criminals.
 bNO uOulitiutS, pl NOhiots otiiS Oui sensibilities so much as when re. spectable citizen suddenly turns into man killer. When the weapon used happens to be pistol and par. ticularly when the murder is com mitted in the heat of passion, the first remedy that suggests itself is tO pass laws deterring citizens from procuring firearms.
 If the only type of murder perpe. trated were that committed by re- spectable citizens suddenly gone wrong, the policy of disarming law abiding citizens would be an obvious one. But the other kind of homicide, the murder of respectable citizens by criminals is far the more common one. According to the statistics com piled in my office pistol murders of citizens by criminals outnumber pis- tol murders of citizens by ordinarily law-abiding cities by sixteen to one.
 ITO regard this problem properly It is necessary to discard sentiment and view it in the light of reason Experience with the New York Re yolyer Law has proved that it is ab- . surd to say Thou shalt not carry concealed weapons to the man de- praved enough to disregard Thou shalt not kill The robber, the burglar and the gangster, as New York experience has shown, will COIL tinue to prey upon the respectable citizen with reyolyers, knives, bludg- cons and nitro glycerine. Laws deter ring all citizens alike from procur. ing firearms result in disarming only the lawabiding 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 citi. zen against himself and prevent the 21h per cent of pistol murders, or shall We permit the law-abiding citi- zen to arm himself against the crimi- nals whose pistols lay low 40 per cent of the pistol victims and who add 40 per cent of other victims, slain with knives, daggers. clubs and other foul means. Figures, not sentiment, should answer
 Our state of civilization has not reached the point where we can af. ford to disarm the law-abiding citi' zen. Until the burglap the highway man, the vicious tramp and the robber have been stamped out, the pistol is ahe sole weapon that equalizes the chances between the frail woman and the weak or the aged man against a burly assailant. Of that vast nnm Der of innocent persons who are an. nually beaten or clubbed or ehoked