The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1913-12-12
THE DEADLY PISTOL.

The crack of the deadly pistol is
all over South Carolina
and blood-letting still continues. We
are glad to know that the press of
the state, with almost one chorus, is
crying out against It, The deadly
bullet ended the life of a white man
in Barnwell just few days since.
Shortly afterwards a husband was
killed in his own home in Batesburg,
and more recently a negro, about his
usual work in a club in Columbia,
falls dead in his tracks from pistol
in the hands of the attorney general
of the state, the highest peace officer
in the commonwealth. The state of
South Carolina is paying fearful
toll in human life from the practice
of violating the law of the state
against carrying concealed pistols.
The legislature at it's meeting in jan
uary. should pass law prohibiting
the sale of pistols in South Carolina
and all peace officers should begin at
once to enforce the law against
carrying concealed weapons. The
Columbia Record in Tuesdays issue,
in an editorial entitled "Outlaw the
Pistol" goes to the root of the mat
ter. We quote in part from it:
South Carolina this entire coun-
try in fact, has supped to the full
on the blood that has flowed in rivers
from the one universal maniacal
practice among the people of carry
ing pistols. Concealed or unconceal-
ed, the pistol is always a nimble in
strument for homicidal execution.
The popularity of the pistol is that
it acts before it thinks. 1t is pro
covative as we'll as ready. 1t is with
in bounds to say that seven-tenths OF
the homicides that occur in South
Carolina are the result of the viola
tion of the law intended to prohibit
the carrying of pistols. 1t is safe to
say that one homicide in a hundred
that occur through the instrumental
ty of the pistol is unavoidable and
unnecessary. In other words, where
the pistol saves or protects life in one
instance, it sacrifices 1t in ninety
nine cases.
"The state of South Carolina has
solemnly placed on its statute books
a law making it crime to carry the
plSJOl OF OLneT ueduly "SdpOhS SOlt
cealed. And, yet, the state OF South
Carolina licenses, or authorizes or
permits the barter and sale OF these
weapons to every class and degree OF
the rank and file of society, to young
and old, white and black, in farcical
disregard or contempt of the purposes
for which it's own statute was made
and provided. For it goes without
saying, that to sell pistol to per-
son unauthorized to carry it involves
the violation of the law, as it is i'm |
practical to carry a pIstoI unconceal- |
ed.
MEN and brethren, no mans lie
is secure, no woman or child is safe, |
as long as pistols are distributed |
without practical restriction and |
freely carried among the people. The |
strikes at high and low |
alike. In Barnwcll the other day IT |
was the life of a prominent white |
citizen that was suddenly sacrificed; |
in Columbia it was the life OF AN !
humble negro. In neither case could |
life have been taken but for the |
presence of the pistol. And so it is |
i'm the great bulk of the hOmicides |
that annually saturate our soil and |
stain the fair name of the state.
lis it not time to respect the law
and Danish the pistol in fact as in