The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-12-26
A PROPOSITION
AND ITS ANSWER

AND l1S ANO W En-
If Editors Benjamin and Dixon, OF
the Lakeland Telegram and OcaIa
Star can repress the influence Of that |
taste for blood few minutes we
would like to submit to them pro- |
position. They appear to be defend
ing the carrying and use-the neces- |
sity even-of guns upon the grounds
of personal safety, and we do not for
a moment doubt that they think they
think their ground well taken. And
we will therefore venture to them
this proposition. That anywhere I'M
the United States-anywhere- the
worst of the bad places of the fero-
cious West-in the toughest mine and
camp regions of Florida-anywhere
at all in these United States-the
average life of persons who go al
ways unarmed is a great deal longer
! than of those who always go armed.
| Honest-does our proposition stand,
or does it not? And if it does, is not
our case against the gun won st.
Petersburg Times.
We have no objection to Straub
saying we are bloodthirsty-if he
thinks it is argument-but we don't
consider it fair for him to bring such
an accusation against Uncle Joe Dix
on, who is one of the mildest of men,
and whose writings show that he does
not try to misstate the opinions of an
opponent.
Straub is very fond of sizing up all
matters by his own traits and exper-
fences. Judging by what he tells of
himself, he either becomes uncomfor-
tably nervous if he is left in the same
room with a gun, or he has such a
bad temper that he can't be trusted
with a gun. We don't think this ar
gument is fair to Straub, but it is
the same kind he uses on US, and he
doesn't know us personally any better
than we know him.
1t is therefore not wonderful that
when we say that our citizens should
try to retain their constitutional right
to keep and bear arms that Straub
can't think of anything but some of
the bad men he says he met in the
west, and from whom, he gives us to
infer, he escaped by his impeccable
calm.
For all Straub knows to the con-
trary, the bad men let him alone be-
cause they thought he had derringer
in his pocket and was likely to shoot
them thru the lining after the style
of Dashing Dick Talbot the Outlaw
King of Shasta.
We are not disposed to Judge of
large matters by our own personal ex-
periences. We fear such a judgment
would be too narrow Yet we have
been over a right smart of the west,
and never saw bad men thick enough
in any one place to overawe or i'll
treat aw-abiding citizens. Judging
from all we have been able to learn
by personal observation and a close
study of news for third of a cen
fury, there is more shooting and cow
ardly murder in the cities of the effete
east than in the wild and woolly west;
and majority of murders are COM
mitted with other weapons than pis-
tolls
AS we have not advocated and do
not intend to advocate the habitual
carrying of arms at normal times in
peaceable communities, we don't see
why Straub should have injected such
proposition into the argument. We
think that if Straub will observe the
: dispatches in his own paper, he will
!. see that whenever an armed criminal
!, attacks an unarmed person, the latter
has the worst of it.
The proposition that we made il
the first place was that citizens of the
! United States should retain theil
i. right to keep arms, as their bes1
guarantee against foreign aggression
+ and domestic oppression; that the
citizen had right to keep a weapon
: in his home, and that heishould teach
the members of his family, for theil
, own safety, how to use-not misust
a it. Straub has excurted on a Who'll,
lot of side lines, created by his inca
, pacity to understand any views bu
his own. We now leave him to wande
+ about on them and will go on t,
\ other things.
MTTCTCAI TPEAT