The Donaldsonville chief., 1922-11-04
ABOLISH The REVOLVER.
Its Sole Use Since Invention Has
Been to Kill Human Beings.

Ever since the invention Of the
pistol 400 years ago, its sole purpose
and that Of it's successor, the revol-
YER, was to kill human beings, says
II. II. Windsor in the November issue
of Popular Mechanics Magazine. Out
side of legally authorized war, they
have undoubtedly caused the accl-
dental or murderous death of a thou
sand for every life saved by their
iustifable use. The possession OF
such arms should be limited to mill
tary and police forces. For the hunt
er, the farmer, the explorer, and for
target practice, the larger tirearm
affords quite sufficient service and pro
lection. The concealed weapon l.,
very seldom of value to any but the
lawbreaker. The chief of one of the
largest city police forces in this
country says that more than so per
cent of the sales of revolVers at the
present time are to the criminal class
es.
The revolver is really the weapon
Of the coward; without it the thug
and hoIdup man would immediately
lose his nerve in most cases, and
would soon abandon his profession.
Holdups in Offices are of daily occur
renee because orc of two dash IN
and cover the occupants with guns, y
but if these same bandits tried to &C
complish their purpose with rifles,
crowbars, or clubs, the results would
be vastly different.
Some cities have tried to limit and
control the sale of small firearms,
but the effort is practically a failure
because evasion is SO easy, and then
there is always the mail-order dealer
sending goods in plain packages to
afraid to purchase from regular deal
ers or pawnbrokers in town, he has
the shipment mailed to some small
suburb, few miles out, where both
he and the nature Of the goods he
receives are unknown and excite no
comment.
A Chicago business man, John r.
Thompson, a year ago advertised a
reward Of $1,000 to anyone who would
send him one really good reason (out-
side of military or police) why the
manufacture of revolvers in this
country should be allowed to exist.
He has yet to receive a single con-
vlncing reason.
The alarming increase in crime and
murder made possible by the possess
sion of revolvers, has become such
a national menace that nothing short
of Federal law prohibiting their
importation, manufacture, sale, or
possession (outside of museums, and
military or police) can abate the evil.
All possessors of revolvers should be
required to turn them over to Gov
ernment officials, and a heavy fine, or
fine and Imprisonment to fit the case,
should then become effective. Grim
inals, fearing the strong arm of Gov
ernment and finding it less easy to
evade penalties, would be less inclin-
ed to carry arms, and as fast as ar
rested would lose what they had. We
have too many laws now, but this
is one more that would produce wide
spread and immediate good results,
without depriving anyone Of i neccs-
sary personal right.
Many publishers, recognizing The
assistance which their columns were
giving the criminal class by adver-
tising, revolvers to be sent by mail,
are now voluntarily refusing to accept
such advertising, although in many
cases perfectly reputable firms were
included in the ban. This magazine
adopted such a policy months ago.
Our Government should itself manu-
facture what few concealable firearms
it permits to be used, and prevent all
others from doing so, and from i'm
porting.