Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World

by Clifton R. Wooldridge

Suicide with the revolver is a favorite method of self-destruction with men. Press the muzzle against the head or heart, a slight pressure of the forefinger—instant oblivion follows.

The bandit who holds up the railroad train and robs the passengers almost invariably uses a revolver. With this small weapon he terrorizes and robs an entire trainload of travelers.

The vicious carry pistols with criminal intent, but there is also a very large class, which might be designated as a "weak" class, which carries the pistol without any criminal intent, but under the influence of a fascination for the handling of deadly weapons. Among certain classes of negroes it is the habit to carry pistols or other deadly weapons to balls, parties or other places where they congregate, and they carry them, apparently, to a certain extent, as a matter of ornament, something on the principle of our gentlemanly forefathers of a few hundred years ago, who considered no full-dress equipment complete without the rapier. The very fact that these weapons are present leads to brawls and quarrels, which result only too frequently in killing, or an attempt to kill.

It is dangerous to put into the hands of a weak person a weapon which may carry death and destruction by the small pressure of the finger. The very handling of such weapons seems to breed the desire to use them. The situation is something similar to that of a man who gazes over the brink of a precipice and to whom there comes an almost irresistible desire to throw himself over.

There would be some force in the argument that the law-abiding citizen has the right to carry a revolver to protect himself from thugs if his pistol were any real protection; but it is not. The attack from the thug on the highway comes so suddenly and unexpectedly that there is rarely an opportunity to use a weapon in defense; and, even if it should occasionally happen that a man would be at a disadvantage because he had no pistol, this loss to the community is outweighed a thousand to one by the evils which follow its use.

Why should we permit men to manufacture and sell instruments of crime—weapons which are designed for no other purpose? We do have laws which prevent the free sale of poisons, based upon the fact that poisons may be used as a means of self-destruction or in the destruction of others. But we have no safeguards against the purchase and use of these other deadly agencies.

A brilliant display of deadly weapons may be found in any first-class hardware store, one which is peculiarly tempting to the young, the weak and the vicious. Pawnshops are heavily stocked with weapons of this character.

There are a hundred places on the streets of Chicago, particularly on Clark and State streets, where may be found in cases standing in front of stores a display of brass knuckles, dirks and revolvers, which can be purchased at a very small price—and without restrictions of any kind. Yet they are purchased, almost exclusively, to be used as instruments of crime.

Experience has demonstrated that the laws which forbid the carrying of concealed weapons are not effective; and it is not possible that, in the very nature of things, they can be entirely so. There is only one sure and effective way of preventing the criminal use of these deadly weapons—that is, to make it impossible for men to get hold of them. This can be done only by forbidding their manufacture and sale. The State, in the exercise of its police power, has authority to pass laws of this character.

I submit that it is the duty of the community to demand the passage of such laws. There seems to be no answer to this proposition when you consider that these articles are not manufactured to sell for any legitimate purpose, and that to deprive men of the privilege of manufacturing and selling deadly weapons does not, in any degree, deprive the community of anything which may be of any real use or benefit.