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Show .MAKE IT HARD FOR THE CRIMINAL There is a whole lot of talk about the crime wave and how to reduce crime. A few practical suggestions have been made, but most of the publicity pub-licity is given to proposals which would favor and pamper the criminal at the expense of the law-abiding citizen. If we want to stop crime, the surest way to make it unpopular is to make it more unpleasant for the criminal A law to deny the private citizen the right to buy and own a pistol or revolver re-volver merely gives the criminal a safer field in which to operate. We already have regulatory laws regarding regard-ing the sale of revolvers and the carrying of concealed weapons. These laws, in the past, have been effective when they were enforced. The average man has no business carrying a concealed weapon. If he has occasion to, he can get a permit to do so. The crook has no business being a crook, but if he is a crook, still he has no business carrying a concealed weapon. Therefore, if he is arrested in the act of lawbreaking and later convicted, he should be subjected to the penalty the law imposes. If he uses a gun in the commission of a crime, why not double the penalty? This would punish the criminal who uses a gun unlawfully, rather than the private citizen who under the constitution con-stitution has a right to own and possess guns. In other words, enforce our present laws, double the penalty for criminals where they use dangerous weapons, and uphold the law-abiding citizen in his constitutional rights. |