Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1882 — Carrying Concealed Weapons. [ARTICLE]

Carrying Concealed Weapons.

As the Constitutions, generally, say that the right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed, it seems to be established that laws cannot be passed to forbid men from carrying firearms. But most of the States, probably, have laws.declaring that these weapons shall not be carried concealed; whoever wears a pistol must wear it openly, so that his neighbors can see that he goes armed, and may care accordingly. Alabama has a stringent law of this kind. One man lately attempted to evade it by carrying in his pocket a pistol which could he taken apart and put together; the cylinder would unscrew from the barrel. He carried the pieces separate, but they were all in readiness, and could be screwed together and put in order for use at short notice. He said the pieces of the pistol were not a weapon. But the Court decided against him. An unloaded pistol cannot be fired, but would any one say that carrying an unloaded pistol in the pocket was not carrying a concealed weaponP Unless some essential part of the pistol is wholly wantinv, so that it cannot be made useful, it is a weapon. When Harvey Ta*ke? of Spencer, N. Y., died, leaving $10,00(5 and no will, his brother and sister took possession. Harvey was a bachelor, and when they entered into possession the heirs gave his adoi)ted son an old bureau as his share of the estate. To this they added a blessing and set the unfortunate youth out of doors. But when he had taken his heritage to a new house and was arranging his effects in it, he found a properly executed will which gave him all of Harvey Lake’s property. Harvey Lake’s brother and sister contested this, of course, but the law accepted it, and the youth has moved his old bureau back into his old home, and settled down with it.