The Deadly Cost of the 'Pistol Habit'
A fiery editorial argues that the rampant culture of carrying concealed weapons in the Northwest is transforming citizens into outlaws and fueling a cycle of preventable street murders.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A young man is at the point of death in the hospital who resisted arrest, fired at the officer, took to flight and was justly shot down. If that young man had not unlawfully 'carried a gun' he would not have been tempted to break his arrest and would not be dying a wretched death in his prime today. A young barkeeper is under arrest in Everett for shooting to death a negro bootblack with whom he had an altercation. If that young barkeeper had not 'carried a gun' he would not have been tempted to commit murder. Dr. Herrick, of Port Angeles, lies dead, killed by a pistol shot at the hands of Police Judge Carvel, whom he had assaulted. If Judge Carvel had not 'carried a gun' he would not have killed his former friend. The practice of 'carrying a gun' breeds murder and ought to be severely punished. No man should be allowed to carry concealed weapons without a legal permit, and every man who is found with such weapons should be held to strict legal account. It is a most murderous, unmanly, and cowardly habit. The habit of 'carrying a gun' and resorting to it in case of every trivial quarrel that a manly man would either avoid or settle, as Englishmen do, with his fists, is making our American people in certain districts of the country a race of bloodthirsty cowards; it is making respect for the sanctity of human life exceedingly cheap.
“It is a most murderous, unmanly and cowardly habit and should be left to ruffians and outlaws whose society no law-respecting citizen seeks.”
This 1893 editorial reads like a direct ancestor to modern debates over gun control and public safety in Seattle. The author's frustration with the 'pistol habit' reflects an era struggling with the transition from frontier vigilantism to the rule of law, a conversation that persists in the city's discourse over the Second Amendment and public violence today.
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