INTO THE SEA

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 81, 2 October 1931, Page 14

INTO THE SEA

DEADLY HARVEST

WEAPONS OF CRIMINALS

WILY HOLD-UP MEN

The annual destruction of firearms seized by the New York City Police under the provisions of the Sullivan law, or which have fallen into their hands following the commission of criminal acts during the past year, again raises the question of where New York criminals obtain their weapons, says tho "New York Times." Among the weapons destroyed recently were nearly 3000 pistols. This is an increase over last year's harvest, which was about 2500, aad that of the year before, when 2000 were destroyed. The Sullivan law, passed in 1898, forbade, among other things, the possession and the carrying of pistols and provided heavy punishment for offenders. The police have never believed that the law was futile. In defiance of it criminals continued to carry arms, and perhaps became bolder in their pursuits as they were freed from any great risk of counter-attack by their intended victims. On the other hand, the Sullivan law, it is held, gave the police a grip on " the criminal. In carrying arms criminals were breaking a law and they were subject to imprisonment on this count even when able to evade others. Many a known criminal has been arrested on this charge when the police lacked the evidence to arrest him on another. Last year there were nearly 1300 such arrests, out of which 500 convictions were obtained. FROM OTHER STATES. Operating under the provisions of the Sullivan law the poliqo have, they contend, dried up the sources of supply in New York State. , It is practically certain that there is no bootleg trade, in. arms, except among the criminals themselves. It is difficult for the law-abiding citizen to buy a gun in the State, but thero has been no way of stopping the commerce that flowrs across State borders. The usual manner in which criminals and gangsters, and people who are premeditating crimes, obtain their weapons- is to cross the border into a State where the. sale of revolvers is not prohibited. Police" say that the majority of criminals go to ■Philadelphia for their armaments. Half a day away from their work and a short train ride permits them to pick and choose as their fancy dictates. • . ■ Until two years ago they had only to take a. mail-order catalogue and : select their weapon.' It would be sent on approval. When the United States mails were closed to firearms two years ago this business was hurt, but not killed.. Pistols could still be imported by express. MORE CAREFUL. Recently' gangsters began to take precautions in the purchase of their weapons!, -Ballistic experts have become too accurate in tracing bullets back to the guns which fired them. Once a pistol has" been used- to commit a crime it becomes a menace to its owner. If he is arrested *on another charge and :the . weapon is found on him, / his connection with the crime may bo .traced. If he throws it away, and it is found, it may be traced back to him through the number on-it. Some criminals sought safety in filing the number from the pistol so that it could not be traced; Of late, however, gangdom:has been importing its pistols from Spain; The gang are sent to-dealers in Mexico njid ate then "run V across the border. This precaution makes it impossible to trace a weapon through its purchase; The innovation .was started by ' Chicago chieftains, but it has spread to New York, and among the guns destroyed this month by the police were a number of Spanish make; MACHINE GUNS. : Jnihe past few years ,the "public has been shocked by' th« use of machine guni in attacks' on, banks and in gang warfare. Until quite recently the machine gun was," not banned by law in this State. But on Ist May the Legislature passed an amendment to the Sullivan law includinj; this weapon. The amendment becomes operative on Ist Septemberl ' The gangs, .however, have already laid in tth'eir supplies. At the .end of the. war the Federal Government sold, 15,00.0 machine guns to a sporting goods house, and many of these instruments! were purchased by. criminals. The New York police made inquiries; regarding these guns the first of this, year. ( It was learned .that 7000 of them already, had been sold. , An effort was made to check those which had been sold during the last year, numbering 785, and some eighty-four guns had been, shipped ;■ to fictitious addresses—-to, John Does, John Smiths, md even to police departments which never, existed. It. is to be pre-; sumed that these guns were purchased for criminal purposes. . ~'■'.. The open manner in which criminals carry machine guns is shown by a recent incident at a police" station.' A policeman on duty in the tenderloin district saw an .automobile in which four men/with criminal records' were riding. He stopped : the car- and searched the men.--None, ©f them carried concealed weapons, but;in the' car was a machine gun. He took the car, the inon, and the gun to the station house. But the officer on duty informed him that there was nothing with which he could charge his prisoners.; Machine guns were not banned by law, and a criminal here could, if ho pleased, mount a machine gun on the hood of Ids car and ride up and down1, in front of police headquarters without fear of police interference. , . . TOY PISTOLS. ; The. new amendment to the Sullivan law contains a, provision which is unusual. Toy .pistols are banned when they are intended for criminal purposes. Th« police have been fighting for several years for this legal aid in their war on robbers and hold-up men. Because the pistol, by inspiring fear in victims, has given the criminal his ascendancy over the citizen, the Criminal now finds'that for straight hold-up purposes he needs tho deadly weapon less arid^ less. The sight of ' a pistol is enough to make his victim stand and deliver. While, young criminals, or persons, made desperate by / circumstances,' arm themselves with revolvers to effect hold-ups, the practised criminal has in some cases been viljr enough to discard tho instrument which will expose him to extra years in' prison should he be apprehended. ] Daggers, long-bladed knives, blackjacks, ■ and brass knuckles figure very little .in the list of weapons destroyed by the police. These weapons are^ not usually carried by the man who * has premeditated a crime. They figure principally in sudden quarrels and in vendettas. There were no bombs or hand grenades in the arms destroyed. These instruments are effectively destroyed as quickly as they fall into the hands of