Arms & the Newsman

Though Houston has long prided itself on its Texas hospitality, another Texas tradition--gun-toting--has given the city a different kind of reputation in the past two years. With 109 murders last year, Houston (1956 pop. 760,000) had the fourth highest total of criminal homicides of any U.S. city; in 1957, with 93 murders to date, pistol-packing Houston is expected to set a new high score for gore.

One of the main reasons for Houston's murderous pace, as a grand jury recently pointed out, is that "to acquire a pistol is such a simple matter that mere quarrels often become killings." For shooting a pistol in the city, Houston Press Reporter Bob Bray noted in a six-part series on the murder rate last July, the maximum fine is $200--if no one is pinked; in 36 murder cases tried this year, tolerant juries have not voted a single death sentence.

Last week, in a Page One Houston Post story that got to the commercial core of the matter, Reporter John Davis, 35, wrote that "there is absolutely no control over pistol sales."* Reported Davis: "In a shopping tour of gunshops and pawnshops, one thing was apparent: all you need to buy a $29.50 pistol in Houston is $29.50." Backing up his story, the Post ran a three-column cut of a .32-cal. Harrington & Richardson revolver bought by Davis--and a pawnshop's receipt for $29.50. Newsman Davis was not even asked for identification, despite a seldom-enforced, awkwardly worded appendage to a Texas statute which stipulates that firearms may be sold only to buyers who have 1) a "certificate of good character" from a judge, and 2) no prison record. Another antiquated law unearthed by John Davis provides a $100 minimum fine for anyone who carries a "pistol, dirk, dagger, slingshot, handchain, night stick, sword cane, spear or bowie knife."

The day after Davis' story ran in the Post (circ. 203,743), Houston Justice of the Peace Dave Thompson summoned a court of inquiry and decided that the only way to halt Houston's armaments race was by "strict enforcement" of the law requiring gun buyers to show a certificate. Justice Thompson's next step: to issue arrest warrants for six Houston gun dealers and for Reporter Davis, who had already got rid of his pistol and protested that he wouldn't own one at any price--even $29.50.

*A Texas phenomenon perhaps related to a fundamentalist reading of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

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