On Wednesday, Lord Carmarthen moved the second reading of his
Bill for restricting the use of pistols. After a dis- cuasion, during which the Government announced that they adopted the principle of the measure, the second reading was carried by 204 votes to 85. The measure provides, among other things, that the vendor of pistols must take out a license, that each pistol sold must bear the name of the maker, and a number by which it can be identified. No sale can be made to any person without a license, save in certain excepted cases. Boys under eighteen are absolutely pro- hibit,ed from possessing or carrying a pistol. Nobody may carry a loaded pistol in any public place without a written permission from the chief officer of police. Nobody who has been sentenced to penal servitude may carry or use a pistol for five years after his release, and nobody on ticket-of-leave may carry a pistol while his ticket-of-leave is unexpired. Possibly many of these provisions will require to be made less strict. We have no desire. to see the people of this country disarmed, holding that it would be an injury to the manliness of the nation to accept the notion that the police must always be looked to for protection, and that no man need ever be expected to defend himself. Still, free pistol- shooting by boys, lunatics, and nervous incapables, is by no means a thing to be encouraged, and sensible and reasonable regulation should be welcomed on all sides.
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