On the Lost Dutchman Monument, Old Snowbeard carries a rifle. This weekend, take an online adventure to interesting articles about guns found in the Arizona Digital Newspaper Program. Enjoy the adventure and stay safe out there.

The first article comes from the Bisbee Daily Review, Tuesday Morning Edition on September 6, 1904, headlined “Must Leave Guns At Their Homes.” Constable Durnal will not allow guns in Justice Johnson’s court room. “What Mr. Durnal said was that no man entering the court room on Tuesday morning should carry a gun, unless he is an officer of the law.” Beware if you have a side arm, “It may be added that when Durnal says a thing he means it.”

An editorial in the Bisbee Daily Review, entitled “Texas Has a Good Gun Law,” caught my eye on page 4 of the Friday Morning Edition of August 16, 1907. The Editor talks about a law that will “no doubt decrease the sale of this character of deadly weapons and this result will be to lessen the chances of murders and murderous assaults.”

The Editor also states that, “Hundreds of men are killed every year whose lives would have been spared had their slayers been unarmed when the fatal difficulties arose. The percentage of cold, deliberate murder is small in comparison with the cases where life is lost because of the quick aroused passion of the ready presence of the murderous gun at the time.”

The last small notice comes from the Graham Guardian of June 4, 1920. In it, the Deputy Game Warden tells people to “leave your guns at home.”