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Police entered and arrested a 45-year-old man, sitting on his bed with a rifle. He admitted firing at them, but explained his home was his domain.

Investigation revealed that the rifle had been purchased from a mail-order house. The defendant had a total of four previous arrests, one of which was for aggravated assault and battery. The police had no knowledge of this purchase.

Guns also played an important role in Philadelphia's juvenile picture. A total of 199 juveniles, under 18 years of age, were arrested in 1964, charged with crimes involved with firearms; including homicides, robberies, assaults, carrying concealed weapons, and violation of Pennsylvania's Uniform Firearms Act. The statistical breakdown is as follows:

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Four teenage gang clashes in 1964 resulted in two 17-year-olds, one 18-year-old and one 20-year-old young men being killed by firearms on our highways.

Our alert juvenile aid division confiscated 203 firearms from teenagers in 1964. Of these, 75 are listed from an unknown source. When questioned by police, the juvenile claims he found it on a vacant lot or some unknown man gave it to him. Even the best investigations fail to prove the source, due to the failure of citizens to register firearms or, in some cases, report their theft to police.

There is no existing requirement in Pennsylvania law that compels out-of-State distributors of firearms to inform local police departments of impending sales and delivery of firearms. Consequently our information in this area is far from complete.

However, a spot survey was made of 300 guns received by Philadelphians via mail order. It was ascertained that 54 of the recipients had police records. Fifteen of these persons had been arrested previously for crimes involving the use of firearms.

The detective bureau's intelligence unit informed me that they had ascertained 160 handguns were shipped into Philadelphia during the first 5 months of 1965. A total of 16 of the recipients were persons who had previously been arrested. Their crimes ranged from burglary to public indecency and resulted in 36 separate arrests.

Although we estimate a minimum of 500 handguns entered our city from legitimate sources, it is impossible to be firm in this figure, because of the lack of cooperation of mail-order firms with police. We also believe that the traffic in shotguns and rifles greatly surpasses the handgun total.

We have noticed a greater tendency, as police pressure on methods of securing of handguns is stepped up, for felons to use shotguns and rifles to holdup and threaten the public. In fact, we had a wave of holdups of public transportation vehicles by a team, who used rifles to hold at bay a busload of citizens while the robbery of the driver was being completed.

With an ever-expanding firearms problem, the need for a "sane, civilized approach to the control of firearms in this country" is greater than ever before.

The problem of the control of firearms has always been and is of great concern to the Philadelphia Police Department and the administrators of our city. Urged by Mayor James H. J. Tate and guided through city council by the chairman, Paul D'Ortona, an ordinance on the acquisition and transfer of firearms in Philadelphia was introduced. This ordinance received much opposition by gun clubs and sportsmen's organizations. But many citizen groups, such as the Crime Commission, Home and School, American Legion, plus business and fraternal groups rallied behind the measure and succeeded in having it enacted. It was unanimously adopted by council, approved by the mayor, and placed in operation on April 17, 1965.

This ordinance prohibits, under penalty, the acquiring of a firearm outside the city and bringing it into the city, as well as any firearm transfer by a private citizen, unless a license is obtained. To secure this license, a citizen must be photographed and fingerprinted so police may be certain of his identity. Other requirements eliminate juveniles, habitual drunkards, and persons convicted of narcotics, crimes of violence, or violation of the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act. We know this ordinance will help us control the misuse and flow of firearms in Philadelphia.

We believe the enactment of S. 1592 will supplement and greatly strengthen and enlarge the scope of our city ordinance.

In closing, the Philadelphia Police Department recognizes that Senate bill 1592 is just the beginning in a long, hard fight to achieve effective control of interstate traffic of firearms, including the importation of foreign guns into our country. We firmly believe that these controls are necessary, in order to provide good law enforcement. We want to prevent a "high noon" situation from developing in our great cities. S. 1592 is a forceful step in the right direction.

Mr. Senator, with your permission, I would like to have Chief Inspector Fox give you a very brief résumé of a case I previously made mention of but I think, because of the seriousness of it and what, in a sense, your firearm bill would eliminate such acts happening again, I think it is worthy to listen to him, if you will, please.

Senator DODD. Be glad to.

Mr. Fox. At 6 p.m., on December 16, 1964, a customer entered a local candy store in Philadelphia. She saw an unconscious man lying on the floor. Running outside to summon aid, she hailed two detectives who were patrolling in the area. They went into the store and found two men on the floor bleeding from wounds. Both men were pronounced dead on arrival at Episcopal Hospital from gunshot wounds.

Augustus Hope and Samuel Hope, ages 66 and 59, respectively, had been operating the store for their brother Harry who had gone to a church social; Harry stated he had left $2.50 in the cash register. Under Augustus Hope's body was found a spent .32-caliber bullet. A full investigation was made resulting in the arrest of T. L. Bailey, 19 years of age, and Robert Rowe, 17 years of age. At Bailey's home this gun that I have here, this .38-caliber revolver, was recovered.

This was identified by our ballistics laboratory as the murder weapon. In questioning William Bailey, the brother of the defendant, he stated his father had seen an ad in a magazine and purchased this gun through a mail-order catalog some time in September of 1964. The two young men admitted planning the crime and holding up the candy store. Robert Rowe fired the gun three times, striking Augustus Hope in the chest and Samuel Hope in the abdomen. The proceeds of this homicide and robbery was $2.50. Both of these men are awaiting trial in the Philadelphia courts for homicide at this time.

Senator DODD. Thank you, very much, Inspector Fox. That is a very interesting narrative of the case. We are very grateful to both of you for your testimony.

As I said at the outset, you certainly know the situation in Philadelphia. I was interested, for example, in how many times these firearms had been used in the commission of felonies in Philadelphia and how many have been obtained through or from mail-order houses. We find this to be a pattern all across the country. I am likewise interested, very much so, in your observation about the report on rifles and shotguns used by criminals. It has been testified here that rifles and shotguns do not play any important part in the crime picture of the United States. I think you make an excellent point and I have referred to this myself in an earlier session. When the States and cities in some cases get better control of our handguns, and the criminal element then resorts to long guns. I pointed out in one of our hearings that this has been the experience with the machineguns. I certainly remember the days of Machinegun Kelly, and I don't know whether you do or not, but they were the days when hoodlums were using machineguns. After this legislation was passed they turned to the other type of weapon and I think your point is well taken. I think it is rather foolish to get control over the handguns and not over the long guns.

Mr. LEARY. If the control is effective as we would hope it to be, on the handgun, they will certainly have to be reduced to using sawed-off shotguns and rifles. I think our experience indicates that the use of the rifle and the sawed-off rifle and sawed-off shotgun is somewhat on the increase and, of course, that increase will be projected even beyond what the present experience is.

Senator DODD. Yes; my recollection is that about 30 percent of the felonies committed with firearms are committed with what I describe as a long gun.

Do you feel that mail-order firearms have been a significant contributing factor to crime in Philadelphia?

Mr. LEARY. I think absolutely that that is true. There is no way in which we have any true knowledge of the degree of these firearms coming into the city of Philadelphia.

Senator DODD. And has it been your experience that firearms which have been purchased over the counter, that is, not via the mail-order route, but purchased over the counter in jurisdictions other than Philadelphia or the State of Pennsylvania make a significant contribution to the crime rate in Philadelphia?

Mr. LEARY. Well, I would like to answer that another way, if I may, Senator.

Senator DODD. Yes.

Mr. LEARY. And that is our thought and at least our experience indicates that the responsible individual is not in any way reluctant to purchase his gun in what we might call a legitimate and under-thelaw manner. It seems the ones who are less illegitimate in their purposes of acquiring a firearm use all sorts of manners and means to circumvent the laws of the particular State or the ordinances that we have now in the city of Philadelphia. It is the "easy buy" where the handguns are obtained and also other firearms that makes it so accessible to the individual that should not have access or custody of them.

Senator DODD. What I am getting at is under this bill a person could buy a gun, a handgun in the State where he resided only. He could not buy it in a State where he was not a resident.

Would something like this help?

Mr. LEARY. Yes. I think in our ordinance we require, regardless of where you purchase the gun, you must register it just the same. Senator DODD. I know that is so.

Mr. LEARY. There was, in September of 1964, that we were able to locate a second place in the State of Pennsylvania where they had a State fair of antiques, so to speak, and on one table they exhibited a great number of guns, handguns principally, and they were selling these just across the table to anybody that desired to purchase them under the guise that they were antiques. Most of them were competent and were able to fire. That is another way in which you could acquire a gun.

Senator DODD. Yes. We had heard testimony about that and ofttimes, the gun sold as antique or as a special piece can be easily adjusted so as to make it a deadly weapon.

Mr. LEARY. We also feel in our State in spite of the laws, that there is a great interchange of guns between persons where the requirement is that the gun goes through a gun broker. But this is not adhered to either.

Senator DODD. Have you found any sizable number of foreign made guns, that is, guns that have been imported?

Mr. Fox. I would say for the years after the war we had quite a few of these returning servicemen bringing back firearms. But I think the foreign make is becoming less and less available as the years go by. We have confiscated hundreds of thousands of them over the past 10 years.

Senator DODD. I think you are fortunate because the figures show that the flow of these surplus military weapons from abroad is increasing. You have not run into that in Philadelphia, though.

Have crimes involving guns increased proportionately higher than the nongun crimes in say the past 5 years?

Mr. Fox. I would say that all crimes have shown a real, decided increase and I think the proportion is very close. I do not think it is overbalanced here, Senator.

Mr. LEARY. However, I do think the use of guns in juvenile crimes has increased tremendously and especially in those situations involving juvenile gangs there are more and more resorting to the use of firearms.

Senator DODD. Have you had any experience with how they acquire firearms and other destructive devices such as we have had on the board back in the room there?

Mr. LEARY. We have had several thefts from veterans clubs, but in the normal case no bazookas or machineguns.

Senator DODD. I am aware of the ordinance that you refer to in your testimony which was passed by the City Council of Philadelphia. Mr. LEARY. Yes.

Senator DODD. I understand this is not without some rather vile opposition.

Mr. LEARY. Yes; there was some opposition to it.

Senator DODD. I would be interested and the subcommittee would be interested in the names of those who opposed this and their identification if you can obtain it.

Mr. LEARY. We can make that information available to you.

Senator DODD. We just heard from the members of the Maryland Legislature.

Mr. LEARY. We were present when they testified.

Senator DODD. We heard of the type of pressure that was applied in Maryland when an effort was made to get a gun bill through that legislature. I talked with the president of the City Council of Philadelphia and he told me what a dreadful struggle you had to get that ordinance through. This seems to be a common experience across the country. Every time anyone tries to get any control over firearms they run into this very, very active opposition and the pattern seems to be identical everywhere. That is why I asked if you know the names of the people.

Mr. LEARY. We will make that available to you, whatever we have. (The information referred to was subsequently submitted, marked "Exhibit No. 101" and is as follows:)

EXHIBIT No. 101

1. Anthony Bernacki, member of Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, 121 South Broad Street.

2. Jack Pearson, Pearson's Sporting Goods Store, 1010 Chestnut Street, past president of Chestnut Street Businessmen's Association.

3. Jack Devitt, member of Wakati Archers, represents 1,200 members of Keystone Federation of Bow Hunters.

4. Edward Nelson, 8053 Walker Street, chairman of junior activities of Holmesburg Junior Rifle Club.

5. Dr. Halbert E. Fillinger, medical examiner, city of Philadelphia, vice president of Pennsylvania Antique Gun Collectors.

6. Joseph Parham, cab driver, represents Beaver Sportsman Club (45 members). 7. Fredrich H. Starling, III, represents Pennsylvania State Fish and Game Protective Association.

8. George McCann, 1440 Luzerne Street, secretary of Philadelphia Federation of Sportsmen's Club.

9. George Marnhout, represents Pennsylvania Athletic Club, 1801 Walnut Street, and Isaac Walton League.

10. Emanuel R. Turner, represents Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs of Philadelphia.

11. Paul G. Ludtke, wholesale sporting goods jobber.

12. Allen Calaway, Chief, 4th Naval District, small arms marksmanship

instructor.

13. George Albright, Quaker City Gun Club. 8301 State Road, Newport Gun Club. 14. John Agnew, Huntingdon Valley, Pa., past president, Conestoga Rod and Gun Club, present executive officer Conestoga Rod and Gun Club, chief ranger officer of Langhorne Rod and Gun Club, member of National Rifle Association.

15. Max Miller, M & H Sporting Goods Store, 113 South 16th Street.

16. John Mallon, blind veteran, World War II.

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