• Indicates that more cases were solved than committed during the year, some were crimes of previous years.

EXHIBIT NO. 119.-Page 16 of the 1964 Annual Report of the Atlanta Police Department, "Murder."

EXHIBIT NO. 120.-Report of the Atlanta Police Department comparing 1964-65 crime figures for the period January through May1

1,267

Total arrests..

Total juvenile arrests (48 percent of all arrests are juvenile)....

1 Decrease of 10.3 percent January through May 1965 in comparison with same period 1964, counting larceny under $50 and not counting larceny under $50, decrease 11.6 percent.

Senator DODD. Senator Fong?

Senator FONG. Your figures here are very interesting, Mr. Jenkins. Of the 98 homicides in the city of Atlanta, you said 58 of these homicides occurred in the residences or home. Thirty-two were domestic quarrels. That means if no firearms were available, none of these would have been killed.

Mr. JENKINS. We think if there had been no firearms available, there would have been a fight and somebody would have been injured, but nobody killed.

Senator FONG. Some were in sudden anger and 27 were in

Mr. JENKINS. That is right. Twenty-three were killed because of argument and fighting and only five killed because of robbery. So out of 98, if no firearms were available, only 5 would have been killed out

of the 98.

Senator FONG. These figures are very, very revealing.

Senator TYDINGS. Chief Jenkins, I was very impressed with your testimony, particularly that phase of your testimony where you broke down the homicides in Atlanta during the past 17 months and you broke it down into motives-that is, domestic quarrels and sudden anger. You also commented that in these domestic quarrels or sudden angers, if there had not been a firearm available, in all probability, it would have wound up in an altercation and no one would have been killed and in the subsequent trials involving these altercations and domestic quarrels, generally because of the motive and situation there were no convictions. I think this pinpoints one of the issues which is before us all. Do you know whether or not any other police departments have compiled similar statistics; namely, regarding the motives of homicide and the situation, particularly, of family quarrels. I would think that if we could compile figures such as that for the major cities over the United States based on what you have testified here about Atlanta, those figures would be pretty overwhelming so far as showing the need for some sort of regulation of firearms.

Mr. JENKINS. I am sure that all police departments reports will go into that detail and determine among the investigation of other things.

the motives. That is the reason I brought these reports along, to show, because every report will show if it can determine the motive, what caused it and all the circumstances surrounding it.

Another interesting thing that these reports will show, particularly in the South, and there is a lot of discussion of it from time to time. In practically all of these cases, the victim and the perpetrator is of the same race. There is very little crossing of races in these cases.

Senator TYDINGS. In the International Chiefs of Police Association, do you have any overall compilation of organized statistics in this particular area, or in order to get those statistics, will it be necessary for the staff to go to those particular cities?

Mr. JENKINS. I am sure Mr. Quentin, the exectuive director of that association can get that for you. Whether he has it or not, it is available in all the police departments, and of course, our association is constantly in contact with all the various departments and I am sure our association could provide that information for you, sir.

Senator DODD. Mr. Perian?

Mr. PERIAN. Mr. Jenkins, we notice in the photos submitted to the committee that there were large numbers of small .22 caliber weapons, usually referred to as the Roscoe, which sell for between $6.75 and $12.95 by mail order. Does this weapon constitute a major problem to law enforcement in Atlanta?

Mr. JENKINS. We have noticed more and more in recent years that the firearms being used are of small caliber, a small gun that possibly can be concealed in the hand, usually .22 caliber or smaller. That is one of the greatest problems, yes, sir.

Mr. PERIAN. Has the carrying of concealed weapons in Atlanta increased generally? That is, do you find it has now become a part of the normal behavior of many criminals?

Mr. JENKINS. There is no question about it because we are impounding or taking into custody now twice the number of weapons that we were taking in 5 years ago. Where we are having now 2,000 pistols per year, 5 years ago, it only amounted to 1,000. That is all of the weapons that come into the possession of the police, whether a crime is committed or whether a person is arrested for carrying a weapon, including stolen weapons. But everything that comes into the hands of the police in the way of a pistol has doubled in the last 5 years.

Mr. PERIAN. Can we assume that the great majority of these are of foreign make or are surplus military weapons?

Mr. JENKINS. We know as a fact that 80 percent of the pistols now in custody in Atlanta are of foreign make.

Mr. PERIAN. Have you been able to determine the purchasers of mail-order guns in the city of Atlanta, their background-whether they are criminals or have criminal records?

Mr. JENKINS. No, there is no way for us to know how many are there or where they came from, except the 2,000 that we have taken into custody.

Senator DODD. This presents one of the real problems. I do not know what your local city ordinance is or your State law. I am sure you have some law controlling the sale or possession of firearms. My point is it does not do any good in the State of Georgia or the city of Atlanta to have good firearms control if this mail-order traffic in firearms is carried on. Do you think that is true?

Mr. JENKINS. Well, the regulations are very loose. It is unlawful for a person to carry a pistol concealed on his person, but he can carry it in his automobile or in his office or in his home and there are no regulations or restrictions on that. We think that should be strengthened and we believe first with this Federal regulation, we think local action can be taken to support it and really control it.

Senator DODD. I take it what you are saying is you have some control, but you would like to see it strengthened?

Mr. JENKINS. Yes, sir, very much so.

Senator DODD. And you believe the passage of this bill would help you in your own enforcement of your local law?

Mr. JENKINS. I think it would point the way and set the pace for local governments and State governments to support it and strengthen it with local regulations.

Mr. PERIAN. Chief, it has been argued before this committee that criminals steal firearms; they do not have to purchase them. From your experience as head of the national police organization, is there any information available to lead you to believe this is a correct assumption?

Mr. JENKINS. To some extent; certainly criminals will get weapons any place they can. Many of them are stolen, but at the same time, they purchase many of them.

Mr. PERIAN. We have found that, nationally, rifles and shotguns account for about 30 percent of the firearm homicides. From your experience, would this 30-percent figure hold true in Atlanta?

Mr. JENKINS. I believe my report shows that 25 percent of the murders committed in the last 17 months were with shotguns or rifles. Senator DODD. Well, that is a high percentage; is it not? Mr. JENKINS. Yes, sir; very high.

Senator DODD. That point has been argued here repeatedly by those opposed to this bill on the grounds that there is no evidence; it has not been demonstrated that the long gun, as they refer to the shotguns and rifles, is used in any important or significant way in homicides or crimes committed with firearms. Yet you tell us that in Atlanta, 25 percent are.

Mr. JENKINS. That is right.

Senator DODD. And the national figures are, as Mr. Perian pointed out, 30 percent. We figure that this is a very serious matter, when 25 or 30 percent of homicides are committed with long guns. Mr. JENKINS. There is no question about it.

Senator DODD. I cannot understand the attitude of those who say that is not enough to be worried about. I do not know what figure they would accept as a worrisome one. I do not know how many people have to be killed every year before they will face up to the fact that there is some problem in this area. But so many of these witnesses come here and insist that this is no problem.

Mr. JENKINS. I understand that.

Senator DODD. Well, Chief, thank you very much. It has been very helpful testimony.

Mr. JENKINS. Thank you,

sir.

Senator DODD. Mr. Edward P. Nolan.

Good morning, Mr. Nolan.

Mr. Nolan is sales manager of Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc.; we have conferred with Mr. Nolan on the general problem of firearms legislation and he has been helpful in many respects.

I would like to make part of the record that you are a native of Connecticut and graduate of Yale. I know you are knowledgeable in the field we are studying and I am anxious to hear your testimony.

STATEMENT OF EDWARD P. NOLAN, SALES MANAGER, STURM, RUGER & CO., INC., SOUTHPORT, CONN.

Mr. NOLAN. Thank you, very much, Senator Dodd.

Mr. Chairman, I am the sales manager for Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc., of Southport, Conn. I appear here today at your invitation to outline our views concerning your proposal, Senate bill 1592.

Mr. Chairman, Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc., employs about 150 people in the designing, engineering, and manufacturing of sporting firearms which bear the trademark name of "Ruger." We have been in business about 15 years, and are intimately acquainted with the subject of firearms distribution. We do not sell any of our products to individuals, our sales being made entirely to sporting goods and hardware distributors. Most of us at Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc., like shooting and hunting as a sport and we have more than a purely commercial interest in the proposed legislation.

I would like to proceed now to comment on the specific bill, S. 1592. In its present form, we are opposed to S. 1592 for a variety of reasons. Since the beginning of the hearings on this bill you have had many authorities point out a number of undesirable facets. In an effort to avoid being redundant I will not list specific comments on each of the objections.

We believe that in all these areas the bill can be modified in such a way that it will positively not abridge the rights of law-abiding Americans and at the same time achieve its primary objectives.

Now, let me give our position more specifically on two important aspects of S. 1592 which I believe are of considerable interest to this subcommittee.

First, the subject of over-the-counter sales of pistols and revolvers to nonresidents, which the bill, as now written, prohibits entirely. We believe that it is wrong and pointless to introduce a complete prohibition of such sales. Many of these sales are completely harmless and take place purely as a matter of convenience to the purchaser. On the other hand, we strongly believe that no such sale should be legally possible when the purchaser's home State requires a permit to purchase and the purchaser has no such permit. This restriction could be effective by the same affidavit which was proposed in an earlier bill on this subject: S. 14. In that bill the affidavit was intended for use in interstate commerce, that is to say, mail-order sales. The use and form of the affidavit was described in S. 14 and I will not repeat it here. We suggest that the use of this affidavit be required when a nonresident purchases a pistol or revolver in any State other than his home State.