Tuesday, November 2, 2021

November 2, 1866 Memphis

An epidemic of crime in the Bluff City was blamed upon the open carrying of weapons. According to an article in the Memphis Avalanche, Nowhere in the wide world is there as much shooting, stabbing and killing as in Shelby County….” Every night “men are shot within a few yards of our offices, bullets are fired into windows - and it’s damn you click, bang, I’m shot – nightly from one end of the city to the other.” The nonchalance of the shooters was astounding. Men “go for one another” like men at a rowing match.

While wrestling two persons became engaged in a difficulty under our window some nights ago. One made at his antagonist with a knife, who replied with a shot and exclaimed “I’ve killed him!” “You’re a liar,” says the individual hit, while he had a hole in him you could put your thumb in. The city is mad, crime is epidemic, and the poisonous elements consist in the evil practice of carrying weapons.

Memphis Avalanche

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