If ever there was a poster case for why it’s not always a good idea to allow individuals to carry guns into every single place on Earth they feel entitled to, it is the March 13th, 1912 trial of Virginian hothead, Floyd Allen. The details of why Allen was on trial can be found by clicking on his name, but, like something out of a Clint Eastwood Western, when Floyd Allen was informed in court that he’d been found guilty, he point blank eyed the judge — Thornton L. Massie — and told him, “If you sentence me on that verdict, I will kill you.”

Judge Massie proceeded to sentence him on that verdict, upon which Floyd Allen pulled out his gun, triggering a crossfire of bullets involving the numerous people in court who were armed. (And, yes — the person being tried was permitted to carry a gun at his trial!) In addition to Allen, many members of Allen’s family — most of them also armed — were in the courtroom. Judge Massie, the head of the Jury (who announced the verdict), the prosecuting attorney, the county sheriff, and a bystander, were all killed. Seven others — including Floyd Allen — were wounded.

The above cartoon (bottom right) listing the dead, contains an error — court clerk Dexter Goad (amongst the armed & shooting) was not killed, but only wounded (hit four times!), and testified in the trials that followed. Floyd Allen was executed one year later, in March 1913. The biggest name among the cartoonists above is Clifford K. Berryman.

Click on the above picture, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics