104 Years Ago
The April 21, 1921 Colorado Transcript announced that Golden post office employees were soon to be armed.
…with a view to protecting the mail against robbery. A supply of revolvers holsters, belts and ammunition has been sent to the office, and probably will be received this week. The mail messenger will also be armed. Government employees will not be required to secure state, county or municipal permits to carry firearms while on duty. The action of the post office department is taken in view of the frequent mail robberies, and is designed to protect the mails and safeguard lives of postal employees.
This was such an unexpected story that I tried researching why the need had arisen. Deep in the heart of the U. S. postal service website, I found a list of “On This Day in Postal History” events. It said:
April 9, 1921: Postmaster General Will Hays issued Order No. 5668, which armed “all essential postal employees” to combat a rash of mail robberies. Fifty thousand guns and two million rounds of ammunition were issued to railway mail clerks and other employees who handled valuable mail.
Further research showed that there was a nationwide rash of robberies underway at the time. Postal employees on trains were sometimes armed, but most robberies took place in local post offices–which is why the Postmaster General thought the clerks should be armed.
