Life — June 5, 1913 — page 31: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a Colt Automatic Pistol advertisement disguised as a satirical scene. The image shows a domestic emergency: a man sits nervously by a telephone while a woman stands in the background calling for police, with the caption "Hello...Emergency...Police, please!" The advertisement's tagline—"The Arm of Law and Order"—suggests that Colt pistols represent personal security and protection. The scenario implies that owning this firearm provides self-defense capability when law enforcement cannot immediately respond. This reflects early 20th-century marketing that positioned handguns as essential household safety tools for respectable citizens. The domestic setting and apparent crisis normalize firearm ownership as practical home protection rather than weaponry.