Question: Has the Church tried to hide the fact that Joseph fired a pepperbox pistol at the mob which murdered him?

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Criticism

• Critics claim that the Church has tried to hide the fact that Joseph fired a pepperbox pistol at the mob which murdered Hyrum and was soon to kill him.

Source(s) of the Criticism

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Response

From the very beginning of the Church, Joseph's possession and use of a pepperbox pistol in defense of himself and his brother and friends has been repeatedly mentioned.

2004

Matthew B. Brown, Joseph Smith. The Man. The Mission. The Message (American Fork, Utah, Covenant Communications, 2004): 90, shows a picture of the gun. “Composite photograph of the pepperbox pistol that Joseph Smith used to defend himself after Hyrum had been murdered”. Story given in more detail pages 92-4.

2005 Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual for 2005: “Doctrine and Covenants and Church History” lesson 32, page 184: the following account of the martyrdom by Elder Willard Richards:

“As he struck the floor he exclaimed emphatically, ‘I am a dead man.’ Joseph looked towards him and responded, ‘Oh, dear brother Hyrum!’ and opening the door two or three inches with his left hand, discharged one barrel of a six shooter (pistol) at random in the entry. . A ball [from the musket of one of the mob] grazed Hyrum’s breast, and entering his throat passed into his head, while other muskets were aimed at him and some balls hit him. Joseph continued snapping his revolver round the casing of the door into the space as before . , while Mr. Taylor with a walking stick stood by his side and knocked down the bayonets and muskets which were constantly discharging through the doorway. . When the revolver failed, we had no more firearms, and expected an immediate rush of the mob, and the doorway full of muskets, half way in the room, and no hope but instant death from within.” off-site

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

Definitional fallacies wiki articles

• Jesus' relation to Satan
• Joseph Smith as a martyr
  • Martyrdom in Christian history
• Latter-day Saints aren't Christians
• LDS Church is a cult
• Worship different Jesus

FAIR web site

• FairMormon Topical Guide: Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith FairMormon link
  
• Lance Starr, "Was Joseph Smith a Martyr or a Murderer?," (Mesa, Arizona: FAIR, May 2003) PDF link

External links

• Joseph I. Bentley, "Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith," in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 2:860–862. FAIR link
• Reed Blake, "Martyrdom at Carthage," Ensign (June 1994): 30.off-site
• Stephen R. Gibson, "Was Joseph Smith Really a Martyr?," in One-Minute Answers to Anti-Mormon Questions (Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers, 2005) ISBN 0882907840. off-site
• W. John Walsh, "Was Joseph Smith a Martyr?" off-site

Printed material

• Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy, the Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1979), 1. ISBN 025200762X. (Key source)