The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1903-08-19
Boys and Firearms of the
Former and Deadly Results of the Lat
ter-A Few Thrilling Instances Brought
Home-Juveniles and Firearms Should
Never be Mixed.
ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

| VI
accidental shooting And the strange
| feature of it is that these accidents
appear to be increasing in frequen
cy. 1t may be that the boys who
use the different kinds of firearms
are growing more careless in the
handling of them; but the theory is
more reasonable that there is con-
slant increase in the number who
use them. In either or any event it
is high time that parents were wax
ing up to the fact that no kind OF
shooting machine is safe in the
hands of boy, or at least one who
has not reached years of discretion.
A few months ago two boys, aged
II and Ii, respectively, living in St.
Anthony park, went out among the
trees a short distance from their
home to shoot at a mark. They had
a small rifle which had been given
to one of them short time before as
a birthday present. Two little
girls, belonging to neighboring
families, followed them, and while
the former were shooting the latter
were playing tag about the trees
and bushes nearby. The girls cid
not realize that while chasing each
other about they were at times dan
gerously near the course in which
the boys were shooting, and the
boys who were deeply interested in
the sport, were also obvious to the
girls danger. Finally, just as one
of the boys were taking aim, one of
the girls, a beautiful child, eight
ysars old, ran before the rifle and a
twenty-five calibre bullet made it's
way through one of her lungs She
was carried to a hospital, where
everything possible was done for
her, but after few hours of intense
suffering she died. The mother of
the girl was just recovering from a
severe illness, and the shock pro-
duced by the news of this calamity
was so severe that her life hung in
the balance for weeks. The boy
who fired the fatal shot became a
raving maniac within an hour and
was taken next day to an insane
hospital. This affair produced a
profound sensation in the neighbor-
hood, and many were the anathemas
hurled at the man who had DELHI
erately placed such dangerous
plaything as rifle in the hands of
small boy and turned him loose
among children not old enough to
realize its danger.
Soon after this accident came the
Fourth of July, and the papers for
a week thereafter teemed with &C
counts of death and disaster from
guns, revolvers and toy pistols,
loaded with powder and still worse
tetanus germs One would have
supposed that this would have been
sufficient to awaken parents of ordi-
nary intelligence to the fact that
firearms and Juveniles were things
which should never be mixed
particularly the parents1at St. An
thony Park who had scarcely recov-
cred from the horror occasioned by
the shocking death Of the little girl.
1t appears, however, that this was
to much to expect, for few days
ago another fatal accident of the
same nature happened right in the
same vicinity
A boy fifteen years of age took a
revolver belonging to his father,
aud with three or four other boys,
all younger than himself, went into
a barn to shoot at mark. The last
cartridge placed in the gun was
not properly adjusted and did not
go when the trigger was pulled.
This fact caused some curiosity
among the boys who gathered about
the gun to witness the investiga-
ton of the cause The boy with the
gun again pulled the trigger, while
the boys we're still about him, and
sent bullet crashing into the breat
of little six-yearold who was
standing squarely in front of him.
and looking at the gun. The wound
ed boy staggered out of the barn,
| fell to the ground and in less than