Evening star., 1915-02-21
THE ETHICS OF THE GUN

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a CCIDENTS to hunters cost many
~ lives and cause many grave in
q juries to men each year. A very
large proportion OF these accidents re-
suits from ignorance or gross careless
ness in the handling and carrying OF
a gun. Tragedies OF the kind indicated
were rare when Americans were more
generally gun wise" than they are now
and when hunting was more practiced
than now. Under conditions today a
great many men hunt or walk
through the fields and woods with loaded
guns who have had little exercise in
the art of hunting and have not had
that elementary instruction in the use
and care of firearms which was the
good fortune of the American boy of
two or three generations ago.
A man brought up with a gun and
who, as a boy. received his instruction
from a man who was efficient in such
things is always careful with a gun. he
treats 1t with a great deal OF respect.
He acts on the theory that the gun IS
always loaded Knowing better enan
to fool" with a loaded gun and habitu-
ally practicing care. it does NOT occur
to him to fool" with an unloaded gun.
On the other hand, II seems to be the
practice of man not gun wise or wen
trained in gun ethics to take liberties
with a gun about as soon as he lays
his hands on one. 1t is this man VINO is
forever pointing a gun at some man
lust for the fun of the thing" This
is the man who IS squirting down the
gun barrel or the gun barrels, playing
with the trigger and swapping the nam
mer. The experienced gun man mas a
horror of pointing a gun In play. W men
he aims it is with the intent to shoot'
and he knows the gun is loaded.
Il y
BOYS who were brought up in the
neighborhood of Washington In the
long ago had their lessons in gun
craft, just as they had their proper IN
struction in horsemanship. They were
taken In hand by their elders. 1t was
taught that it was extremely bad form
to climb a fence with a gun on the
shoulder, or to climb through renee
carrying the gun. 1t was bad form "
leave the gun on the near side Oh tne
fence. climb the fence and then pun
the gun through or lift 1t over. Inc
gun was to be put over first. with tne
hammers at safety" and put where' II
YOU broke a rail in climbing the renee,
the gun would not fall AFTER piacins
the gun in the right way on the !ar
side of the fence, the boy was az no
erty to climb over or through the renee.
This practice became a napit' MnISh
clung to man through lie. Sihho
ing through a fence with a gun ana
nnI,ine il through after you is notice
to the real huntsman that your gun
training was either neglected IN your
youth or that you never had any.
No boy was allowed to carry ms sua
on his shoulder when he went oe1ore
you-that is. when he was waking
ahead of YOU The gun probably woula
not go off. but If anything OF ina.
kind happened, the man behind mishl
be hit. Therefore. the proper h,,ntsr pTslr'i, in
front was under the shoulder and over
the forearm, with the muzzle pointed
into the ground. The man waking
behind should carry his gun over tIe
shoulder and muzzle sharply upward
He must not carry the gun with its
muzzle to the front, because the man
ahead of him must be considered he
was not permitted to carry his gun IN
both hands with the muzZle horizontal,
and was allowed to bring his gun to
that position only when about TO
shoot
The old-fashioned boy was in dis
grace if he shot at something ne qua
not see. His nerves must be better
trained than that. There was always
danger of killing your dog, II you ala
not see and understand what the game
was To shoot into a moving Dusn OF
a
amateur. 1t wasted ammunition and
if you killed something it might not be
what you meant to Kill. II is TINS
nervous and hasty shooting wnlch mas
cost the life of many man by hunt
ers'' who have had no training or ex-
perience in hunting.
1t was an old-fashioned maxim that
when you sat down to rest shells
should be withdrawn in the case OF
breech-loader or the caps removed in
the case of a muzzle-loader- To set
loaded gun against tree or to lean
it against u fence was contrary TO
gun ethics Your dog might knock
the gun over.
1t was also the rudest form to carry
a loaded gun into the house. The shells
were withdrawn or the caps removed |
when you came up to the kitchen door
or the porcn of the house. To put
loaded gun in the corner by the fire.
place or in any other corner where
dog or one of the children might knock
it down was thing no country-bred
gentleman would do.
There are many other things which |
boys in the country drained by the Po- |
tomac and Patuxent rivers were taught |
and drilled about guns, but 1t might |
be summed up in what was very |
common admonition from father to son. |
and which ran something like this:
You are to consider hat your gun |
is always loaded. You are never to |
aim at anything unless you know what /
it is and mean to shoot. If anybody |
aims a gun at you shoot him. Re-
member that every gun is always load
ed, and when you start to clean your
gun don't think that you have taken
out the shells, but know that they are
not in the gun. If you can't learn
and remember these simple things