HOW TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS
It is no use carrying a pistol in your pocket for self-defence, and to
have it go off and kill yourself, or much worse, shoot the person you are
trying to save.
The first, foremost, and last thing is never to point the muzzle towards
anywhere you do not want a bullet to go.
Never mind if the pistol is empty, treat it as if it were loaded. “I did
not think it was loaded” or “he was cleaning the pistol and it exploded”
are the stock excuses when an accident occurs.
Firearms to the non-expert “explode” at odd moments, and nobody is to
blame; he thinks it is the nature of a pistol to “explode” spontaneously.
I cannot myself understand how a man can clean a loaded pistol, as by
cleaning I understand getting the fouling, nickel, etc., out of the bore
of the pistol, and the cartridge must first be extracted to do this. But I
suppose a man not used to a pistol would mean by cleaning, polishing the
outside, raising the hammer, and then putting a rag through the trigger
guard and pulling it backwards and forwards against the trigger with the
butt of the pistol resting on his knee and the barrel against his chest.
He of course does not first open the pistol to see if it is loaded; he
leaves it for the inquest to decide “that he did not know it was loaded.”
I am not writing for such people; they are better shot and out of the way,
else they might hurt others.
The second thing is never to load the pistol except when necessary.
Most people buy an automatic, get the gunmaker to load it for them, and
put it in a drawer or their pocket, and keep it like that for years, or
worse, leave it lying about loaded.
A pistol must be periodically cleaned. If it is kept loaded for years, it
will probably jamb if any one attempts to fire it.
A pistol kept loaded _is a constant source of danger to everyone,
including the owner_.
I knew of a case where a revolver was kept loaded by a bedside for twenty
years and thrown into a trunk each time the owner went on a journey.
After the owner’s death, I was asked to see if the pistol was safe.
It was lying in its case beside the bed, and when I opened the case I
found the barrel was lying so that it pointed at the head of any one
sleeping in the bed.
I found it loaded in all the chambers, the hammer let down on one of the
caps so that its sharp point, by constant friction, had polished and
nearly worn through the cap.
I took it into the garden and fired that cartridge.
The hammer had during all those years rested on this cap and the least tap
on the hammer would have fired it. Each time it was thrown into the trunk
it was a mercy it had not gone off.
If it had remained on the cap much longer, the sharp nose of the hammer
would have reached the fulminate and fired the revolver.
Here was a case of a loaded revolver, like the sword of Damocles,
threatening the life of its owner all night long, every night, though it
was put by the bed as a safeguard.
The hammer should have been put down on an empty chamber.
However, to repeat, never point a pistol under any circumstances at
anything you do not want to shoot.
Never have it loaded except when absolutely necessary.
Now as to when it is necessary to have it loaded. Most people are much
safer if they _never load it_. If you want a pistol to frighten burglars
with or to carry in dark lanes at night, get a _brightly plated nickel_
one. The larger you can carry the better. _Do not buy any cartridges for
it._
If you get the gunmaker to render it impossible to fire it, even if
loaded, so much the better.
You can stop any but the most desperate man by “brandishing” this at him
in approved theatrical style.
I know of a jeweller who stopped a highwayman by pointing the nickel
plated pump of his bicycle at him.
During the war a man took a number of the enemy prisoners by threatening
them with his empty revolver.
For people who know nothing of firearms it is much the safest plan not to
have any cartridges.
Never allow “ornaments” shaped like pistols to lie about.
People get so used to playing with these that they at once point a real
pistol when they can get hold of it.
Even when a pistol has to be fired it only needs to be loaded just before
being used, as a rule.
When target shooting, it need only be loaded the moment before getting
into position for shooting. If all the shots are not immediately fired
from this position it should be at once unloaded.
I saw a most disgraceful neglect of this precaution at a shooting meeting,
which if the Range Officer had also seen, the man would have been expelled
from all meetings. He was an expert revolver shot too!
Several of us had made very good scores with the revolver at a stationary
target.
This man came up carrying a hand bag in which his revolver and cartridges
were kept.
“I have a few minutes to spare before my train goes, and I will have
another try to beat you”; so saying he took out his revolver and
cartridges, handed in his ticket, loaded, and began a score. He made three
bad shots, swore, then without taking out his cartridges, he just opened
his bag, put the revolver in, shut the bag and went off.
Never touch an automatic pistol until you are expert with a single-shot
pistol. I do not mean expert to make good scores, but _absolutely safe_
not to point it at any one, and able to take out the cartridge with safety
or to put the pistol at safe or half-cock.
We will suppose you have the single-shot pistol and cartridges, and the
target in front of you with a sufficiently large background that it does
not matter where your bullet goes if you keep your muzzle always pointed
in that direction.
It is almost impossible to have a range absolutely safe against an
accidental discharge putting the bullet over the butts.
A man who swings his pistol over his head is almost sure some day to let
off a bullet high over the butts if he does not blow his own brains out
first.
If the shooter pays attention all the time to keeping the muzzle of his
pistol pointed towards the butt he will be safe even if his pistol goes
off accidently.
The barrel must be aligned towards the butt. Most beginners think that, if
they see the muzzle of the pistol against the butt, it is aimed at the
butt. That is not so. You can hold a pistol almost vertical like a candle
in its socket, and think the muzzle covers the centre of the target, but
if it is fired in this position the bullet will go straight in the air.
To aim a pistol, the breech (the part nearest the butt of the pistol) must
be aligned with the muzzle on the target.
Keep the pistol lying on a table before you and pointing at the butt, and
when you lift it always keep it thus horizontal or slightly inclining
towards the ground but always pointed at the butt.
All single-shot breech-loading pistols open by pressing a lever, whether
on top, at the side, or underneath the barrel.
Press this and open the pistol, look through the barrel to see that there
is no cartridge in it and that the barrel is clear, and then close it.
Do this constantly for many days, so that you get into the habit the
moment you take the pistol in your hand to look through it to see if it is
unloaded, and no obstruction in it. To fire a pistol which has an
obstruction in the barrel may burst the pistol.
If any one asks to see the pistol, first open it in his presence, of
course pointing away from him or any one else, and look through the barrel
before handing it to him. If an automatic, first take out the magazine and
open the barrel as well.
Unless he is a shooting man do not hand him any cartridges. If he wants to
see what your cartridges are like take the pistol back, open it again and
see that it is still empty, put it away safely, and _then_ hand him a
cartridge to examine.
All this may seem super-caution but it is necessary, especially with an
automatic, and unless you do this by instinct with the safer single-shot
pistol, you may at any moment have a dreadful accident with an automatic
for which you will be sorry all your life.
Now, standing facing the butt, open the pistol, put a cartridge in it (an
empty cartridge case, not a loaded one). Put the pistol, if it has an
outside hammer, to full-cock, being very careful to keep it pointed at the
butt, lower the hammer to half-cock, open the pistol and extract the
cartridge, and close the pistol again; repeat this many times till you can
cock and half-cock without the hammer slipping or falling by accident.
If it had a loaded cartridge in it the pistol would go off should you let
the hammer slip down, which is one of the most frequent causes of
accidents with pistols having external hammers.
Some hammer pistols have a rebound, that is, when the hammer falls it
rebounds to half-cock.