CHAPTER XXXI
DANGER OF LEAVING PISTOLS ABOUT
The brainless have one perennial joke. This is to take up a firearm, aim it at someone, say “I’ll shoot you,” and then pull the trigger.
Even an unloaded pistol should never be left about. Someone is sure to “snap” it and ruin the lock, lugging at the hammer and pulling at the trigger at the same time, just as people rip out the teeth of the gear of an automobile by altering gear without first taking out the clutch.
If the pistol is loaded, someone is sure to get shot by a fool. Both the owner who left the loaded pistol about and the man who fired it “not knowing it was loaded” are equally to blame.
Aiming firearms in “fun” at people is not empty-headedness solely but a form of hysteria.
It is done by the same people who laugh when at a funeral, or commence to rock a boat in “fun” and cause so many drowning accidents.
The best thing that can happen to such people is for them to “clean a pistol not knowing it was loaded” and shoot themselves.
There is a story of a man who wished to kill a monkey. When he noticed the monkey was looking at him, he took an empty gun, pointed it at his own head, and pulled the trigger. This he repeated many times, propping the butt of the heel plate against a tree and the muzzle against his forehead.