If noiseless firearms were invented nobody would pay the least attention to an air raid except the people actually struck.
A woman was taken to an asylum a raving lunatic after an air raid. She was near some anti-aircraft guns which had been firing, no bombs were dropped near where she was. It was the mere noise of firing that frightened her.
It is the noise that frightens game; I have shot one bird after another out of a covey of black game on the ground. The rest did not fly off at the shots because I was hidden and was using a “.22 short” rifle and the noise of a waterfall drowned reports.
If I had fired a shotgun at one, the rest of the covey would have been off at once.
For actual protection in a house at night without endangering any one, a big pistol loaded with blank ammunition (black powder so as to make plenty of smoke and a little “red fire” powder added to make plenty of flash) would drive off almost any burglar.
I think this is the best house protection for a houseful of women to have by their beds at night. The only thing is to avoid burning peoples eyes or setting things on fire when “losing off.”
“A stern chaser” of coarse salt is a good man stopper without being fatal and the pain makes the victim think he is mortally wounded.