It never occurs to the author of the play, or the actor, that the villain would instantly seize hold of the pistol and turn the tables on the hero.
After the hero has covered the villain with the pistol and has been applauded the “situation is over” so he throws away the revolver or puts it back in his pocket and there the incident ends.
In one play the hero gives a loaded .44 revolver as a keepsake to a small child.
This sort of thing is merely ridiculous and does no harm.
But harm is done if an actor through ignorance shoots another actor.
I have twice seen such an accident on the stage. Once a man blinded another in both eyes, and in the second case in one eye, by firing blank ammunition right into the other’s face at a few feet distance.
Men have been killed, one only a short time ago, by having the wad of blank ammunition shot into them. In one case the gun had several wads crimped hard into the shell so as to make a good loud bang when fired.
One man in this play was supposed to come across his enemy, and as the latter fled, to shoot him. The actor, who I believe said he had never shot a gun before, put the muzzle against the other man’s back when he fired and killed him.
He had been told that it was blank ammunition and he thought it could do no harm. This is the cause of all such accidents. Being blank ammunition it is considered to be harmless.
Old ladies are laughed at when they scream and hold their ears when a man begins to “brandish” a revolver on the stage or poke about with a gun, with his finger on the trigger. But the old ladies are quite right to be alarmed.