CHAPTER VI
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.