CHAPTER XV

UNFAIR FIREARMS, AND SHOOTING ETHICS

For considerably more than a century, the States of the American Union have enacted game-protective laws based on the principle that the wild game belongs to the People, and the people's senators, representatives and legislators generally may therefore enact laws for its protection, prescribing the manner in which it may and may not be taken and possessed. The soundness of this principle has been fully confirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Geer vs. Connecticut, on March 2, 1896.

The tendency of predatory man to kill and capture wild game of all kinds by wholesale methods is as old as the human race. The days of the club, the stone axe, the bow and arrow and the flint-lock gun were contemporaneous with the days of great abundance of game. Now that the advent of breech-loaders, repeaters, automatics and fixed ammunition has rendered game scarce in all localities save a very few, the thoughtful man is driven to consider measures for the checking of destruction and the suppression of wholesale slaughter.

First of all, the deadly floating batteries and sail-boats were prohibited. To-day a punt gun is justly regarded as a relic of barbarism, and any man who uses one places himself beyond the pale of decent sportsmanship, or even of modern pot-hunting. Strange to say, although the unwritten code of ethics of English sportsmen is very strict, the English to this day permit wild-fowl hunting with guns of huge calibre, some of which are more like shot-cannons than shot-guns. And they say, "Well, there are still wild duck on our coast!"

Beyond question, it is now high time for the English people to take up the shot-gun question, and consider what to-day is fair and unfair in the killing of waterfowl. The supply of British ducks and geese can not forever withstand the market gunners and their shot-cannons. Has not the British wild-fowl supply greatly decreased during the past fifteen years? I strongly suspect that a careful investigation would reveal the fact that it has diminished. The Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire should look into the matter, and obtain a series of reports on the condition of the waterfowl to-day as compared with what it was twenty years ago.

In the United States we have eliminated the swivel guns, the punt guns and the very-big-bore guns. Among the real sportsmen the tendency is steadily toward shot-guns of small calibre, especially under 12-gauge. But, outside the ranks of sportsmen, we are now face to face with two automatic and five "pump" shotguns of deadly efficiency. Of these, more than one hundred thousand are being made and sold annually by the five companies that produce them. Recently the annual output has been carefully estimated from known facts to be about as follows:

Winchester Arms Co., New Haven, Conn. (1 Automatic and 1 Pump-gun) 50,000 guns. Remington Arms Co., Ilion, N.Y. (1 Automatic and 1 Pump-gun) 25,000 " Marlin Fire Arms Co., New Haven, Conn. 1 Pump-gun 12,000 " Stevens Arms Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass. 1 Pump-gun 10,000 " Union Fire Arms Co., 1 Pump-gun 5,000 " ------------ 103,000 guns

[Illustration: FOUR OF THE SEVEN MACHINE GUNS

STEVENS PUMP GUN, 6 SHOTS IN 6 SECONDS.

WINCHESTER PUMP GUN, 6 SHOTS IN 6 SECONDS.

REMINGTON AUTOMATIC, 5 SHOTS IN 4 SECONDS. Loaded and cocked by its own recoil.

WINCHESTER AUTOLOADING. 5 SHOTS IN 4 SECONDS Loaded and cocked by its own recoil.]

THE ETHICS OF SHOOTING AND SHOT-GUNS.--Are the American people willing that their wild birds shall be shot by machinery?

In the ethics of sportsmanship, the anglers of America are miles ahead of the men who handle the rifle and shot-gun in the hunting field. Will the hunters ever catch up?

The anglers have steadily diminished the weight of the rod and the size of the line; and they have prohibited the use of gang hooks and nets. In this respect the initiative of the Tuna Club of Santa Catalina is worthy of the highest admiration. Even though the leaping tuna, the jewfish and the sword-fish are big and powerful, the club has elected to raise the standard of sportsmanship by making captures more difficult than ever before. A higher degree of skill, and nerve and judgment, is required in the angler who would make good on a big fish; and, incidentally, the fish has about double "the show" that it had fifteen years ago.

That is Sportsmanship!

But how is it with the men who handle the shot-gun?

By them, the Tuna Club's high-class principle has been exactly reversed! In the making of fishing-rods, commercialism plays small part; but in about forty cases out of every fifty the making of guns is solely a matter of dollars and profits.

Excepting the condemnation of automatic and pump guns, I think that few clubs of sportsmen have laid down laws designed to make shooting more difficult, and to give the game more of a show to escape. Thousands of gentlemen sportsmen have their own separate unwritten codes of honor, but so far as I know, few of them have been written out and adopted as binding rules of action. I know that among expert wing shots it is an unwritten law that quail and grouse must not be shot on the ground, nor ducks on the water. But, among the three million gunners who annually shoot in the United States how many, think you, are there who in actual practice observe any sentimental principles when in the presence of killable game? I should say about one man and boy out of every five hundred.

Up to this time, the great mass of men who handle guns have left it to the gunmakers to make their codes of ethics, and hand them out with the loaded cartridges, all ready for use.

For fifty years the makers of shot-guns and rifles have taxed their ingenuity and resources to make killing easier, especially for "amateur" sportsmen,--_and take still greater advantages of the game_! Look at this scale of progression:

FIFTY YEARS' INCREASE IN THE DEADLINESS OF FIREARMS.

KIND OF GUN. ESTIMATED DEGREE OF DEADLINESS.

Single-shot muzzle loader xx 10 Single-shot breech-loader xxxxxx 30 Double-barrel breech-loader xxxxxxxxxx 50 Choke-bore breech-loader xxxxxxxxxxxx 60 Repeating rifle xxxxxxxxxxxx 60 Repeating rifle, with silencer xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 70 "Pump" shot-gun (6 shots) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 90 Automatic or "autoloading" shot-guns, 5 shots xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 100

_The Output of 1911_.--At a recent hearing before a committee of the House of Representatives at Washington, a representative of the gun-making industry reported that in the year 1911 ten American manufacturing concerns turned out the following:

391,875 shot-guns, 666,643 rifles, and 580,042 revolvers.

There are 66 factories producing firearms and ammunition, employing $39,377,000 of invested capital and 15,000 employees.

The sole and dominant thought of many gunmakers is to make the very deadliest guns that human skill can invent, sell them as fast as possible, and declare dividends on their stock. The Remington, Winchester, Marlin, Stevens and Union Companies are engaged in a mad race to see who can turn out the deadliest guns, and the most of them. On the market to-day there are five pump-guns, that fire six shots each, in about _six seconds_, without removal from the shoulder, by the quick sliding of a sleeve under the barrel, that ejects the empty shell and inserts a loaded one. There are two automatics that fire five shots each in _five seconds or less_, by five pulls on the trigger! _The autoloading gun is reloaded and cocked again wholly by its own recoil_. Now, if these are not machine guns, what are they?

In view of the great scarcity of feathered game, and the number of deadly machine guns already on the market, the production of the last and deadliest automatic gun (by the Winchester Arms Company), _already in great demand_, is a crime against wild life, no less.

Every human action is a matter of taste and individual honor.

It is natural for the duck-butchers of Currituck to love the automatic shot-guns as they do, because they kill the most ducks per flock. With two of them in his boat, holding _ten shots_, one expert duck-killer can,--and sometimes _actually does_, so it is said,--get every duck out of a flock, up to seven or eight.

It is natural for an awkward and blundering wing-shot to love the deadliest gun, in order that he may make as good a bag as an expert shot can make with a double-barreled gun. It is natural for the hunter who does not care a rap about the extermination of species to love the gun that will enable him to kill up to the bag limit, every time he takes the field. It is natural for men who don't think, or who think in circles, to say "so long as I observe the lawful bag limit, what difference does it make what kind of a gun I use?"

It is natural for the Remington, and Winchester, and Marlin gun-makers to say, as they do, "Enforce the laws! Shorten the open seasons! Reduce the bag limit, and then it won't matter what guns are used! But,--DON'T touch autoloading guns! Don't hamper Inventive Genius!"

Is it not high time for American sportsmen to cease taking their moral principles and their codes of ethics from the gun-makers?

Here is a question that I would like to put before every hunter of game in America:

In view of the alarming scarcity of game, in view of the impending extermination of species by legal hunting, can any high-minded _sportsman_, can any _good citizen_ either sell a machine shot-gun or use one in hunting?

A gentleman is incapable of taking an unfair advantage of any wild creature; therefore a gentleman cannot use punt guns for ducks, dynamite for game fish, or automatic or pump guns in bird-shooting. The machine guns and "silencers" are grossly unfair, and like gang-hooks, nets and dynamite for trout and bass, their use in hunting must everywhere be prohibited by law. Times have changed, and the lines for protection must be more tightly drawn.

[Illustration: THE CHAMPION GAME SLAUGHTER CASE One Hour's Slaughter (218 Geese) With Two Automatic Shot-Guns]

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (Judge Orlady) has decided that the Pennsylvania law against the use of automatic guns in hunting is entirely constitutional, because every state has a right to say how its game may and may not be killed.

It is up to the American People to say _now_ whether their wild life shall be slaughtered by machinery, or not.

If they are willing that it should be, then let us be consistent and say--away with all "conservation!" The game conservators can endure a gameless and birdless continent quite as well as the average citizen can.

HOW THEY WORK.--There are a few apologists for the automatic and pump guns who cheerfully say, "So long as the bag limit is observed what difference does it make how the birds are killed?"

It is strange that a conscientious man should ask such a question, when the answer is apparent.

We reply, "The difference is that an automatic or pump gun will kill fully twice as many waterfowl as a double-barrel, _if not more_; and _it is highly undesirable that every gunner should get the bag limit of birds, or any number near it_! The birds can not stand it. Moreover, _the best states for ducks and geese have no bag limits on those birds_!" To-day, on Currituck Sound, for example, the market hunters are killing all the waterfowl they can sell. On Marsh Island, Louisiana, one man has killed 369 ducks in one day, and another market gunner killed 430 in one day.

The automatic and the "pump" shot-guns are the favorite weapons of the game-hog who makes a specialty of geese and ducks. It is no uncommon thing for a gunner who shoots a machine gun to get, with one gun, as high as _eight_ birds out of one flock. A man who has himself done this has told me so.

_The Champion Game-Slaughter Case_.--Here is a story from California that is no fairy tale. It was published, most innocently, in a western magazine, with the illustration that appears herewith, and in which please notice the automatic shot-gun:

"February 5th, I and a friend were at one of the Glenn County Club's camps.... Neither of us having ever had the pleasure of shooting over live decoys, we were anxious, and could hardly wait for the sport to commence. On arriving at the scene we noticed holes which had been dug in the ground, just large enough for a man to crawl into. These holes were used for hiding places, and were deep enough so the sportsmen would be entirely out of sight of the game. The birds are so wild that to move a finger will frighten them....

"The decoys are wild geese which had been crippled and tamed for this purpose. They are placed inside of silk net fences which are located on each side of the holes dug for hiding places. These nets are the color of the ground and it is impossible for the wild geese flying overhead to detect the difference.

"After we had investigated everything the expert caller and owner of the outfit exclaimed: 'Into your holes!'

"We noticed in the distance a flock of geese coming. Our caller in a few seconds had their attention, and they headed towards our decoys. Soon they were directly over us, but out of easy range of our guns. We were anxious to shoot, but in obedience to our boss had to keep still, and soon noticed that the birds were soaring around and in a short time were within fifteen or twenty feet of us. At that moment we heard the command, 'Punch 'em!' and the bombardment that followed was beyond imagining. _We had fired five shots apiece and found we had bagged ten geese from this one flock_.

"At the end of one hour's shooting we had 218 birds to our credit and were out of ammunition.

"On finding that no more shells were in our pits we took our dead geese to the camp and returned with a new supply of ammunition. We remained in the pits during the entire day. When the sun had gone behind the mountains we summed up our kill and _it amounted to 450 geese_!

"The picture shown with this article gives a view of _the first hour's shoot_. A photograph would have been taken of the remainder of the shoot, but it being warm weather the birds had to be shipped at once in order to keep them from spoiling.

[Illustration: SLAUGHTERED ACCORDING TO LAW A Result of a Faulty System. Such Pictures as this are Very Common in Sportsmen's Magazines Note the Automatic Gun]

"Supper was then eaten, after which we were driven back to Willows; both agreeing that it was one of the greatest days of sport we ever had, and wishing that we might, through the courtesy of the Glenn County Goose Club, have another such day. C.H.B."

Another picture was published in a Canadian magazine, illustrating a story from which I quote:

"I fixed the decoys, hid my boat and took my position in the blind. My man started his work with a will and hustled the ducks out of every cove, inlet or piece of marsh for two miles around. I had barely time to slip the cartridges into my guns--_one a double and the other a five shot automatic_--when I saw a brace of birds coming toward me. They sailed in over my decoys. I rose to the occasion, and the leader up-ended and tumbled in among the decoys. The other bird, unable to stop quick enough, came directly over me. He closed his wings and struck the ground in the rear of the blind.

"More and more followed. Sometimes they came singly, and then in twos and threes. I kept busy and attended to each bird as quickly as possible. Whenever there was a lull in the flight I went out in the boat and picked up the dead, leaving the wounded to take chances with any gunner lucky enough to catch them in open and smooth water. A bird handy in the air is worth two wounded ones in the water. _Twice I took six dead birds out of the water for seven shots, and both guns empty_.

"The ball thus opened, the birds commenced to move in all directions. Until the morning's flight was over I was kept busy pumping lead, _first with the 10, then with the automatic_, reloading, picking up the dead, etc."

And the reader will observe that the harmless, innocent, inoffensive automatic shot gun, that "don't matter if you enforce the bag limit," figures prominently in both stories and both photographs.

_A Story of Two Pump Guns and Geese_:--It comes from Aberdeen, S.D. (Sand Lake), in the spring of 1911. Mr. J.J. Humphrey tells it, in _Outdoor Life_ magazine for July, 1911.

"Smith and I were about a hundred yards from them [the flock of Canada geese], when Murphy scared them. They rose in a dense mass and came directly between Smith and me. We were about gunshot distance apart, and they were not over thirty feet in the air when we opened up on them with our pump guns and No. 5 shot. When the smoke cleared away and we had rounded up the cripples we found we had twenty-one geese. I have heard of bigger killings out in this country, but never positively knew of them."

So then: _those two gunners averaged 10-1/2 wild geese per pump gun out of one flock_! And yet there are wise and reflective sportsmen who say, "What difference does the kind of gun make so long as you live up to the law?"

I think that the pump and automatic guns make about 75 _per-cent of difference, against the game_; that is all!

The number of shot-guns now in use in the United States is almost beyond belief. About six years ago a gentleman interested in the manufacture of such weapons informed me, and his statement has never been disputed, that _every year_ about 500,000 new shot-guns were sold in the United States. The number of shot cartridges annually produced by our four great cartridge companies has been reliably estimated as follows:

Winchester Arms Co 300,000,000 Union Metallic Cartridge Co 250,000,000 Peters Cartridge Co 150,000,000 Western Cartridge Co 75,000,000 ----------- 775,000,000

We must stop all the holes in the barrel, or eventually lose all the water. No group of bird-slaughterers is entitled to immunity. We will not "limit the bag, and enforce the laws," while we permit the makers and users of autoloading and pump guns to kill at will, as they demand.

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[Illustration: Copy of letter: National Association of Audubon Societies Founded 1901. Incorporated 1906.

For the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals

WILLIAM DUTCHER, President JOHN E. THAYER, 1st Vice-President THEO. S. PALMER, M.D., 2d Vice-President T. GILBERT PEARSON, Secretary FRANK M. CHAPMAN, Treasurer SAMUEL T. CARTER, Jr., Attorney

OFFICES 525 Manhattan Avenue, New York City

[Illustration: Map showing (shaded) States having Audubon Societies.]

[Illustration: Map showing (shaded) States which have adopted the A.O.U. model law protecting the non-game birds.]

141 Broadway.

Feb. 26th 1906.

My dear Mr. Hornaday:--

It is with much surprise that I learn through your communication of even date that certain persons are claiming that the National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Animals and Birds is in favor of the use of automatic or pump guns, and consequently is not in favor of the passage of laws to prevent the use or sale of such firearms.

I beg officially to state that the National Association of Audubon Societies is absolutely opposed to either the manufacture, sale, or use of such firearms, and therefore hopes that the meritorious bill introduced by the New York Zoological Society will become a law.

I beg further to add that any statement contrary to the above in effect is unauthorized.

This society is working for the preservation of the wild birds and game of North America, and it sincerely should not stultify itself by advocating the use of one of the most potent means of destruction that has ever been devised.

You are at liberty to use this communication either publicly or privately.

Very sincerely yours, [Signature: William Dutcher] President.

A LETTER THAT TELLS ITS OWN STORY]

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Yes; we _will_ "limit the bag" and "enforce the laws;" but the machine guns and the alien shooters shall be eliminated at the same time! Each state has the power to regulate, absolutely, down to the smallest detail, the manner in which the game of The People shall be taken or not taken; and such laws are absolutely constitutional. If we can legislate punt guns and dynamite out of use, the machine guns and silencers can be treated similarly.

_No immunity for wild-life exterminators_.

The following unprejudiced testimony from a New York business man who is a sportsman, with a fine game preserve of his own, should be of general interest. It was written to G.O. Shields, March 21, 1906.

DEAR SIR:

Regarding the use of the automatic shot-gun, would say that I am a member of two southern ducking clubs where these guns are used very extensively. I have seen a flock of ducks come into a blind where one, two, or even three of these guns were in use, and have seen as many as eleven shots poured into a single flock.

We have considerable poaching on one of these clubs, the territory being so extensive that it is impossible to prevent it. We own 60,000 acres, and these poachers, I am told, nearly all use the automatic guns. They frequently kill six or eight ducks out of one flock--first taking a raking shot on the water, and then getting in the balance of the magazine before the flock is out of range. In fact, some of them carry two guns, and are able to discharge a part of the second magazine into the same flock.

As I told you the other evening, I am not so much against the gun when in the hands of gentlemen and real sportsmen, but, on account of its terrible possibilities for market hunters, I believe that the only safe way is to abolish it entirely, and that the better class should be willing to give up this weapon as being the only means of putting a stop to this willful game slaughter.

Very truly yours,

ARTHUR ROBINSON.

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HOW GENTLEMEN SPORTSMEN REGARD AUTOMATIC AND PUMP GUNS

Each one of the following organizations, chiefly clubs of gentlemen sportsmen, have adopted strong resolutions condemning the use of automatic guns in hunting, and either requesting or recommending the enactment of laws against their use:

New York Zoological Society ... Henry Fairfield Osborn, President The Camp-Fire Club of America ... Daniel C. Beard, President Boone and Crockett Club ... W. Austin Wadsworth, President New York State Fish, Game and Forest League ... 81 Clubs and Associations New York Association for the Protection of Fish and Game ... Alfred Wagstaff, President Lewis and Clark Club ... John M. Phillips, President League of American Sportsmen ... G.O. Shields, President Wild Life Protective Association ... W.T. Hornaday, President

WHERE AUTOMATIC GUNS ARE BARRED OUT BY LAW

PENNSYLVANIA, 1907 NEW JERSEY, 1912 SASKATCHEWAN, 1906 NEW BRUNSWICK, 1907 BRITISH COLUMBIA, 1911 ONTARIO, 1907 MANITOBA, 1909 ALBERTA, 1907 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, 1906

SPORTSMEN'S CLUBS WHEREIN THEY ARE BARRED BY CODES OF ETHICS AND RULES

Adirondack League Club, New York Blooming Grove Park Hunting and Fishing Club, Penn. Greenwing Gun Club, Ottawa, Ill. Western Ducking Club, Detroit, Minn. Bolsa Chica Club, Los Angeles, Cal. Westminster Club, Los Angeles, Cal. Los Patos Club, Los Arigeles, Cal. Pocahontas Club, Va. Tobico Hunting Club, Kawkawlin, Mich. Turtle Lake Club, Turtle Lake, Mich. Au Sable Forest Farm Club, Mich. Wallace Ducking Club, Wild Fowl Bay, Mich. Lomita Club, Los Angeles, Cal. Golden West Club, Los Angeles, Cal. Recreation Club, Los Angeles, Cal.

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A MODEL BILL TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF AUTOMATIC AND REPEATING SHOT GUNS IN HUNTING

Section 1. It shall be unlawful to use in hunting or shooting birds or animals of any kind, any automatic or repeating shot gun or pump gun, or any shot-gun holding more than two cartridges at one time, or that may be fired more than twice without removal from the shoulder for reloading.

Section 2. Violation of any provision of this act shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars for each offence; and the carrying, or possession in the woods, or in any field, or upon any water of any gun or other weapon the use of which is prohibited, as aforesaid, shall be prima facie evidence of the violation of this act.

_The English 3-barrel "Scatter Rifle," for Ducks_.--All gunners who find machine guns good enough for them will be delighted by the news that an Englishman whose identity is concealed under the initials "F.M.M." has invented and manufactured a 3-barreled rifle specially intended to kill ducks that are beyond the reach of a choke-bore shotgun. The weapon discharges all three barrels simultaneously. In the _London Field_, of Dec. 9, 1911, it is described by a writer who also thoughtfully conceals his identity under a nom-de-plume. After a trial of 48 shots, the writer declares that "the 3-barreled is a really practicable weapon," and that with it one could bag wild-fowl that were quite out of reach of any shot-gun. Just why a Gatling gun or a Maxim should not be employed for the same purpose, the writer fails to state. The use of either would be quite as sportsmanlike, and as fair to the game. There are great possibilities in ducking mortars, also.

_The "Sunday Gun."_--A new weapon of peculiar form and great deadliness to song birds, has recently come into use. Because of the manner of its use, it is known as the "Sunday gun." It is specially adapted to concealment on the person. A man could go through a reception with one of these deadly weapons absolutely concealed under his dress coat! It is a weapon with two barrels, rifle and shot; and it enables the user to kill anything from a humming-bird up to a deer. What the shot-barrel can not kill, the rifle will. It is not a gun that any sportsman would own, save as a curiosity, or for target use.

The State Ornithologist of Massachusetts, Mr. E.H. Forbush, informs me that already the "Sunday gun" has become a scourge to the bird life of that state. Thousands of them are used by men and boys who live in cities and towns, and are able to get into the country only on Sundays. They conceal them under their coats, on Sunday mornings, go out into the country, and spend the day in shooting small birds and mammals. The dead birds are concealed in various pockets, the Sunday gun goes under the coat, and at nightfall the guerrilla rides back to the city with an innocent smile on his face, as if he had spent a day in harmless enjoyment of the beauties of nature.

The "Sunday gun" is on sale everywhere, and it is said to be in use both by American and Italian killers of song-birds. It weighs only two pounds, eight ounces, and its cost is so trifling that any guerrilla who wishes one can easily find the money for its purchase. There are in the United States at least a million men and boys quite mean enough to use this weapon on song-birds, swallows, woodpeckers, nuthatches, rabbits and squirrels, and like other criminals, hide both weapon and loot in their clothing. So long as this gun is in circulation, no small bird is safe, at any season, near any city or town.

Now, what are the People going to do about it?

My recommendation is that each state enact a law in the following terms:

Be it enacted, etc.--That from and after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful for any person to use in hunting, or to carry concealed on the person, any shotgun, or rifle, or combination of shotgun and rifle, with a barrel or barrels less than twenty-eight inches in length, or with a skeleton stock fixed on a hinge.

The carrying of any rifle or shotgun concealed on the person shall constitute a felony.

The penalties for hunting with any gun specially adapted to concealment should be not less than $50 fine or two months imprisonment at hard labor, and the carrying of such weapons concealed should be $100 or four months at hard labor.

Incidentally, we wonder what will be the next devilish device for the destruction of wild life that American inventive genius will produce.

[Illustration: THE "SUNDAY GUN!" A Deadly Combination of Concealable Rifle-and-Shot-Gun.]

[Illustration: THE WILDERNESS OF NORTH AMERICA (SHADED) AND THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES, WELL STOCKED WITH BIG GAME]

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