EDITOR'S CORNER. 



SHALL WE ALLOW AUTO- 

 MATIC GUNS? 



Several patents have recently been 

 issued for automatic shot guns, and I 

 am informed that the Winchester 

 Arms Co., of New Haven, Conn., is 

 building machinery to make such a 

 gun. Another gun house -has already 

 brought out one, and it is now being 

 advertised and sold. 



It would seem that reasonable men, 

 no matter how eagerly they may seek 

 the mighty dollar, should be satisfied 

 with the weapons already on the mar- 

 ket for destroying American birds and 

 wild animals. 



We have repeating rifles, repeating 

 shot guns, double barrel and ..single 

 barrel shot guns by the million, and 

 with these the birds and the wile ani- 

 mals have been reduced to pitiable 

 remnants of their once great numbers ; 

 but now, as if not satisfied with the 

 slaughter which has been and is being 

 carried on, these big gun houses are 

 putting out still more murderous en- 

 gines of destruction, for market hunt- 

 ers and pot hunters. 



This announcement should arouse 

 the indignation of every decent sports- 

 man and every nature lover on the 

 continent, and I appeal to all such to 

 write at once to the Winchester Arms 

 Co., protesting in the strongest and 

 most vigorous language possible, 



against the making and putting on 

 the market of an automatic gun. 



Many people who have not kept up 

 with the developments of recent years, 

 in the way of fire arms, may not know 

 what is meant by an automatic gun. 

 It is simply this : 



A gun with a magazine holding a 

 number of cartridges which may be 

 discharged as fast as a man can pull 

 the trigger. The shooter jumps a 

 bunch of quails, ducks or geese, cocks 

 his gun and fires. The recoil of the 

 first shot throws out the empty shell, 

 throws a new one into the chamber 

 and cocks the gun, ready for another 

 shot. From that on, all the shooter 

 has to do -is to swing the muzzle of 

 his gun from one bird to another and 

 pull the trigger until the last shot is 

 fired. Pistols built on this plan hold 

 7 to 10 cartridges, and it is possible to 

 fire all of them in less than 2 seconds. 

 The magazine of an automatic shot 

 gun, holding 6 cartridges, could be 

 emptied as quickly, and if the shooter 

 were an expert, as many of the game 

 butchers are, it would be possible to 

 kill 10 or more birds out of a covey 

 before they could get out of reach. 



The repeating rifle has been an im- 

 portant factor in wiping out the big 

 game of this country. The pump gun, 

 so called, has proven little short of a 

 national calamity. An automatic shot 



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