568 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Constructive Criticism 
A New Line of Thought Suggesting Improvements in American 
Made One Hand Arms 
By Louis E. Tuzo 
During the past few months much has appear¬ 
ed in the daily, weekly and monthly preSs about 
the unpreparedness of the United States, but 
very little has been said of the real or partial 
cause of this unpreparedness. To get down to 
the last analysis at once the humble citizen will 
be blamed. 
This conclusion has been reached by having 
followed closely for some years eight or more 
shooting and sportsmen’s publications, and hav¬ 
ing studied what authorities have written, about 
their wants and needs, that they cannot get. In 
a country where citizen soldiery is counted on 
for defense, shooting of any kind is of great ad¬ 
vantage as it trains the eyes, muscles and nerves, 
besides giving better self control. With sufficient 
practice it develops the expert shot. Take for 
example, preparedness with the pistol or revol¬ 
ver—If every citizen could shoot well with either 
of these arms, would he not be able to learn the 
ways of the rifle much quicker in time of need, 
and thereby save his country both time and 
money. Comparatively speaking—there are a 
few men outside of military organizations who 
know how to handle pistols and revolvers, and 
who can, and do good shooting. But in time of 
trouble how many brigades could they muster in 
comparison with what would be needed. But 
the vast majority—the novice and householder, 
what about them? The most of them are unin¬ 
terested in shooting, and why? From a great 
many I have talked with and others that have 
written in the public press, it is because pistols 
and revolvers are dangerous, not only to them¬ 
selves, but to their children as well. Why, in 
this day and age are they dangerous? Simply 
because they are unsafe. Is a loaded pistol or 
revolver safe for a child to pick up, play with, 
pull the trigger, have the hammer fall and car¬ 
tridge explode? Certainly not. There are many 
so-called safety pistols and revolvers on the mar¬ 
ket, and they are safe, but only for the man who 
knows about arms and is careful in handling 
them. Such a person keeps his wits about him 
ALL the time, unfortunately, there are—com¬ 
paratively speaking—only a few such. In the 
writer’s opinion, pistols and revolvers should be 
made for the child, not to fire or play with, but 
for safety, because in the majority of homes, a 
child will find a small arm, and play with it, no 
matter where it is hidden, except it is locked up, 
which it seldom is. Thousands of homes are 
without firearms simply because they are unsafe, 
and there is a child in the house, in many other 
homes, where there are no children, no firearm 
is kept, simply because of fear. 
If all these so-called safety pistols (automat¬ 
ics) are really safe, why has the police depart¬ 
ment of New York, and most all other cities of 
the United States recently ordered that in the fu¬ 
ture no more shall be purchased by members of 
the force for police service? And in future re¬ 
volvers, with rebounding hammer and supposed 
positive lock will be used. What do police acci¬ 
dents reports show? only that the automatic pis¬ 
tol with all its safeties is unsafe. Many house¬ 
holders have bought automatic pistols, kept them 
loaded and cocked (for home protection) then 
after a time, have forgotten they were cocked, 
released safety, pulled the trigger, and, no matter 
what happened, the cartridge was fired. Proving, 
that kind of a safety pistol not safe for that kind 
of a man, and his name is legion. 
Many single shot pistols and single and double 
action revolvers have so-called safeties but I have 
yet to hear of one that can be loaded, cocked, 
its trigger pulled and hammer fall, that cannot 
explode the cartridge, if handled by adult oi 
child. 
Interest in trap shooting has grown wonder¬ 
fully in the past few years and many hammer¬ 
less shot guns with hammer indicators and safe¬ 
ties of some sort have been put on, some good, 
some bad, but children seldom play with a heavy- 
gun, and further, guns are seldom left loaded in 
the house, and are only mentioned here to show 
that some and only some little things have been 
given the attention they deserve, while pistols and 
revolvers have had (especially for the house¬ 
holder) practically nothing done to make them 
absolutely safe. 
Many authorities have written about the qual¬ 
ity, lines, and finish of our pistols and revolvers, 
also size and fit of revolver grips, yet they, nor 
anyone else can get what they want, from manu¬ 
facturers that ought to have every facility for 
producing all that could be desired. Charles 
Newton wrote in Arms and the Man an interest¬ 
ing article a month or so ago about the new rifle 
he is building, and the methods employed to ob¬ 
tain the “little things in life”, (improvements for 
rifles) not for himself alone, but for all the 
shooting world. He also gave some useful in¬ 
formation that was real news to many and sor¬ 
rowful news, especially so, to those who have 
tried and failed to get some small practical im¬ 
provement made. 
“The article by Captain Roy S. Tinney con¬ 
tained a very pointed invitation to manufacturers 
of new rifles to let the fact that they contem¬ 
plated the making of such rifles be known in ad¬ 
vance of their production, to the end that the 
opinions of some of our shooters who have 
knowledge of the subject from a practical stand¬ 
point might be submitted to the manufacturers 
with the possible result that the new product 
might be improved by embodying therein some 
of the many ideas which such a course would 
bring forth. 
A careful examination of the management of 
our great arms factories reveals the fact that 
they all had their origin with some man who 
had a thoroughly technical knowledge of arms, 
whose taste for firearms was born in him, and 
was accompanied by sufficient business ability to 
build up a large business, and whose names they 
still bear. 
ARREST FOR GRAND LARCENY 
The reason for requesting this circular to be shown 
in your magazine is for the purpose that Edward C. 
Kindred was known by all of his friends as a great 
huntsman and fisherman, and it was known that 
during his life that he followed this particular kind 
Police Department, City of New York. 
EDWARD C. KINDRED. 
DESCRIPTION—Age, about 35 years; height, 5 feet, 
10 inches; weight, 200 pounds; blue eyes; brown 
hair; straight large nose; heavy fair eyebrows; wavy 
hair parted in centre; good teeth; pale complexion; 
wore dark grey suit, black lace shoes, split straw 
hat .soft light shirt, soft collar with a bow string fie. 
Kindred was employed By the Flinn-O’Rourke Co. 
(Inc.), of 17 Battery Place, this City, and on the 
morning of August 4, 1915, was sent from the office 
of said firm to the Liberty National Bank, 139 Broad¬ 
way, where he received $22,119.75 in cash and ab¬ 
sconded. The money was in bills of all denomina¬ 
tions from one to fifty dollars. 
Police authorities are requested to make caretul 
search for this man. . . _ _ 
If found, arrest, hold and wire Detective Bureau, 
Police Headquarters, New York City. 
New York, August 6, 1915. ARTHUR W00 DS, 
Police Commissioner. 
J. KANNOFSKY 
PRACTICAL GLASS BLOWER 
and manufacturer of artificial eyes or birds, animals 
and manufacturing purposes a specialty. Send for 
prices. All kinds of heads and skulls for furriers and 
taxidermists. 
363 Canal St., New York. 
Please mention “Forest and Stream.” 
Partridge and Deer Shooting 
Maine State License reduced to $15.00. 
Bird License goo d until Oct. 1st, $5.00. 
Perpetual close time on Moose. Let me 
tell you about my Camps one to four 
miles in from the Canadian Pacific R. R. 
Address 
BURT PACKARD, Sebec Lake, Me. 
