Page 167 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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UNFAIR FIREARMS AND SHOOTING ETHICS 145
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 re-
versed! Inthemakingoffishing-rods,commercialismplayssmallpart; 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 andadoptedasbindingrulesofaction. Iknowthatamongexpertwing 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 oj the game! Look at this scale of progression
Fifty Years' Increase in the Deadliness of Firearms.
KIND OF GUN.
Single-shot muzzle loader
Single-shot breech-loader Double-barrel breech-loader Choke-borebreech-loader Repeatingrifle
Repeating rifle, with silencer
"Pump" shot-gun (6 shots)
Automatic or "autoloading" shot-guns, 5 shots
ESTIMATED DEGREE OF DEADLINESS.
^_ 10 ^^^__ 30 ^^^^^^^^ .50 ^^^_i^^^^^^ 60 m^_^_h—« 60 ^^^^i^_^^.^^^_ 70 ^^_^_^.s_i^.^.i__ 90 _.^_^....i_^^^^^^_.. 100
The Output oJ igii.—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 manufac- turing concerns turned out the following
391,875 shot-guns, 666,643 rifles, and 580,042 revolvers.
There are 66 factories producing firearms and ammunition, employ- ing $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