Guns at home with a young family

[DEB]

I know that this is an old posting, but I wanted to find an area to put this quote out of an old book I am reading. I am currently reading a book written by a Sarah Raymond Herndon in 1902 which details the diary she kept while crossing the plains in 1865. While crossing there was an accident where a Gentleman was shot by a supposedly safe fowling piece. He was standing on his buckboard looking to shoot some prairie chickens, when the firearm that a young man threw in the back of the wagon went off, struck him in the chest and he quickly died. This writer relates within her diary something all should take note of: "(I have heard it said, “It is the unloaded gun, or the one that is supposed to be unloaded, that generally does the mischief.”)" Mind you this was in 1865, where cartridge firearms were almost unknown. Safe handling of firearms never go out of style.