LOADED FIREARMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 121, 24 May 1935, Page 9

LOADED FIREARMS.

DEATHS DUE TO SHOOTING

HASTINGS CORONER'S COMMENT

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

HASTINGS, Thursday.

"It is a remarkable thing that on the same day we should have two inquiries into the deaths of three comparatively young men, attributable in each case to firearms," sa;d the Hastings district coroner, Mr. G. Ebbett, to-day. "It shows the grave danger of leaving loaded firearms about. I know the witnese responsible in *one case has told ue he had previously inspected the rifle and did not know there was a cartridge left in it. "However, I think that in a general way a man leaving loaded firearms lying about should be subject to some s"ort°of punishment," the coroner concluded.

The first inquest concerned the deaths of Mr. Harold Smith, a Hastings land agent, and his 17-year-old son, Douglas, who were fatally shot on a at Ohiti on May G when duck shooting. The coroner returned a verdict that the deceased met their deaths by pure accident, there being no direct evidence to show how the fatality occurred. One witness said that Douglas Smith had told him before he (lied that he was pulling a gun out of-the boat by the muzzle when it discharged. The other inquest concerned the death of Mr. Cednc Woodflekl, a young man, on May 3. A group of young men were assembled in a bedroom when a liile was discharged. One witness «nid he opened the bolt of the rifle and then shut it, thus cocking it. He was sure it had been unloaded previously, so he did not look in the breach. Apparently when he unloaded the rifle the magazine spring hnd failed to function, so as to bring the remaining cartridge into view. The coroner returned a verdict that deceased met his death ae the result of laceration of the brain, caused by the discharge of a rifle.