NOT AUTOMATIC

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 221, 15 June 1931, Page 8

NOT AUTOMATIC

Auto-loading Firearm MAGISTRATE’S DECISION f Dominion Special Service. Timaru, June 13. An unusual point was argued in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday between Mr. E. J. Anderson (Dunedin), counsel for a Mosgiel resident, charged with using an automatic shotgun to kill native game, and Mr. W. D. Campbell, counsel for the South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. The issue was whether or not a Winchester repeating shotgun was an automatic weapon. Mr. Anderson contended that the gun was non-automatic, as the human agency had to be introduced and only one shot could be fired without reloading, which was done by pulling back the handpiece under the barrel and pushing It forward again, which ejected the spent cartridge and reloaded the gun. He quoted Webster’s dictionary to support his argument that the gun was not automatic. Mr. Campbell argued that even if the gun were not automatic, it was autoloading. The society’s ranger admitted that he was not an authority on guns. In dismissing the information, Mr. C, R. Orr-Walker, S.M., said that even though the gun was auto-loading, it was not automatic, and aim had to be taken with each shot.