POSSESSION OF PEA-RIFLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15307, 21 May 1913, Page 6

POSSESSION OF PEA-RIFLES.

The comment made by Mr. Justice Cooper upon the possession of pearifles by lads and young children will be heartily endorsed ■'- by all who have an intelligent appreciation of the use and abuse of firearms, It is true that shooting cannot be prohibited for adults simply because fatalities -frequently occur among them, any more than riding can be prohibited because riders sometimes meet with fatal accidents ) but it is necessary to realise that accidents with firearms, even among adults, almost invariably result from unqualified carelessness, and that children are so inherently careless and irresponsible that they are unfit to be trusted with lethal weapons. There are, of course, exceptional boys who are constitutionally r ' oldfashioned" and are consequently far less dangerous with a rifle than many adults; : but the ordinary boy, as every intelligent rifleman knows, > is no safer with a.pearrifle than he would be with a naked light in a powder magazine. , The ' enormous number of serious and of fatal accidents due to pea-rifles in the hands, of boys are inevitable and unavoidable— long as boys are permitted to have them in their possession. Mr. Justice Cooper recommends that all pea-rifles found in the possession of boys should be made liable to confiscation. If this is not sufficient to check a growing and serious evil the possession of a pea-rifle by a boy unless under the supervision of an adultmight be made a misdemeanour and parents made responsible for any fine imposed. Unless scores of innocent and heedless lives are to be sacrificed yearly some drastic steps must be taken to eradicate a most dangerous practice. •