guns good enough for them will be delighted by the news that an Englishman whose identity is concealed under the initials “F.M.M.” has invented and manufactured a 3-barreled rifle specially intended to kill ducks that are beyond the reach of a choke-bore shotgun.  The weapon discharges all three barrels simultaneously.  In the London Field, of Dec. 9, 1911, it is described by a writer who also thoughtfully conceals his identity under a nom-de-plume.  After a trial of 48 shots, the writer declares that “the 3-barreled is a really practicable weapon,” and that with it one could bag wild-fowl that were quite out of reach of any shot-gun.  Just why a Gatling gun or a Maxim should not be employed for the same purpose, the writer fails to state.  The use of either would be quite as sportsmanlike, and as fair to the game.  There are great possibilities in ducking mortars, also.

The “Sunday Gun."—­A new weapon of peculiar form and great deadliness to song birds, has recently come into use.  Because of the manner of its use, it is known as the “Sunday gun.”  It is specially adapted to concealment on the person.  A man could go through a reception with one of these deadly weapons absolutely concealed under his dress coat!  It is a weapon with two barrels, rifle and shot; and it enables the user to kill anything from a humming-bird up to a deer.  What the shot-barrel can not kill, the rifle will.  It is not a gun that any sportsman would own, save as a curiosity, or for target use.

The State Ornithologist of Massachusetts, Mr. E.H.  Forbush, informs me that already the “Sunday gun” has become a scourge to the bird life of that state.  Thousands of them are used by men and boys who live in cities and towns, and are able to get into the country only on Sundays.  They conceal them under their coats, on Sunday mornings, go out into the country, and spend the day in shooting small birds and mammals.  The dead birds are concealed in various pockets, the Sunday gun goes under the coat, and at nightfall the guerrilla rides back to the city with an innocent smile on his face, as if he had spent a day in harmless enjoyment of the beauties of nature.

The “Sunday gun” is on sale everywhere, and it is said to be in use both by American and Italian killers of song-birds.  It weighs only two pounds, eight ounces, and its cost is so trifling that any guerrilla who wishes one can easily find the money for its purchase.  There are in the United States at least a million men and boys quite mean enough to use this weapon on song-birds, swallows, woodpeckers, nuthatches, rabbits and squirrels, and like other criminals, hide both weapon and loot in their clothing.  So long as this gun is in circulation, no small bird is safe, at any season, near any city or town.

Now, what are the People going to do about it?

My recommendation is that each state enact a law in the following terms: 

Be it enacted, etc.—­That from and after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful for any person to use in hunting, or to carry concealed on the person, any shotgun, or rifle, or combination of shotgun and rifle, with a barrel or barrels less than twenty-eight inches in length, or with a skeleton stock fixed on a hinge.