POLICE PISTOLS

I modelled a statuette of a mounted cowboy and gave it as a challenge trophy to be shot for with revolvers, open to all citizens of the United States.

It was won first by Dr. Louis Bell, then after two others had won it, it was finally won in 1894 by Roundsman Petty of the New York Police Force, who twice successfully defended his title to it, and thus it became his own property.

Since then the police in several states have regular police competitions.

I also gave a statuette modelled by myself as a challenge pistol trophy to the State of Maryland (my native state).

For years I tried to induce the police authorities of London, England, to let me give a challenge cup for the police to shoot for, but without success, till, by perseverance, I, in 1915, induced them to do so.

In 1917 an automatic pistol won it, till then it was shot for only with revolvers.

I am sure the better the police can shoot, the less apt they will be to draw a pistol unnecessarily; they are confident in their skill; it is the man who is given a pistol for the first time who looses off and hits the wrong man.

I think it is a mistake to arm police with a .38 or .32 pistol instead of a full-size .44 or .45 military one. A policeman has often to face great odds and a mob will not, like enemy soldiers in battle, spare him when down. A mob will kick him to death. It is wrong therefore to give him a less powerful weapon than a soldier is given.

I suppose he is given the smaller pistol, as in some countries the police do not carry a pistol openly as part of their equipment so when they do carry pistols they have them concealed.

I think also this concealment is a mistake; if a pistol is carried openly and the carrier is known to be a good shot, he can keep order without shooting, whereas a man with no visible pistol may be ill-treated because he appears unarmed and therefore harmless; and he has to draw in order to maintain his authority or in self-defence.

In the case of my Challenge Trophies given in the United States, the competitions are changed from revolver into automatic pistol competitions as the revolver is obsolete.

If a policeman is unarmed, he cannot be expected to keep as cool and have as good judgment in an emergency when his own life is in danger as he can be when armed with a good large calibre pistol that he knows how to shoot to such good effect that he is in no personal danger.If, when a riot starts, he can instantly drop a ring-leader each time the crowd attempts a rush, or break the arm of any man trying to throw a stone, he can get the mob under control with much less bloodshed than if they get out of hand with impunity and the military have finally to be called out.

A cool deadly shot can keep a big mob at bay. It is when police shoot and miss that the crowd begin to jeer and lose all fear of the police.

It is a great mistake to fire over the head of a man to stop him, it only makes him think you are a bad shot.

My servant got me out of a very nasty predicament when we were travelling one pitch dark night through a forest we had never been in before. We were being led by a guide who we felt sure was taking us in the wrong direction in order to lead us into an ambush and rob us. We had been walking away from where the compass told us was our proper direction for hours.

My servant without a word loaded my rifle and handed it to me.

The guide immediately turned and in half an hour we were back at our lodgings.

He had seen me kill a galloping bear in thick high cover a few hours before, and he did not like the look of my double-barrel rifle pointing at his back.