Never, never, let your gun

Lately a melancholy accident happened at the house of Mr Belwood, of Brignall, near Bernard-castle. One of the men-servants being desired by his fellow-servant (who is a volunteer) to bring down his accoutrements to clean, he, in his passage, met the servant girl, and snapped the piece at her, but it did not go off. He, however, afterwards presented it at two of Mr Belwood's daughters, when it unfortunately exploded, and carried away a great part of one of their faces. The piece had not been drawn after a field-day, and the man was ignorant of that circumstance. Ought not, however, the many accidents that have happened by fire-arms, sufficiently to deter any rational being from presenting a piece, either loaded or unloaded, at his fellow-creatures?