© Wyoming Tribune no. 225 September 21, 1908, page 1
Several times in the past few years Cheyenne homes have been saddened by young lives destroyed as a result of the custom of permitting boys of immature age to wander at will with firearms.
An unusually unfortunate accident of this kind occurred on Sunday afternoon, when Emil Forster, a fifteen-year-old school boy was shot through the heart and almost instantly killed while in a friendly tussle for the possession of a small rifle in the hands of one of his companions, there being four in the party which was spending the cool September afternoon in a rabbit hunt on the old dumps northeast of the city.
So far as can be learned the boys had been taking turns shooting with the gun which was a rifle of twenty-two calibre and loaded only with BB caps, the smallest ammunition used in a firearm.
In some fashion the weapon was discharged, the tiny bullet entering the lad's chest and penetrating the heart, and causing almost immediate death.
So small was the bullet, and so light the charge of powder that a wound in almost any other part of the body would be inconsequential, but touching a vital spot, was as certainly fatal as the discharge of a more deadly weapon.
The frightened and horrified boys ran to the road where they met Edgar Boice with his team and who at once hurried to this city for assistance but the lad was dead when the physicians and ambulance reached the spot.
The affair was so obviously an accident that no arrests were made, the parents of the boys guaranteeing their appearance at the coroner's inquest, which will be held on Tuesday morning.
Beside the dead boy, there were in the party James Seals, Fred Ahrens and Elmer and Ned Carroll. There were two guns in the party, one being a shot gun, the boys taking turns in shooting. The little rifle was in the hands of one of the Carroll boys, when Forster seeing something he wanted to shoot at, seized the gun, an attempted to pull it away, which half jokingly the other boy resented and the two scuffled about with the weapon between them until it was discharged. The tragedy was too sudden and too shocking for the witnesses to have a clear idea of how it came about, but all agree that the occurrence was purely an accident, and the grief and suffering of the boys of the party is no less keen than that of his parents.
The boy was the only son of his parents who came to Cheyenne a little over two years ago. The father is employed at the planning mill of the Union Pacific shops and came to Cheyenne with his family from Cincinnati. Emil who was about fifteen years of age, was a pupil in the seventh grade of the Cheyenne schools, and was the hope of his parents who encouraged him to continue in school in spite of the inclinations of boys of his age to go to work.
The affair, sad as it is, will nevertheless have its effect in tending to make parents more careful of the manner in which they permit their children the use of fire arms.
Bio courtesy of Lostnwyomn (FG#47168791)
Several times in the past few years Cheyenne homes have been saddened by young lives destroyed as a result of the custom of permitting boys of immature age to wander at will with firearms.
An unusually unfortunate accident of this kind occurred on Sunday afternoon, when Emil Forster, a fifteen-year-old school boy was shot through the heart and almost instantly killed while in a friendly tussle for the possession of a small rifle in the hands of one of his companions, there being four in the party which was spending the cool September afternoon in a rabbit hunt on the old dumps northeast of the city.
So far as can be learned the boys had been taking turns shooting with the gun which was a rifle of twenty-two calibre and loaded only with BB caps, the smallest ammunition used in a firearm.
In some fashion the weapon was discharged, the tiny bullet entering the lad's chest and penetrating the heart, and causing almost immediate death.
So small was the bullet, and so light the charge of powder that a wound in almost any other part of the body would be inconsequential, but touching a vital spot, was as certainly fatal as the discharge of a more deadly weapon.
The frightened and horrified boys ran to the road where they met Edgar Boice with his team and who at once hurried to this city for assistance but the lad was dead when the physicians and ambulance reached the spot.
The affair was so obviously an accident that no arrests were made, the parents of the boys guaranteeing their appearance at the coroner's inquest, which will be held on Tuesday morning.
Beside the dead boy, there were in the party James Seals, Fred Ahrens and Elmer and Ned Carroll. There were two guns in the party, one being a shot gun, the boys taking turns in shooting. The little rifle was in the hands of one of the Carroll boys, when Forster seeing something he wanted to shoot at, seized the gun, an attempted to pull it away, which half jokingly the other boy resented and the two scuffled about with the weapon between them until it was discharged. The tragedy was too sudden and too shocking for the witnesses to have a clear idea of how it came about, but all agree that the occurrence was purely an accident, and the grief and suffering of the boys of the party is no less keen than that of his parents.
The boy was the only son of his parents who came to Cheyenne a little over two years ago. The father is employed at the planning mill of the Union Pacific shops and came to Cheyenne with his family from Cincinnati. Emil who was about fifteen years of age, was a pupil in the seventh grade of the Cheyenne schools, and was the hope of his parents who encouraged him to continue in school in spite of the inclinations of boys of his age to go to work.
The affair, sad as it is, will nevertheless have its effect in tending to make parents more careful of the manner in which they permit their children the use of fire arms.
Bio courtesy of Lostnwyomn (FG#47168791)
© Wyoming Tribune no. 225 September 21, 1908, page 1
Several times in the past few years Cheyenne homes have been saddened by young lives destroyed as a result of the custom of permitting boys of immature age to wander at will with firearms.
An unusually unfortunate accident of this kind occurred on Sunday afternoon, when Emil Forster, a fifteen-year-old school boy was shot through the heart and almost instantly killed while in a friendly tussle for the possession of a small rifle in the hands of one of his companions, there being four in the party which was spending the cool September afternoon in a rabbit hunt on the old dumps northeast of the city.
So far as can be learned the boys had been taking turns shooting with the gun which was a rifle of twenty-two calibre and loaded only with BB caps, the smallest ammunition used in a firearm.
In some fashion the weapon was discharged, the tiny bullet entering the lad's chest and penetrating the heart, and causing almost immediate death.
So small was the bullet, and so light the charge of powder that a wound in almost any other part of the body would be inconsequential, but touching a vital spot, was as certainly fatal as the discharge of a more deadly weapon.
The frightened and horrified boys ran to the road where they met Edgar Boice with his team and who at once hurried to this city for assistance but the lad was dead when the physicians and ambulance reached the spot.
The affair was so obviously an accident that no arrests were made, the parents of the boys guaranteeing their appearance at the coroner's inquest, which will be held on Tuesday morning.
Beside the dead boy, there were in the party James Seals, Fred Ahrens and Elmer and Ned Carroll. There were two guns in the party, one being a shot gun, the boys taking turns in shooting. The little rifle was in the hands of one of the Carroll boys, when Forster seeing something he wanted to shoot at, seized the gun, an attempted to pull it away, which half jokingly the other boy resented and the two scuffled about with the weapon between them until it was discharged. The tragedy was too sudden and too shocking for the witnesses to have a clear idea of how it came about, but all agree that the occurrence was purely an accident, and the grief and suffering of the boys of the party is no less keen than that of his parents.
The boy was the only son of his parents who came to Cheyenne a little over two years ago. The father is employed at the planning mill of the Union Pacific shops and came to Cheyenne with his family from Cincinnati. Emil who was about fifteen years of age, was a pupil in the seventh grade of the Cheyenne schools, and was the hope of his parents who encouraged him to continue in school in spite of the inclinations of boys of his age to go to work.
The affair, sad as it is, will nevertheless have its effect in tending to make parents more careful of the manner in which they permit their children the use of fire arms.
Bio courtesy of Lostnwyomn (FG#47168791)
Several times in the past few years Cheyenne homes have been saddened by young lives destroyed as a result of the custom of permitting boys of immature age to wander at will with firearms.
An unusually unfortunate accident of this kind occurred on Sunday afternoon, when Emil Forster, a fifteen-year-old school boy was shot through the heart and almost instantly killed while in a friendly tussle for the possession of a small rifle in the hands of one of his companions, there being four in the party which was spending the cool September afternoon in a rabbit hunt on the old dumps northeast of the city.
So far as can be learned the boys had been taking turns shooting with the gun which was a rifle of twenty-two calibre and loaded only with BB caps, the smallest ammunition used in a firearm.
In some fashion the weapon was discharged, the tiny bullet entering the lad's chest and penetrating the heart, and causing almost immediate death.
So small was the bullet, and so light the charge of powder that a wound in almost any other part of the body would be inconsequential, but touching a vital spot, was as certainly fatal as the discharge of a more deadly weapon.
The frightened and horrified boys ran to the road where they met Edgar Boice with his team and who at once hurried to this city for assistance but the lad was dead when the physicians and ambulance reached the spot.
The affair was so obviously an accident that no arrests were made, the parents of the boys guaranteeing their appearance at the coroner's inquest, which will be held on Tuesday morning.
Beside the dead boy, there were in the party James Seals, Fred Ahrens and Elmer and Ned Carroll. There were two guns in the party, one being a shot gun, the boys taking turns in shooting. The little rifle was in the hands of one of the Carroll boys, when Forster seeing something he wanted to shoot at, seized the gun, an attempted to pull it away, which half jokingly the other boy resented and the two scuffled about with the weapon between them until it was discharged. The tragedy was too sudden and too shocking for the witnesses to have a clear idea of how it came about, but all agree that the occurrence was purely an accident, and the grief and suffering of the boys of the party is no less keen than that of his parents.
The boy was the only son of his parents who came to Cheyenne a little over two years ago. The father is employed at the planning mill of the Union Pacific shops and came to Cheyenne with his family from Cincinnati. Emil who was about fifteen years of age, was a pupil in the seventh grade of the Cheyenne schools, and was the hope of his parents who encouraged him to continue in school in spite of the inclinations of boys of his age to go to work.
The affair, sad as it is, will nevertheless have its effect in tending to make parents more careful of the manner in which they permit their children the use of fire arms.
Bio courtesy of Lostnwyomn (FG#47168791)
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