...Firearms are recognized as such dangerous instrumentalities that, where a person has a gun in his hands and it is discharged, even accidentally and unintentionally, he is held liable for the injuries caused thereby, unless he shows that he took all reasonable precautions to guard against accidents, and that the discharge of the weapon did not result from any careless act on his part. Castle v. Duryee, *41 N. Y. 169; Hankins v. Watkins, 77 Hun, 360, 28 N. Y. S. 867; Tally v. Ayres, 3 Sneed (35 Tenn.) 677; Morgan v. Cox, 22 Mo. 373, 66 Am. Dec. 623; Judd v. Ballard, 66 Vt. 668, 30 A. 96; Welch v. Durand, 36 Conn. 182, 4 Am. Rep. 55; Seltzer v. Saxton, 71 Ill. App. 229; Harrison v. Allen, 179 Ill. App. 520; Cole v. Fisher, 11 Mass. 137; Annear v. Swartz, 46 Okl. 98, 148 P. 706, L. R. A. 1915E, 267; Harper v. Holcomb, 146 Wis. 183, 130 N. W. 1128; Bahel v. Manning, 112 Mich. 24, 70 N. W. 327, 36 L. R. A. 523, 67 Am. St. Rep. 381.
The rule is stated in 12 Am. & Eng. Enc. (2d Ed.) 519, as follows: "Where an injury occurs from the discharge of a gun or other firearm, he by whom it was discharged, in order to excuse himself from liability for the injury, must show that the discharge was absolutely without his fault, and that it happened by inevitable accident." See, also, 40 Cyc. 872, and 11 R. C. L. 689....