Editing Gun safety (section)

==History==
{{expand section|date=June 2021}}
Accidental explosions of stored gunpowder date to  the 13th century in [[Yangzhou]], China.<ref>{{Citation |title=The Gunpowder Age China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History|author1-link=Tonio Andrade |first=Tonio |last=Andrade |year=2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1jRJCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |isbn= 9781400874446 |page=15 |publisher=Princeton University Press }}</ref> Early handheld [[muskets]] using [[matchlock]] or [[wheel lock]] mechanisms were limited by poor reliability and the risk of accidental discharge, which was improved somewhat by the introduction of the [[flintlock]], though unintentional firing continued to be a serious drawback. [[Percussion cap]]s, introduced in the 1820s, were more reliable, and by 1830 security pins had been designed to prevent accidental discharges.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xQGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA260 |title=The Register of arts, and journal of patent inventions, ed. By L. Herbert |year=1830 |first=Luke |last=Hebert |volume=4 }}</ref>

[[Trigger guard]]s, [[grip safety|grip safeties]] and [[Safety (firearms)#Integrated trigger safeties|integrated trigger safety]] represent further iterations on the various [[Safety (firearms)|safeties]] built into modern firearms to prevent discharge from dropping, or without positive and deliberate manipulation of the trigger.

As mechanical reliability improved, [[human error]] became a more significant cause of harm. In 1902, the English politician and [[Game (food)|game]] shooting enthusiast [[Mark Hanbury Beaufoy]] wrote some much-quoted verses on gun safety, known as "A Father's Advice" or "The Beaufoy Verses" meant to instill safe practices in his son.<ref>{{cite book
 |title       = ''The BEAUFOY VERSES'', in ''The Field''
 |last        = Rose
 |first       = R. N.
 |date        = 22 November 1956
|url         = http://www.geocities.com/rbeaufoy/verses.html
 |access-date  = 29 June 2008
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20090801013956/http://www.geocities.com/rbeaufoy/verses.html
 |archive-date = 1 August 2009
|url-status     = dead
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite book
 | title = Leaves from a Beech Tree
 | url = https://archive.org/details/leavesfrombeecht00beau
 | last = Beaufoy
 | first = Gwendolyn
 | year = 1930
| publisher = Oxford, Printed for the author by B. Blackwell, 1930.
 }}
</ref> Various similar sayings have since been popularized.<ref>
{{Cite book
 | title = The A B C of Rifle, Revolver and Pistol Shooting
 | first = Ira L.
 | last = Reeves
 | year = 1913
 | publisher = Franklin Hudson Publishing Company
 | location = Kansas City, Missouri
 | url = https://archive.org/details/abc-rifle-pistol-shooting/page/10/mode/2up
 | page = 10
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |url          = http://www.ssaa.org.au/hunting/the-hunters-code.html#.VMknKmjF9s4
 |title        = The Ten Commandments of Safety
 |publisher    = Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia
 |access-date   = 28 January 2015
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20150108160922/http://www.ssaa.org.au/hunting/the-hunters-code.html#.VMknKmjF9s4
 |archive-date = 8 January 2015
|url-status     = dead
 |df           = dmy-all
}}</ref>

There were 47,000 unintentional firearm deaths worldwide in 2013.<ref name=GDB2013>{{cite journal |first=Mohsen |last=Naghavi |display-authors=etal |title=Global, regional, and national age-sex specific all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 240 causes of death, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013|journal=The Lancet|date=17 December 2014 |pmid=25530442 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61682-2 |pmc=4340604 |volume=385 |issue=9963 |pages=117–71}}</ref>