10 Under the Umbrella At its best, an umbrella is portable proof of our attempts to have civilization control environment. Sometimes, though, an umbrella may have more up its shaft than spokes and fabric, including an integral firearm. Putting firearms in unusual and unexpected locations is part of the strategy of the professional shooter, a move designed to keep the target or the authorities off balance and to give the edge to the shooter. As I noted, guns go everywhere. Certainly, the use of umbrella guns, while novel, is hardly new. In his excellent article 'Hidden Thunder,' noted arms historian David Fink writes about a fine black umbrella that is also a .36-caliber underhammer percussion rifle, the entire shaft of the umbrella being the weapon's barrel. It is marked with the year 1860. Fink describes another nineteenth-century umbrella gun where a small pepperbox revolver is part of the handle and is withdrawn from the shaft for firing. In 1992, 1 saw two guns that were current modifications of regular umbrellas. Both were in police custody. One was a .410-gauge pistol whose 10-inch barrel was screwed into the remainder of the umbrella shaft. When the handle, receiver, and barrel were unscrewed, then the weapon