Was he planning on shooting a ghost hound? Why did he have a gun on him in the story if he’s not actually part of the police department or did I just read a different version?
Since Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain, I might give a try at writing this one.
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>Why did he have a gun on him in the story if he’s not actually part of the police department
Why not? There was no law against it. He didn’t need to be a cop to carry a gun.
Holmes said if the idea was that the Hound was actually supernatural, then Dr. Mortimer to consult a priest instead of a detective. Also, he muses to Watson that confronting the Devil would be a serious step up in his career.
Overall though, Holmes goes into the job presuming there’s nothing in it supernatural or diabolical as it seems he very reasonably takes the fact that until something irrefutably unnatural appears, it’s just another weird case.
Far as the gun goes, Victorian England was a totally different time without any of the modern strict weapons laws you are in modern Britain. It was not at all remarkable that gentleman like Holmes and Watson would carry guns if they thought they needed them. You also are a lot of lead-filled walking sticks, which would be totally illegal now.
He was planning on having a gun because his line of work involves dangerous, desperate people.
And like most good detectives, Holmes does not assume “zebra” when he hears hoofbeats in the park. Assuming the hound was some supernatural phenomena before receiving any extraordinary proof to the claim would be calling “zebra” in this case. Holmes did not refuse to believe in the possibility of a demonic hound, but he wasn’t going to work on the assumption that it existed until he had more evidence than the frightened whispers of the superstitious inhabitants of Dartmoor.
He had A GUN because he thought it was most likely NOT a supernatural ghost hound, and therefore suscepitble to BEING SHOT.
He never believed the hound was supernatural. Despite Doyles interest in the subject he was mostly debunker early on, changing his mind publicly, trying to discredit himself so that by association he could discredit and stop writing Holmes.
The hound and the Dunwich vampire are thought by Holmes to be hoaxes from the start.
Many Victorians carried guns. Guns were only controlled in the U.K ,after W.W.1,due to the vast numbers kept by ex-soldiers now being used in crime.
The U.S had the same problem.
Watson always carries a gun.( Odd since he was medical corps.)
The Hound is very unusual for Holmes.
The first half of the story doesn’t contain Sherlock at all and is written in the style of a horror story,because Doyle was trying to show what he could do outside of the Holmes books.
He also invented Professor Challenger and the concept of dinosaur islands.
Marvel did a Cpt.America version of the story in the 1940s.
For actual Holmes vs the supernatural there are hundreds of non-Doyle stories.
Outside Doyle Holmes has fought ghosts,zombies,vampires, Count Dracula, Fu Manchu, Martians, travelled time and space, met Nicholas Lindhursts timetravelling cheat, robots, Magnus The Robot Hunter, gone to Asgard,Hell and Duat, fought Cthulu,Anubis and the Wendigo and met Batman,Dr.Occult,The Joker and Slam Dudley.
As far as I know,he has not however,worked alongside Sam Spade,Philip Marlowe or Mike Hammer.
In Dynamite comics his grand niece, granddaughter of Mycroft,has some quite erotic adventures.
Not sure if he has ever been in The League Of Extrodinary Gentlemen.