Atticus Finch conceals his marksmanship prowess in order to keep Scout and Jem away from firearms. ‘Maybe he put his gun down when he realised that God had given him an unfair advantage over other living things,’ theorises Miss Maudie Atkinson, suggesting that he doesn’t believe in having power over life and death. ‘If he was proud of it, he’da told us,’ is Jem’s contribution to the matter, which implies that he isn’t proud of his past with firearms. These two hypotheses reveal that his discretion could be an act of shielding, as he endeavours to protect his children from following his past.