Gun

HISTORY OF GUNS

The first device identified as a gun, a bamboo tube that used gunpowder to fire a spear, appeared in China around AD 1000.

Gunpowder was brought to Europe during the Mongol invasion in the first half of the 13th century.

Siege guns were used by the English at Calais in 1346 during the Hundred Years War.

Early guns took so long to load and fire that bows and arrows — in trained hands — were deemed twelve times more efficient.

Portable guns were introduced not long after artillery, being mentioned in several European texts of the second half of the 14th century.

The earliest surviving firearm in Europe found were from Otepää, Estonia and dates to at least 1396.

During the 17th century loading time for guns was saved by providing the soldier with the correct charge, together with the ball, wrapped in a paper tube - the whole package being called a cartridge.

England's King George 1 granted a patent to London lawyer James Puckle to produce a machine gun which could be adjusted to fire round bullets at Christians and square bullets at Turks. It could fire nine shots a minute — three times faster than the quickest infantryman at the time.

The first successful rapid-fire firearm was the Gatling Gun, invented by Richard Gatling. It fired 350 rounds a minute and first saw action in 1864 during the American Civil War.

It was the Americans who introduced the use of shotguns in warfare during World War 1. They were so effective at clearing trenches, that they were called "trench brooms" and the Germans complained about its use and how it caused unnecessary suffering.

The world's first sub-machine gun was the MP18.1, which was invented by Theodor Bergmann. It was introduced into service in 1918 by the German Army during World War I.

Big Bertha, a super-heavy howitzer gun used by the Germans during World War 1, was so powerful that troops had to move 300 yards away and put cotton wads in their ears, eyes, and nose, as well as open their mouths, so that their eardrums weren't burst by the blast pressure.

The largest gun of World War I, the 'Paris Gun', was capable of firing a shell into the stratosphere.

Restrictions on the use of firearms were introduced in the UK with the 1920 Firearms Act. This for the first time, introduced gun licences and was designed "to afford an effective system of control over the possession, use and carrying of firearms so as far as possible to secure that they do not come into the hands of criminals or otherwise undesirable persons."

Over twice as many Americans died gunshot wounds in the US during the period of the Vietnam War than died fighting in Vietnam.

The police officer shot during the assassination attempt on President Reagan sued the gun manufacturer. The case was rejected and set the precedent that gun manufacturers can't be sued for crimes committed with their weapons.

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton  on November 30, 1993. The law mandated a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and required federal firearms dealers to conduct background checks on all handgun purchasers. 

The Brady Act was named after James Brady, who was shot and paralyzed during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Brady's wife, Sarah, became a vocal advocate for gun control and played a key role in lobbying for the passage of the Brady Act.

The Brady Act was a significant piece of gun control legislation in the United States, and it is estimated to have prevented hundreds of thousands of gun deaths.

The US population reached 310 million in 2009 and there were also 310 million guns — the first time in American history that there were as many firearms as people. Within four years, there were 357 million weapons to 317 million people.

 A record two million firearms were sold in the U.S. in January 2013, after a call for new restrictions in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

In March 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic intensified, Americans bought two million guns, the busiest month for sales since January 2013.

Firearms manufacturer Beretta (maker of the primary service handgun for the US Army, the M9) has been in continuous operation since 1526, when they made arquebus barrels for the Venetian navy.

North America has the most guns per capita in the world at 89 guns per 100 people.

FUN GUN FACTS

There are guns in space. Specifically, there are usually one or two handguns on board the International Space Station.

Mouse's shotguns in The Matrix were working models that fired 900 rounds per minute. It used a unique cam-driven design invented by movies armorer, John Bowring.

You only need to be at least three foot underwater to be protected from bullets fired from a gun.

The Davy Crockett was a tactical nuclear weapon developed by the United States during the Cold War. It consisted of a recoilless rifle mounted on a tripod that fired a small nuclear warhead with a yield of around 10 to 20 tons of TNT. The weapon was designed to be used by infantry units to provide close-in nuclear fire support.

One of the concerns with the Davy Crockett was its potential for causing lethal radiation exposure. The warhead's yield was relatively small, but it still produced a significant amount of radiation. The weapon was only intended to be used in situations where the risk of radiation exposure was deemed acceptable.

The Davy Crockett was never used in combat, but it was deployed to Europe during the Cold War as part of the US nuclear arsenal. The weapon was eventually retired due to concerns about its safety and effectiveness, as well as changes in US nuclear strategy.

The US army tested the lethality of the AK47, the AR 15 and the M14 in a 1962 secret study by firing bullets at severed human limbs and heads imported from India.

The most times to unholster and holster a gun in one minute is 44 and was achieved by Will Roberts in Calico, California, July 10, 2014.

 "Point Blank Range" is not necessarily a close shot, but the range at which a gun can shoot directly at a target without any elevation of the barrel.

Source Historyworld.net