FIREARMS AS THEY ARE
Do we really need firearms? I'm deeply concerned that for thousands of years war was the major engine of the progress of the civilization. War stimulated economics, science, techniques and technologies. It is in human's nature to invent something destructive (firearms in our case) and then to look for ways to protect himself from his own invention. It's a vicious circle, and it will be so until the fundamental changes in the human's psychology occur. To exemplify this statement I'd like to speak about the development of the firearms and show how much time, efforts, skill and resourcefulness were put in it.
The first firearms were rude in the extreme. They were made of bars of iron hooped together like the staves of a barrel, and were larger at the muzzle than at the breech. The size of a firearms was very soon decreased, so that two men could carry one, and fire it from a rest. The 400 cannon with which Froissart said the English besieged St. Malo, in 1378, were probably of this kind. Nearly a century elapsed before small firearms were invented. Sir S. Meyrick, upon the authority of an eye-witness, the time and place of their firearms invention. It was in 1430, says Bilius, that firearms were contrived by the Lucquese, when they were besieged by the Florentines. A French translation of Quintus Curtius made by Vasqua de Lucene, a Portuguese, in 1486, preserved among the Burney MSS. of the British Museum, exhibits in one of its illuminations the earliest representation of hand firearms which has yet been discovered.
If to analyze the manipulation of firearms, it will be found to consist of three major principal operations - namely, to charge the piece, to direct it toward the object of attack, and to discharge it by in some manner igniting the powder; or more concisely, to load, take aim, and fire. That firearms with which these operations can be performed most safely, accurately, and rapidly, is the best.
With
the firearms represented in the engraving it was impossible to take aim. The most that could
be expected was, that by pointing it in the direction of the enemy, firearms might
chance to hit some one, in a crowd. 
About the year 1475 a great advance was made in firearms by the invention of the arquebus or bow-gun. A spring let loose by a trigger threw the match, which was fastened to it, forward into the pan which contained the priming. It was from this spring that the gun took its name.
The arquebus is mentioned by Philip de Comines, in his account of the battle of Morat, in 1476. It appears to have been used in England in 1480.
But as yet no improvement in firearms had been made by which the soldier was enabled to take aim. The butt of the arquebus was perfectly straight, and placed against the breast when the gun was fired. The danger of being knocked over by the recoil of the piece was great, that of hurting the enemy very small. The Germans first conceived the idea of bending the butt downward, and thus elevating the barrel so as to bring it in the range of the eye. They also sloped it so as to fit the shoulder instead of being held against the breast. The arquebus constructed in this manner was used in England in the time of Henry VIII., and was variously called haquebut, hakebut, bagbut, and hagbus, names all derived from the hooked shape of the butt. A small sized arquebus, with a nearly semi-circular butt, and called a demihaque, was probably the origin of the modern pistol.
The
musket, invented in Spain, was introduced into France in the reign of
Charles IX., by De Strozzi, Colonel-General of the King's infantry, and thence
into England. At first it was so heavy that each musketeer was accompanied by
a boy to assist him in carrying it. It was, however, soon decreased in weight
sufficiently to enable the musketeer to carry it himself, though it was still
so heavy that he could only fire it from a rest. This rest, which each musketeer
carried with him, consisted of a stick the height of the shoulder, pointed at
the lower end, and having at the upper an iron fork in which the musket barrel
was laid. In a flask the musketeer carried his coarse powder for loading the
firearms. His
fine powder for priming was in a touch-box. His bullets were in a leathern bag,
shaped like a lady's work-bag, the strings of which he was obliged to draw in
order to get at them. In his hand were his burning match and musket rest, and
after discharging his piece he was obliged to defend himself with his sword.
The match was fixed to the cock by a kind of tongs. Over the priming-pan was
a sliding cover, which had to be drawn back with the hand before pulling the
trigger. It was necessary to blow the ashes from the match, and take the greatest
care that the sparks did not fall upon the priming. After each discharge the
match had to be taken out of the cock and held in the hand until the piece was
reloaded; then, in order that it might come down exactly upon the priming, the
greatest care and nicety were required in fitting it again to the cock. Other
inconveniences attended the use of the match-lock musket: the light of
the burning match of the firearms betrayed the position of the soldier, and hence it could not
be used by sentinels or on secret expeditions.
The fire-lock, named for its producing fire by friction, was the first improvement upon the match-lock in firearms. Its earliest form was that known as the wheel-lock. This lock consisted of a solid steel wheel, with an axle, to which was fastened a chain. The axle was turned by a small lever, and thus winding around it the chain, drew up a very strong spring. By pulling the trigger the spring was let go, and the wheel whirled around with great velocity. The cock was so constructed as to bring a piece of sulphuret of iron down upon the edge of the wheel, which was notched, and touched the priming in the pan. The friction produced the sparks. It was from this use that the sulphuret of iron derived the name of pyrites, or fire-stone. Afterwards a flint or any common hard pebble was used. The complicated nature of this lock, and its uncertainty, prevented its general adoption. The next improvement was due to the Dutch. About the year 1600 there was in Holland a band of marauders known as snaphausen, or poulty-stealers. However free they were in using the property of others, they were yet unable to incur the expense of the wheel-lock, and the match-lock, by its burning light, exposed them on their nightly expeditions. The wit which had been sharpened by laying plots and inductions dangerous against unoffending hens and chickens, was turned to the invention of a gun-lock better adapted to their purposes. The result of their cogitation was the lock which, after its inventors, was called the snaphause. It consisted of a flat piece of steel, furrowed like the edge of the wheel in the wheel-lock, which was screwed on the barrel beyond the priming-pan in such a manner as to be movable. By bringing it over the pan, and pulling the trigger, the flint in the cock struck against the steel, and the spark was produced. The simplicity and cheapness of this lock soon rendered it common, and the transition from it to the ordinary flint-lock followed almost as a matter of course. The last improvement which should be noticed was the percussion-lock. This is due to Rev. Mr. Forsyth, of Belhelvie, in Scotland, though the original form of the lock has been changed by the introduction of the copper cap.
When these improvements were being made in locks, the other parts of the firearms were gradually approaching in lightness, strength, and accuracy of finish, to the modern standard. The most valuable improvement in the firearms was the invention of the rifle barrel.
The new "breechloading" firearms led to another advantage – speed of loading. Further improvements in firearms consisted of multiple chambers, as in the revolver, for multiple shots. Other mechanisms included various "actions" associated with sliding or pumping motions that loaded successive cartridges into the chamber--the so-called "repeating rifle." Toward the end of the 19th century, inventors like Henry Maxim and Richard Gatling devised schemes for firearms rapidly firing large numbers of "rounds" or cartridges without stopping, thus developing the "machine gun."
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