Were guns originally intended to be weapons?

[Hayabusa Rider]

BTW I was thinking about a branch or stick as a club.

 

[Spungo]

Most discoveries are related to killing people.
-nuclear research was boosted by WW2
-RADAR technology exploded in WW2
-internet was made by DARPA
-virtual private networking was a military idea
-onion routing was a military idea
-GPS was a military idea
-metal alloys were probably a military idea
-most rocket research was related to the military

 

[iGas]

Guns such as blowgun was utilized since the primitive stone age as hunting tools.

 

[thraashman]

I doubt it.

Think fast. You are in an temperate to tropical surrounding and something is coming to eat you. Besides lie down and die what do you do? Don't just flail your arms, look around you.

PS, you can't outrun the threat.

I don't mean spears were the first thing ever used as a weapon, I mean they were the first thing invented with the intent of being a weapon. Things that were improvised to be used as weapons were not invented as such and knives were most likely invented as a tool before being adapted as a weapon.

 

[iGas]

I don't mean spears were the first thing ever used as a weapon, I mean they were the first thing invented with the intent of being a weapon. Things that were improvised to be used as weapons were not invented as such and knives were most likely invented as a tool before being adapted as a weapon.

I agree, and same go for bronze.

 

[Moonbeam]

BTW I was thinking about a branch or stick as a club.

Oh my God, that was the conservative brain defect in action. Fresh fruit under the bed.

 

[Geosurface]

 

[row]

They also serve to dissuade tyranny. A government inclined toward becoming a complete Orwellian nightmare state will be given much more pause by a populace which is armed than by one which is not.

in 1791 there were no limits on the type of weaponry allowed to be legally owned by private citizens, one of which would be the most devastating weapon available, privateers and their battleships. our government utilized this resource in battling britian.

the 2nd amendment does not specifically define what "arms" are to be allowed...

As passed by the Congress and preserved in the National Archives:[23]
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
As ratified by the States and authenticated by Thomas Jefferson, then-Secretary of State:[24]
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

why would they? i suggest in their wildest dreams they never would have imagined the abject stupidity of a portion of the country's populace willingness to forgo it's hard fought freedoms and dispense with the one tool that had allowed the nation to survive in the first place. further it being the height of regressive intelligence to believe that since the founders understood from personal experience what is needed for defense, they would limit themselves to muskets against battleships, cannons or whatever else might have been on the horizon. the 2nd's obvious intent being anything a potential tyrannical government possessed that could be used against it's subjects, would be also be available to a well regulated militia, it's citizens.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Oh my God, that was the conservative brain defect in action. Fresh fruit under the bed.

Of course. Passion fruit

 

[Jaepheth]

Little known fact: The center-fire cartridge was originally designed for use in subterranean sonar.

But since electronics nor sonar had been invented yet the factories had to sell their surplus cartridges to lead disposal companies who would stuff a bit of lead into each cartridge and would then sell the resulting item as a good luck charm.

Since they were considered good luck, American soldiers would buy these cartridges in bulk cases (roughly the size of an alternator, which had also not yet been invented) to load into their muzzleloader rifles.

Thus, the tradition of using center-fire cartridges as firearm ammunition was born.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I don't mean spears were the first thing ever used as a weapon, I mean they were the first thing invented with the intent of being a weapon. Things that were improvised to be used as weapons were not invented as such and knives were most likely invented as a tool before being adapted as a weapon.

In that sense then may be. I was thinking of taking something and making it into a weapon. Snapping off a tree branch in anticipation of having to use it to defend or hunt is where I was because it's an intentional act for a specific purpose, namely making a weapon. Crafting something would be more like the spear, so I can see your point- PUN!

 

[HAL9000]

Was that aimed at me?

I'm bipolar.

 

[Moonbeam]

I take it you are aware, then, that you do have mental problems since you just Freudian slipped as much.

 

[waggy]

gee a dumb post by hal? i'm shocked!

 

[HAL9000]

gee a dumb post by hal? i'm shocked!

Paha... yeah, I've been drinking.

 

[Fenixgoon]

who do you think will win - the guy with a bow and arrow or the guy with the musket?

 

[Zaap]

I'm pretty sure guns were originally designed to penetrate armor, after knights got so heavily armored that everything else became useless. So yes, always weapons, and primarily weapons of war at that.

It's kind of funny to me how we live in such an age of leisure (despite so many people's belief in the exact opposite, that these are the most dire gloom and doom times evar!) that is difficult for some to concieve that for most of history, people weren't just sitting around inventing things just to amuse themselves or other people, or to come out with a shiny new 2.0 product to show off at the Medieval Electronics Show 1514 in Ye Old Vegas.

Inventions were more often for practical stuff- like killing your enemies faster and better than they could kill you, not to amuse the peasantry.

 

[rommelrommel]

Little known fact: The center-fire cartridge was originally designed for use in subterranean sonar.

But since electronics nor sonar had been invented yet the factories had to sell their surplus cartridges to lead disposal companies who would stuff a bit of lead into each cartridge and would then sell the resulting item as a good luck charm.

Since they were considered good luck, American soldiers would buy these cartridges in bulk cases (roughly the size of an alternator, which had also not yet been invented) to load into their muzzleloader rifles.

Thus, the tradition of using center-fire cartridges as firearm ammunition was born.

10/10, would read again.

 

[werepossum]

Little known fact: The center-fire cartridge was originally designed for use in subterranean sonar.

But since electronics nor sonar had been invented yet the factories had to sell their surplus cartridges to lead disposal companies who would stuff a bit of lead into each cartridge and would then sell the resulting item as a good luck charm.

Since they were considered good luck, American soldiers would buy these cartridges in bulk cases (roughly the size of an alternator, which had also not yet been invented) to load into their muzzleloader rifles.

Thus, the tradition of using center-fire cartridges as firearm ammunition was born.

Responses like these underscore how abysmally stupid is this question. Early guns were far too inaccurate for use in anything other than war.

 

[TerryMathews]

who do you think will win - the guy with a bow and arrow or the guy with the musket?

Depends on how early in the history of the musket you're talking.

There was definitely a point is history where a marksman archer would be far more lethal than a solider with a musket or blunderbuss.

 

[werepossum]

Depends on how early in the history of the musket you're talking.

There was definitely a point is history where a marksman archer would be far more lethal than a solider with a musket or blunderbuss.

If it's truly a musket, then the musketeer is a dead man in a one-on-one fight, at least for cultures relying on kinetic energy rather than weak bows with poison. Even the historical breast-anchored short bow had an accurate range far beyond that of contemporary muskets.

 

[Bulk Beef]

In that sense then may be. I was thinking of taking something and making it into a weapon. Snapping off a tree branch in anticipation of having to use it to defend or hunt is where I was because it's an intentional act for a specific purpose, namely making a weapon. Crafting something would be more like the spear, so I can see your point- PUN!

Let's go back to first principles.

Especially for you, HAL.

 

[Moonbeam]

Guns were invented to make boys feel their penises were longer. Boys think their penises are God. One squirt and they are addicted for life. You always know what's been in their cold dead hands and their pride in the strength of their grip.

 

[Doppel]

Yes for sure.

 

[Doppel]

Guns were invented to make boys feel their penises were longer. Boys think their penises are God. One squirt and they are addicted for life. You always know what's been in their cold dead hands and their pride in the strength of their grip.

In much of human history including many contemporary times your lofty view of what people should be doesn't gel with what they had to be. It was kill or be killed.