We cannot judge firearms for their original intended usage. The CANNON was the first firearm designed, built to kill and seige. The handgunn came next, which was a portable cannon one knight could carry and fire. Then came the matchlock Arquebuss, which was the first shoulder fired weapon made. It was very inaccurate (it did not end chivalary though, economics did). Then the terrible wheel-lock attempted to replace it. It failed. The Flintlock came next, and the invention of "rifling" made muskets into accurate rifles. Then in Scotland they invented the perucussion rifle. Then came rimfire metallic cartridges. And then centerfire.
But the reason we cannot judge firearms is because humans themselves are killers in nature, as the firearm was. But we don't all kill, do we? And neither do guns. My guns are sporting arms strictly. I don't even hunt anymore.
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