guns
August 8th 2007 02:20
For centuries wars were battled and won by the sword. Then the gun was invented and everything changed. Hand-held firearms first appeared in the early medieval times but it wasn’t until the sixteenth century that the pistol was perfected and thus the armour of the knights died a swan song.
The matchlock, although cumbersome, was the first real useable hand-held gun. A section of match cord burned very slowly and was used to ignite powder in a flash pan, which ignited powder in the barrel sending a lead ball in the general direction of the target.
The latter-designed flintlock, used in pistols such as the blunderbuss, prevailed for nearly two hundred years. Along the way the addition of cartridges and repeating rifles and pistols added more firepower to guns as well as tighter accuracy and longer range.
Two things brought about my quiet fascination with guns. One was my father’s extensive collection of replicas. He had everything from revolvers to automatics, rifles to machine guns. They all looked and felt like the real thing, but they weren’t; authentic, yes, but fully operational, no. Guns from my father’s collection were often hired for plays and film shoots. The famous New Zealand Crunchie bar ad from the mid-70s set on a train in the wild west used my father’s revolvers and rifles.
The other thing was the Tintin comic book adventure Flight 714. While trapped on a volcanic island Tintin and Captain Haddock both acquired unsual looking machine guns. I wanted Tintin’s German-esque machine gun. It had a very cool design. As it turns out Hergé had created them especially.
As you can see I’m partial to the classic gun designs, but being a science fiction enthusiast I’m keen on the look of the futurist gun designs, most of which are already based on an existing gun (such as the RoboCop, Blade Runner and Star Wars pistols). Definitely Han Solo’s trusty blaster and Rick Deckard’s Plager Katsumate series-D blaster has always commanded my attention, but for sheer rollicking, destructive audacity, the Gatling gun is the go-go-go-go-go-go-go-go-go!!!
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Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
My sister and I had a fab BB gun when we lived in the states. It was a beretta handgun. Very black and cool. I loved to play with it.
Comment by Raoul Duke
Style of Eye
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
As it is, I'm not. I'm not quite as much of a military enthusiast (he could name any gun and any tank AND any helicopter from 10 seconds of looking at it in a movie/TV series) as he was, but I do love guns. I wish I had a BB gun. Just for collection's sake.
If he had been rich, Daddy would've had a collection. He wasn't rich, sadly.
Personally, I'm fascinated with guns. Part of it is a minor obsession with death and its numerous causes, but on another level, there's just something appealing about them. They look wicked. There's also a certain power you feel when you have ones.
But, guns took all the honour out of war, no matter how kickass they look.
~Dianna
Comment by Raoul Duke
Style of Eye
another female enthusiast to dispell the "only men are into guns" generalisation I suggested at ... excellent! But I agree guns take all the honour out of battle ... bring back the cutlass I say!!
Yes, there is certainly power to be felt when brandishing a pistol, or grappling with a machine gun! The smell of gun powder, the smell of freshly cleaned gun metal!
Do you have a favourite design from the images I posted?
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
My all time favourite gun is the Spaz shotgun... Daddy used to call me spaz all the time. Whenever I complained, he'd say 'what? You don't like being my favourite shotgun?'
Comment by Raoul Duke
Style of Eye
The Spas huh?
spas
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
^^I can't believe I just said that, NOT sarcastically, about a machine gun.
Comment by Raoul Duke
Style of Eye