枪支：火器的演变史

The great gift of man over beasts has been his ability to craft and use tools. A simple stone axe gave man the power to shape the world around him. A spear -- the difference between a family living or dying... But the axe and the spear could also become weapons, as individuals, tribes, and eventually nations struggled against each other in their fierce determination to survive. Since the invention of firearms in China more than 900 years ago, the GUN, has been both a tool to conquer game and a weapon for killing men. GUNS gave individual men great power, and gave groups of men the power to both enforce and resist the will of rulers. The United States of America is a nation born well after the invention of firearms -- a nation whose size and influence expanded alongside the development, and with the use and growth, of personal firearms. What were the GUNS that conquered the land that would become the United States, and how did they develop? How did firearms change the course of this