The 5 guns that changed history - according to The Washington Post

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot 358]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/08/07/5-guns-that-changed-history/?hpid=z5

 

If the nation’s first smart gun can overcome the fierce opposition of  Second Amendment hard-liners and make it onto store shelves, it will join other guns that have changed the world. Here are five guns that altered history — by no means a complete list, in no particular order.

 

Philadelphia Derringer: At 5.87-inches, the gun held just one shot. And one shot was all John Wilkes Booth needed when he interrupted President’s Lincoln viewing of “Our American Cousin” by putting a bullet in the president’s head. Booth dropped the gun, which you can see, but not fire, at Ford’s Theatre.

 

M1911: In the 1890s,  John Moses Browning, a godfather to the gun world, introduced a semiautomatic firing system to pistols. The 1911 became the official sidearm for U.S. armed forces in — can you guess when? — 1911. Several manufacturers make the gun today. “One thing is clear,” according to a fan site for the gun, “John Browning’s design is still alive and doing extremely well, after more than eight decades from its initial conception.”

 

AK-47: The most widely produced assault rifle in the world was created in the Soviet Union in the late 1940s. Used in revolutions, assassinations and old-fashioned combat, the rifle is easy to use and powerful in force. Osama bin Laden had one next to him when he was killed in Pakistan. It is reportedly on display at a private, spies-only CIA museum. The author C.J. Chivers told the AK-47′s history in his 2oo6 book, “The Gun.”

 

XM-25: Known as “the Punisher,”  this could become one of the country’s key weapons to fight hiding terrorists. It’s a laser-guided, shoulder-fired grenade launcher, giving soldiers the ability to decide when to set off the explosion, a nice option to have while hunting down hiding enemies. The Army has tested them in Afghanistan. Ernst Mauch, the designer of the controversial Armatix iP1 smart gun, was instrumental in the XM-25′s design at Heckler & Koch.

 

Bushmaster M-4 Carbine: This is the assault rifle Adam Lanza used at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. It is an updated version of the AR-15, one of the most widely produced and controversial rifles in the country. The AR-15 was one of 45 assault rifles banned in Maryland — and other states — following the Newtown shootings. In protesting a crackdown on assault rifles in Maryland, Beretta announced it was moving its manufacturing to Tennessee.

[Krdshrk 3,878]

What a schlock piece.

 

1911 - 8 decades from it's initial conception?  Uh.... it's 2014... try over a century.

 

XM25?  Really?  Experimental weapon that's not officially even used yet?

[T Bill 649]

Liberal rubbish.  Some of the biggest game changers in warfare are not even mentioned (Gattling gun, lever action, M1 Garand, WWI machine gun).  Notice how the evil M4 is put last?  With a Newtown reference.  Again, another article not worthy of a second look. 

 

There are NO JOURNALISTS left in this country, period.

[boo 6]

I had no idea that the 1911 design was that old. Very interesting.

 

PS - When I say interesting, I mean that how the 1911 design lives on to this day, not the article.

[checko 180]

I wouldve added the gatling, and maxim machine gun.  

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot 358]

I wouldn't take this article too seriously (like the Rolling Stone piece).

 

"Bushmaster M4-Carbine"?

[Pizza Bob 1,488]

Hey, at least they got the Derringer right. Nice to know that two major publications agree. 

[checko 180]

Hey, at least they got the Derringer right. Nice to know that two major publications agree.

Lol

[10X 3,306]

It's the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of WWI and the Washington Post STILL couldn't come up with the M1910 Browning used to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand? Or did they have to leave out that and Oswald's Mannlicher Carcano, just to be sure they had space to wring their hands over the M-4 Lanza stole?

[Parker 213]

No mention of Sam Colt's SAA?

[SmartAss 11]

No liberal article masquerading under a 2A friendly title would be complete without the Newtown donkey punch at the end. 

[Malsua 1,422]

I had no idea that the 1911 design was that old. Very interesting.

 

 

Didn't the name set off any bells? 

[boo 6]

Didn't the name set off any bells? 

 

lol, it did cross my mind, but it seemed inconceivable that a gun designed before World War I would still be in common use today.

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot 358]

lol, it did cross my mind, but it seemed inconceivable that a gun designed before World War I would still be in common use today.

 

Speaks to the greatness of the 1911 and JMB.

[djg0770 481]

How do u select this stuff without recognition of the flintlocks that earned our independence from Britain????

[RUTGERS95 890]

the comments are almost as dumb as the list

[302w 83]

I like how Oswalds Carano wasn't on that list