Projectile Weapons

By David

! A projectile weapon is a weapon that shoots

something out, whether it's a rock, a bullet, an arrow, a bb
bullet etc.

! Projectile weapons were invented around 20,000B.C.

Before that people had always thrown rocks at each other
but this could usually be stopped by armor.

! The first projectile weapons were called "Hornbows",

they are basically bow and arrows except for that they
have small horns on the front. They were invented in
20,000B.C. They were invented because at the time
there wasn't any armor that was light enough to wear that
would block the arrows it shot.

After bow and arrows were invented a man named

"Armando Cortez" had the idea of slingshots. Slingshots are
similar to bow and arrows because the have something
that you pull back and let go of to shoot, if I was
categorizing projectile weapons bow and arrows would be
with slingshots.

! Gunpowder which as invented in 850AD. was first

used for fireworks which rather than having a good time
watching fireworks it was used for putting on a stick a
trying to shoot someone with. This wasn't very accurate
but if you hit someone they die.

! When people realized that they could be so much more

accurate with a different strategy a group of people created
the canon. Cannons first appeared in 1190A.D. The cannon is
a big tube that is mounted, they are very heavy. Most canons
shoot 75mm bullets which is the same as 7.5cm or 3 inches. It
isn't very big but compared to the standard 9mm (0.9cm or
about 0.5 in.) bullets that are shot out of a pistol.
Canons were created so that people could shoot a long
ways. !
! After a while people wanted canons that they could
hold, they are what we now call now called Guns. Guns
were created for many reasons. A gun is a thing that
shoots a bullet at an extremely high speed. The first gun
was invented in 1290AD. it is called a "Gonne". Gonne
means gun in middle english. Now it would be referred to
as a hand gun or pistol, that is why some people called it a
Handgonne. Now there are all sorts of guns, some of them
weigh 5lbs(2.2kg) and some way 100lbs (40kg). Guns are
now used in all sorts of ways, for example, police carry
handguns just incase, solders use all sorts of guns (mostly
big guns like shotguns). People also use guns in bad ways
such as criminals who have guns often use them to hurt
people. You can't own a gun in many places, some places
you can own a gun such as the USA. Despite laws against
owning guns many criminals still own them.
! Over time many new guns were invented and by
1884A.D. The first machine gun was a .50 caliber M2
Machine gun. machine guns were invented so that armies
could shoot planes and helicopters down. Machine guns
fire rounds that are anywhere from 16mm to 60mm. The
first machine gun was made by a man named Sir Hiram
Maxim.

In 1887A.D. police men Started using guns. They would

carry a sidearm (a pistol or hand gun) everywhere, unlike now
where police carry big guns with them when they are in
dangerous places.

In 1929 Slingshots became a popular children's toy.

By this time slingshots had developed so quickly and were
made of metal. Some of the children that used slingshots
liked to shoot squirrels and rabbits. I think that they
shouldn't do that even though they are good targets to
practice on, maybe they should try to shoot s section of a
tree or a part of a fence.

In the 1980's airsoft guns were made. Kids use them

all the time now, sometimes for shooting into the distance,
and sometimes to have an airsoft war with their friends.
Some airsoft guns look real but I think that they should at
least have an orange muzzle.

In 1989A.D. Nerf guns were made. The first one was called
a blast a ball. It only blasted a ball about 15 feet maximum.
Now we have Nerf guns that can shoot 50 feet or more.
 Projectile weapons are used for good and bad things. Some
are good and fun to use, and some a bad used for bad things. So
next time you buy one, make sure that it will be fun and good!

Webliography
__http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17423-timeline-weapons-technology.html__
http://wiki.answers.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=when+was+gun+powder
+invented
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