ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to provide you, the reader, with an understanding of the historical development of firearms and ammunition and thus set the stage for our more detailed discussion of the components and mechanics of firearms, including old ones still in use, covered in Chapter 4, and ammunition, covered in Chapter 5. We wish to acknowledge the considerable assistance of historian David C. Willard in preparing this chapter. The chapter provides an interesting and somewhat detailed history of various types of firearms and ammunition, as well as their effects on military tactics. For those only interested in the history of pistols and semiautomatics, you may wish to skip to those sections, which appear in the latter portion of the chapter.
