The expression “weapon of war” is used frequently in modern and historical discussions surrounding firearms. Today, it is used as an umbrella term to describe a range of different firearms that people perceive as being useful to warfare, regardless of whether they were actually used on or designed for the battlefield. How the expression is used today implies a distinct line between firearms made for the military and firearms made for the civilian market. However, that line for centuries has always been blurred.
Once firearms were developed, technology often advanced too quickly for common battlefield use, finding popularity in the civilian market. Military firearms in a general sense were limited by tactics, government bureaucracy, and expense, while civilian arms, until recently, were predominantly limited by individual budget. Additionally, civilian arms could be employed for far greater number of uses, including hunting, self-defense, and target shooting. The earliest firearms technology appeared on the battlefield by the thirteenth century. The hand cannon, or handgonne, was little more than the name suggests, a cannon for your hands.
From the Cody Firearms Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West Collection.
The user utilized a touchhole and external fire source to ignite powder and fire the gun. This primitive technology may not have been designed for a sporting purpose, but once it was designed, inventors pushed the boundaries, capabilities, and usages of firearms into the future. And while the hand cannon specifically may not have been used for sport, other military weapons of the time such as longbows and crossbows were popularly used for target shooting competitions in fairs during the Middle Ages.
The first true ignition system, the matchlock, was developed around 1400. This firearm, which utilized a burning match cord, was a popular military arm used for centuries around the world.
From the Cody Firearms Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West Collection.
By the end of the 1400s, however, matchlocks and subsequent ignition systems also began appearing in early target shooting competitions.
Another example of a firearm being adopted for civilian use dates a century after the matchlock. In the first decade of the 1500s, a highly advanced handgun was developed, the wheel-lock. This gun, developed for use on horseback, was operated by the turning of a spring-loaded wheel.
From the Cody Firearms Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West Collection.
While it saw some battlefield use, it was expensive and difficult to repair. As a result, it was used for specialized purposes on the battlefield in Europe, but not as much in the colonies. However, the technology was considered so advanced, some European countries made and used wheel-locks for sport into the 1800s. Another example of superior technology being used by civilians rather than military is rifling. Rifling, the boring out of the inside of a barrel with spiral lands and grooves to spin a projectile, thus making it more accurate, was developed around the mid- to late-15th century. It appeared predominantly in civilian arms, although employed by some units during the American Revolution, until improved developments in ammunition technology allowed it to be more commonly adopted on the battlefield by the mid-1800s. Although, it was not until later in the nineteenth century that tactics caught up enough for rifling to be fully utilized.[1]
Before the ability to mass manufacture firearms, guns often were privately made by gunsmiths. Although armories existed in some form for centuries, there was significant cross-pollination among gunsmiths, who did not work autonomously from one another. Rather, between the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries in Europe, the process of becoming a gunmaker was governed by guilds. These associations set rules about how to identify prospective students as well as create a standard for what they would be taught. As a result, ideas concerning the construction and decoration of firearms flowed freely throughout continental Europe. Another factor that allowed makers to emulate work was the widespread distribution of pattern books illustrating the latest fashions in arms in the years following 1640. Primarily produced in Paris, these books were eagerly sought after by makers throughout Europe and in the eighteenth century even made their way to the American colonies.[2]
Although two armories did exist in the United States around the time of the Founding Era, many guns for the battlefield were made or assembled by individuals or received via foreign aid. It is estimated that 2,500-3,000 gunsmiths worked in the colonies alone.[3] They, as private citizens, were responsible for making guns for both the military and civilians. While the standard infantry arm during the American Revolution was a smoothbore (no rifling) musket, there were some units during the War that used a common civilian firearm at the time, the American long rifle.
From the Cody Firearms Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West Collection.
The long rifle was a modified design from the German jaeger (hunting) rifle that tended to have a longer rifled barrel and a smaller caliber than its German counterpart. This civilian rifle was the far superior firearm in terms of accuracy compared to the inaccurate military smoothbore musket. However, because of the type of projectile employed at the time – a round musket ball – the process to load was slower for rifles because the ball had to fit snuggly within the lands and grooves of the rifling, therefore it was not feasible for expansive military adoption.[4] Examples of long rifles, however, were made with two barrels that would swivel to compensate for that limitation.[5]
From the Cody Firearms Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West Collection.
The long rifle in the colonies served as a multi-purpose tool. It was capable of being used for hunting, self-defense, and target shooting. Important to note though that unless being made for large-scale military adoption, such as the smoothbore musket, and/or assembled with already produced locks, stocks, and barrels ordered from overseas, civilian arms would be made at the request of individuals or produced in small runs.
Target shooting was a part of American culture before the formation of the United States with colonists taking part in competitions known as “Rifle Frolics.” In fact, David Ramsay in his “History of the American Revolution” (1789) spoke about the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775). He wrote, “None of the provincials in this engagement were riflemen, but they were all good marksmen. The whole of their previous military knowledge had been derived from hunting, and the ordinary amusements of sportsmen. The dexterity which by the long habit they had acquired in hitting beasts, birds, and marks, was fatally applied to the destruction of the British officers.”[6] This tradition has continued throughout American history, especially after the Civil War. For example, the National Rifle Association was founded by Union officers in 1871, and its core purpose was “to promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis.” What resulted was the proliferation of international shooting competitions.[7] Another example is the Olympic sport of Biathlon, a sport which involves both skiing and target shooting, dating to 1767 in Europe. It was initially created for government use in places like Norway. That purpose persisted for centuries, even after becoming an international sport. In the 1930s, Finnish troops still used skis and rifles for patrol. Until recently, the firearms used in Biathlon and other disciplines of the shooting sports, often used modified versions of centerfire NATO cartridge firearms.[8]
From the Cody Firearms Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West Collection.
By the nineteenth century, progress on manufacturing processes allowed more firearms of more varieties to be available to the U.S. government as well as civilians. Many repeaters of all sorts produced during this century came in specific models indicating sporting vs military variants.[9]
The line between military and civilian arms was certainly blurred at the founding of the country. While the military, as previously referenced, sometimes employed superior civilian arms, civilians could also possess guns that were traditionally associated with the military, such as cannons.[10] That blurred line also extended to the role of the civilian and soldier. In the colonies and in early America, certain citizens were required to serve in their militias with firearm and ammunition requirements and some soldiers carried their personal firearms into battle. By the American Civil War, it was not unheard of for soldiers to privately purchase firearms that the U.S. government had not adopted or did not issue to them for use in battle. This tradition continued into the twentieth century with not only the military but also state and federal law enforcement agencies.
In addition to private purchases for military use, even military issue weapons that were used in war were often sold on the civilian market. After the Civil War, soldiers could buy their firearms, and many dealers and distributors sold the surplus in mass in their catalogs or at stores for even lower prices. Under General Orders No. 101, “upon an honorable muster-out and discharge…all volunteer soldiers, desiring to do so, are hereby Authorized to retain their arms and accoutrements, on paying therefor their value to the Ordnance Department.”[11] The tradition of selling military arms to civilians continues today with firearms such as the Springfield Model 1903 bolt action rifle and even with semi-automatics such as the M1 Garand rifle, the M1 carbine, and the Model 1911 pistol.[12]
To summarize, there has always been an ebb and flow of civilian and military firearms for centuries, some with clearer lines than others. It is unfair to assume that historically a gun, at the time of its use, would have been completely understood as only for war or sport because there was such interchangeability. Furthermore, for much of history, civilians had superior firearms, so the expression, “weapons of war” in many instances, could be interpreted to mean, less advanced and lower quality guns.
References:
[1] Examples of rifled matchlocks do exist. Rifled wheel-locks are far more common as they were so often used for hunting.
[2] Information from the exhibition narrative. Houze, Herbert G. Co-Curator. “Art of the Hunt: Decorated European Sporting Arms from 1500-1800.” Exhibition. Houston Museum of Natural Science, 2019.
[3] Moller, George D. American Military Shoulder Arms: Volume 1. University of New Mexico Press, 2011. P.107
[4] Until the development of a successful conically shaped bullet (rather than a round musket ball) by Claude Etienne Minie and modified by James Burton at Harpers Ferry, rifling was expensive and slow to load. For a round ball to effectively spin in rifling, it had to fit perfectly which slowed the loading process. However, it was perfect for target shooting as well as hunting and specialized military use. Since tactics by the military were still shoulder-to-shoulder fighting, accuracy was not of prime importance, so militaries used smoothbore (unrifled) barrels for their standard equipment.
[5] Examples can be found in the Cody Firearms Museum.
[6] Ramsey, David. History of the American Revolution. Volume 1. Pages 189-205
[7] The National Rifle Association of America was founded after the National Rifle Association in the United Kingdom (1859). <https://home.nra.org/about-the-nra/> Accessed December 5, 2023
[8] An example of a centerfire modified firearm can be found in the Cody Firearms Museum.
[9] Flayderman, Norm. The Flayderman’s Guide to Antique American Firearms…and their Values. 9th Ed (2019). This book is considered the gold standard in the evaluation of antique American made firearms. It provides not only firearms organized by manufacturer but also by type, such as repeater, sporting, military etc. Here is just one example: pgs. 694-695
[10] Moller, p.107
[11] Springfield Armory details this information here <https://www.nps.gov/spar/learn/historyculture/a-springfield-rifle-musket.htm> Accessed December 5, 2023
[12] Today, postwar weapon surplus guns including several semi-automatic firearms such as the M1 Garand are sold through the Civilian Marksmanship Unit <https://thecmp.org/sales-and-service/1911-information/> <https://thecmp.org/sales-and-service/services-for-the-m1-garand/> Accessed December 5, 2023