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My Grandfather had a .22 when he was a kid in the Depression. Passed on to my Dad who passed it on to Nasty Nate. (Dad and I haven't really talk for the last few years so Nate's the only one he really considers his son. I'm pretty much Persona Non Grata) Needs to be cleaned up a bit and the barrel re-blued but she still fires. In fact I on a couple occasions of using it I accidentally pulled the bolt back so fast that it did slide all the way off. Made me wonder if it was still good but the sights are still dead-on.
We also had a 12-gauge shotgun called "The Mule" but it got lost in the shuffle during my father's second divorce.
If you pulled back on the bolt too quickly and another finger managed to pull the trigger in even a bit the bolt could easily come off in your hand. (after all, thats how you take it apart to clean it. Though with lots of use the pin that holds it in could be worn out.)
My dad has a .22 that does the same thing, and otherwise it's in perfect condition, always carefully maintained, and damn accurate to boot.
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It did not happen that way in Europe and Asia, because hand-held guns were developed there and it took centuries before they were remotely reliable enough to scare anyone except when fired in ranks.
If someone points an object with a large hole in its end directly at your face and seems confident in their ability to kill you, it doesn't matter in the least if you know that the thing they're holding is a gun, the look of confidence is all that counts. I agree that guns were not the most reliable, hell, they hardly worked at all for years. But the Threat of using a weapon that can kill from a distance is still enough to scare pretty much anybody.
For example, when crossbows were becoming popular they had in essence the same effectiveness of an early gun. They were usually quite accurate, powerful enough to pierce armor,(don't get into semantics) and for the most part limited to a single shot. (some designs used an over/under style much like a double barrel shotgun to double their effectiveness, these were rare at the beginning.)
So a pissed off guy with a crossbow could be just as scary as a pissed off guy with a single shot hand cannon. The level of scariness multiplies with the range of the weapon, and the distance from your enemy. Gun= scary from any range, moreso if beyond a few feet. Sword=scary from within the range of your enemy's swing. Knife= Scary from within throwing distance and/or stabbing/slashing range. Various other weapons have different scary ranges according to their method of use. Thus, to someone used to fighting in a close range style, say, with swords, knives, or even staff's, spears etc... a long range weapon could be quite scary because it would be something outside of their experience. You make a good point about the native American peoples, they would have had no basis for comparison when they first encountered guns.
I forgot where I was going with this and now I sadly must be going.
Love the comic as always Mr. Poe, Keep fighting the good fight.