The Hand Gun Story

A firearms expert “traces the history of the ‘one hand gun’ from its 14th century origins . . . surveying changing technology, techniques, and design” ( Midwest Book Review ). Ideally suited for both attack and self-defense, handguns have gotten smaller and deadlier. But the earliest pistols had a tendency to misfire. This was cured by the cap-lock, which proved a massive success in the American Civil War, with hundreds of thousands of cap-lock revolvers used on each side. Self-contained metal-c