A
weapon
is an
object
that can be used to attack or
injure
a person or
animal
. People have used weapons since
ancient
times. While other
animals
use weapons, in most cases they are
attached
to the animal (
teeth
,
claws
,
tusks
, etc.).
[1]
In man's case they are detached and constantly selected for the
purpose
at hand.
[1]
Man has been constantly
developing
newer and better weapons ever since he picked up the first
rock
.
[2]
Some of the oldest remains that we have of ancient people are weapons made of
stone
. Ancient people also used
spears
.
Bows and arrows
were in use by about 20,000
BC
.
[3]
During the
Bronze age
people learned to make things of
metal
, many people used
swords
. People also built huge machines which could throw rocks to destroy the
defensive walls
of enemy cities. Some of these machines were called
catapults
or
siege engines
. Later,
gunpowder
was invented in
China
and the
Europeans
began using it to make
guns
and
cannons
. These weapons were much better than the older weapons, and helped the Europeans to conquer people in many parts of the
world
. People in many parts of the world used guns such as
rifles
and
shotguns
for
hunting
animals, and
handguns
for shooting other people.
People continued to invent new weapons. In 1884 the
machine gun
was invented, which could shoot many
bullets
very fast.
Soldiers
began to use
land mines
, a bomb hidden in the ground, which
explodes
when someone walks on it. Small
submarines
were able to use
torpedos
to attack bigger ships and hide under the ocean. When
airplanes
were invented, people began to use them to shoot enemies and to drop
bombs
on them. They built
tanks
which had big guns and strong
armor
.
Poison gas
was used in
World War I
but was outlawed and rarely used afterwards.
In
World War II
, cities were heavily bombed from the air and
Nazi Germany
used
V-2
missiles to carry bombs to
England
. Both sides used many
firebombs
. At the end of World War II, the
United States
used
atomic bombs
(nuclear bombs) to destroy the
Japanese
cities of
Hiroshima
and
Nagasaki
.
After World War II, people continued to develop new weapons, including
intercontinental ballistic missiles
. People became concerned about
weapons of mass destruction
, weapons that can kill many people very fast, and are usually cheap and easy to make and use. One kind of weapon of mass destruction is
poison gas
. New kinds of poison gas, such as
nerve gas
, are much more powerful than the old kinds. Another kind of weapon of mass destruction is
disease germs
, which could be used to make many people sick and maybe kill them.
Old-fashioned weapons still kill many people in wars and fighting. In wars in
Africa
in the 1990s and early 21st century, many people were killed with
machetes
(big knives). People sometimes try to make
laws
,
treaties
, and
international agreements
to try to control weapons because they are worried about all the killing done with them. Laws vary from country to country, for example, in the
United States
, the "right to keep and bear arms" is guaranteed to all
citizens
by the
Constitution
. A country may say that people in that country cannot keep or use guns, or only when the
government
allows it. The
laws of war
forbid certain weapons, and countries may agree with each other that they should not use certain weapons against each other, or should not have more than a certain number of particular kinds of weapons.
Things specifically made as weapons that most ordinary people can carry, include non lethal:
Weapons that
soldiers
or
police
personnel carry, include:
- Portable firearms are also used by for
hunting
and for marksmanship practice.
Weapons that the
defense
people of a
national
government have, include:
Other types of weapons include:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Weapons
.
- ↑
1.0
1.1
Robert L. O'Connell,
Of Arms and Men : A History of War, Weapons, and Aggression
(Oxford; New York: University of Oxford, 1989), p. 14
- ↑
Chris McNab,
A History of the World in 100 Weapons
(Botley, Oxford; Long Island City, NY: Osprey Publishing, 2011), p. 5
- ↑
"Timeline: Weapons technology"
. New Scientist
. Retrieved
31 October
2015
.