Historical Guns

Theodore Roosevelt was so manly that he was shot in the chest while giving a speech, but chose to finish the speech before getting help. This is the story of that assassination attempt, and how it became barely a footnote in the life of a great American.

President McKinley was assassinated by a lunatic with a gun so small that no adult could hold it properly. But the president’s death changed American history and ushered Theodore Roosevelt to the Oval Office.

What at first appeared to be the original Bond gun was headed for auction later this year, but that auction got cancelled. Was it the real Walther?

It turned out that Mr. Roberson was my neighbor down the road, and he ultimately shared a lot of stories. A literal lifetime before this unassuming Mississippi farmer carried a Browning Automatic Rifle as a member of the 5th Ranger Battalion in World War 2. On June 6th, 1944, he landed in the first wave on Omaha Beach fighting alongside the 116th Infantry Regiment.

The Hi Power has the dubious distinction of being the only production firearm to see general issue among both Allied and Axis forces during World War II. It’s still in service throughout the world today.

It may have been ugly, almost impossible to cock, and “rubbish, really,” but the PIAT gun was also a fierce weapon against Nazi tanks.

Lieutenant Blowers carried nothing more than his six-shot Webley revolver as a personal defense weapon. Crawling through fetid German trenches stacked deep with corpses both fresh and otherwise, Blowers and his crew picked their way across the most dangerous terrain on earth.

During WWII, a man from Nepal held off more than thirty Japanese troops, while armed with just a knife and Lee Enfield rifle. This is the story of Lachhiman Gurung and his rifle.

The British Sten gun was effective at close range, cheap, and easy to make, but nearly botched the assassination of one of Hitler’s henchmen.