https://www.guns.com/news/2016...e-first-shots-of-wwi

" It is now on display in the Vienna Museum of Military History where it is touted as the gun that killed 8.5 million people."



BROWNING FN MODEL 1910: THE FIRST SHOTS OF WWI
06/29/2016 03:50 PM | by John Elliott

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot and killed as they were riding through the streets of Sarajevo (after having survived a previous assassination attempt earlier that morning). The assassin’s actions, this time a man named Gavrilo Princip, signaled the start of World War I.

Over one hundred years later a renewed interest in WWI has left many still wondering, who was Princip, why did this assassination ignite the most brutal global human conflict to ever and what happened to this infamous gun?
...
A member of the Black hand purchased four FN 1910 pistols in Belgrade, all in .380 caliber, for the plot. Early sources erroneously reported the gun to be a FN Model 1900 in .32 caliber, leading to modern confusion over which caliber was used during the shooting. The actual weapon used to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife holds the serial number 19074 and was available for sale for just a few hundred dollars in 1992.

I love history but man I find it sad that we are so wired to kill each other. I mean I know there is justified violence but it still bothers me how violent of a bunch of stupid monkeys we can be.

The other thought that comes to mind is just how anemic something like a .380 .32 or .25 or .22 is…….until they are coming in your direction.

Thanks for posting this is interesting stuff

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
I love history but man I find it sad that we are so wired to kill each other. I mean I know there is justified violence but it still bothers me how violent of a bunch of stupid monkeys we can be.

The other thought that comes to mind is just how anemic something like a .380 .32 or .25 or .22 is…….until they are coming in your direction.

Thanks for posting this is interesting stuff

Amen to that

Very interesting. Thanks for the informative post.

I grew up about 45 minutes from Konopiste, Franz Ferdinand's hunting lodge/castle in Bohemia. The place is decorated with thousands of hunting trophies and guns. The dude was hard core into "hunting"...but it's apparent that "hunting" for a member of the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy basically consisted of standing there and shooting into flocks or herds of animals as they were driven in front of you. There's just no conceivable way that he could have killed that many animals in one lifetime any other way.

Kind of douchey if you ask me.

The one thing that I did enjoy as a kid about that castle was that there was a moat with a live bear in it. Always struck me as pretty badass...if you're going to have a moat around your house, why not fill it with bears?

Ronald Reagan was shot with a .22LR revolver by John Hinkley, and was almost killed by one round. The same gun did tremendous damage to James Brady, a Secret Service agent, and a police officer. Hinkley fired 6 shots in less than 3 seconds.

Bobby Kennedy was killed by a .22LR revolver fired by Sirhan Sirhan.

A 40gr. slug hitting the right spot will do more than just make you sick.

You're forgetting the Princip had two buddies with grenades.

If all I had was a .380, I'd want a couple buddies with grenades too.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
You're forgetting the Princip had two buddies with grenades.

If all I had was a .380, I'd want a couple buddies with grenades too.

I’d rather be the friend with the grenade.

Hmmm. Standing close enough to a (admittedly, slowly) moving target to make sure one kills a man with a .380 ACP with those crappy little sights while two other guys throw...hand grenades? at the same target.

It's no wonder those cynical buggers picked a teenager to wield the pistol.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:


I’d rather be the friend with the grenade.

But once you remove the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
I love history but man I find it sad that we are so wired to kill each other. I mean I know there is justified violence but it still bothers me how violent of a bunch of stupid monkeys we can be.

The other thought that comes to mind is just how anemic something like a .380 .32 or .25 or .22 is…….until they are coming in your direction.

Thanks for posting this is interesting stuff

Oh, you thought because we send a few dudes to the moon, built high rises, and came up with a cure for Syphlis that somehow we're all "Civilized"?
Naaaa, nothing more than a step away from being a bunch of shaved apes.

Man's inhumanity toward other man is pretty messed up!

quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:

Oh, you thought because we send a few dudes to the moon, built high rises, and came up with a cure for Syphlis that somehow we're all "Civilized"?

You have to admit the cure for Syphilis was pretty bad ass.

quote:

I love history but man I find it sad that we are so wired to kill each other. I mean I know there is justified violence but it still bothers me how violent of a bunch of stupid monkeys we can be.

What is easy to overlook is that violent streak was the result of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. It has been a relatively short time since the potential for violence was a daily survival mechanism. You could probably take a Homo sapiens kid from 50 thousand years ago, rear them from birth, and they’d be indistinguishable from a baby born in modern times. Both would most likely have the same propensity for either violence or excellence.