As professional martial artist, edged weapon designer, and close combat specialist Doug Marcaida puts it, "sir, his weapon will kill «. And if he kills, he will kill anyone regardless of his religious affiliation. Well, no, either because of the instructions for use of its inventor or because it was decided by Holy Mother Church, some weapons were only used to kill infidels and, therefore, were selective. And that's what happened with the crossbow and with the Defence Gun .
Although the first written references to the use of crossbows would appear in China in the 6th century BC, in the West it would begin to be used massively in the 10th century as an evolution of the bow. Although it is true that in the same period of time many more arrows could be fired with the bow than bolts with the crossbow, the latter could be handled by inexperienced soldiers and did not need as much strength and skill as the bow to be able to hit the target. . In addition, it could be fired lying on the ground and supported by a protective shield that the crossbowman could hold with one hand, something impossible for archers who needed both. And the crossbow could say that "we have run into the Church", because in the Second Lateran Council (1139), Pope Innocent II prohibited the use of the crossbow for being...
a weapon detestable to God and unworthy to Christians
Against infidels there was no problem using it. Logically, this measure was not taken into account and continued to be used until well into the 16th century.
In 1718 James Puckle , lawyer and protestant fanatic, registered patent nº 418, the Defence Gun. A kind of long-barreled gun supported on a tripod, which could fire 9 bullets per minute (three times faster than any other rifle or pistol) and, in addition, to reload it was only necessary to change the drum or roulette where the projectiles were already. . Therefore, and up to here, a revolutionary weapon for its time. So what made her special? the ammunition According to James's invention, his weapon had to go with two types of drums:one to face Catholics and another for infidels. In the drums for Catholics, the bullets were conventional (a detail on the part of a Protestant) and in those for infidels, the bullets were square. According to the description of the patent, square bullets are more painful and, in this way, we give more arguments to the infidels of "the benefits of Christian civilization". I suppose the problem had to arise when you were facing, for example, the Ottoman Empire where many Christian mercenaries were also fighting and, I suppose, that you had to ask before shooting.