Kaban ni D_BystandeR: DAGHAN ANG NAPUKAN SA HINAGIBAN

Around Christmas 1928, Ernest Hemingway came home to Oak Park to attend his father's funeral and asked his mother if he could have the Smith & Wesson revolver that his father had used to kill himself. A few months later, Hemingway's mother sent him the handgun, along with a chocolate cake.

In the infamous Valentine's Day Massacre, Al Capone's henchmen wielded Tommy guns, but the weapons used by 1920 gangsters likely wasn't as extensive as popular culture and movies would lead us to believe. The gun was quite difficult to use and was dangerous to the shooter if he or she wasn't properly trained. A hooligan with a heavy trigger finger could empty one of those famous 100-round drums in just four seconds.

Clement Vallandigham, a former Ohio congressman, served as an attorney in 1871 defending a suspect accused of a barroom murder. Vallandigham theorized that the victim had in fact shot himself by accident while trying to pull a handgun out of his pants pocket. Conferring with colleagues in a hotel room, Vallandigham acted out his theory. He believed he was using an unloaded gun in his demonstration; he was wrong. But he was right about a gun going off accidentally; it did, and it killed him.

It should be no surprise that the biggest gun ever built was created for the Nazi war machine. Krupp A.G.'s Gustav was truly a monster, weighing in at 1,344 tons, including its railway carriage. At four stories tall and 140 feet long, it required a 500-man crew. It could throw a 5-ton explosive shell 29 miles or an 8-ton concrete-piercing shell 23 miles. It was built to demolish France's famed Maginot line, but the German blitzkrieg rendered the Gustav irrelevant for that task. It was eventually used against the Soviets to wicked effect before it was captured by the Americans and cut up for scrap.

John Moses Browning designed a staggering number of famous guns, including the lever-action Winchester repeating rifle, the Browning automatic rifle (BAR), used by the U.S. military in every major conflict from WW I to Vietnam, and the Colt .45. The son of a gunsmith, Browning was 14 when he built his first firearm, a rifle he gave to his brother.

Some gun inventors, such as Richard Gatling and Michail Kalashnikov, have expressed regrets about their legacies. Gatling felt that his machine gun took attention away from his work on a more peaceful innovations, such as seed drills and steam driven plows. Kalashnikov, the AK-47 creator who is 92, is proud that his invention helped Russia defend itself but said "when I see (Osama) bin Laden on television with his Kalashnikov, "I'm disgusted." And he admitted: "I wish I had invented a lawn mower."

(Bug-os ang  pasalamat sa KAHAYAG ngadto sa nagsulat niining  artikulo  nga si JOHNNY LOVE. Nagtakuban siya sa pangalan, "D_BystandeR".  Natawo siya sa Sugbo apan anaa na karon manimuyo sa Illinois sa tinipong nasod sa Amerika. Ang kusog nga koneksyon sa kasayuran pinaagi sa internet kanunayng naghaling sa iyang kadasig  pagtuki sa mga nagbukalbukal nga hisgutanan dinhi sa atong nataran. Usa siya ka magsusulat nga gradwado sa kursong komersiyo padulong sa pagka accountant sa University of San Carlos kaniadtong tuig 1961.  Nahimo siyang miyembro sa usa ka hugpong sa mga batan-ong magsusulat nga gitawag ug STUDENT PRESS.  Nahimo usab siyang   Associate Editor sa basahon  USC-JPIAN sa tuig 1962-63. Magtatampo usab siya isip magsusulat sa nasudnong magasin,  "Philippines Free Press" ug sa mga nag-unang peryodiko dinhi sa dakbayan sa Sugbo sa lunhaw pa ang iyang pangedaron. Nahimo siyang mamumuo sa usa ka pribadong kompaniya sa dakbayan sa Sugbo, ESCANO LINES, sulod sa napulo ug duha (12) ka tuig  dayon niyang tapon  ngadto sa NAPOCOR  ug nahimong kawani sa kagamhanan  sulod sa bayente dos (22) ka tuig. Niadtong tunga-tungang bahin sa tuig 2000, nilalin siya ngadto sa tinipong nasod sa Amerika ug sulod sa napulo (10) ka tuig, nagtrabaho siya sa  buhatan sa kagamhanan sa nasod sama  sa  UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE (USPS).  Karon sa pangedaron nga 67,  gihuptan gihapon niya ang walay pagkutat nga kadasig ug walay busganan nga kaikag sa pagpaambit sa iyang nahuptang abilidad  ug kabatid sa panulat.  Dili niya mapugngan ang kaugalingon sa pagpaambit sa iyang mga hunahuna labi na kon molambigit kini ug hisgotanan nga makadani sa iyang mga mata.Kinutlo ni D_BystandeR kining maong paambit gikan sa pamantalaan Chicago Tribune, nga nigawas kaniadtong Hunyo 24, 2012)