A good reminder of Sam Harris's excellent article, "The Riddle of the Gun" [1]. An excerpt:<p>"Wouldn’t any decent person wish for a world without guns? In my view, only someone who doesn’t understand violence could wish for such a world. A world without guns is one in which the most aggressive men can do more or less anything they want. It is a world in which a man with a knife can rape and murder a woman in the presence of a dozen witnesses, and none will find the courage to intervene."<p>[1] <a href="http://samharris.org/blog/item/the-riddle-of-the-gun" rel="nofollow">http://samharris.org/blog/item/the-riddle-of-the-gun</a>
Author is laughably clueless about history. Crossbows date back to the 5th century BC (in both China and ancient Greece), long before the invention of plate armor. Also, mounted knights in armor collecting taxes? Sure, just like the IRS sends tanks instead of demand letters...not. Historically medieval armies included heavy cavalry like knights <i>and</i> crossbow and longbow archers.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow#History" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow#History</a> is not exhaustic but reasonably well referenced.