When War Guns Went Civilian

In the last third of the 19th century, major technological changes transformed the world of small arms. The invention of bolt-action rifles and, more importantly, smokeless powder meant that governments had to adopt new military rifle models to avoid falling behind in the arms race. An often overlooked consequence of this was that millions of old-model rifles ended up in military stores. Some were sold to non-European countries or used in colonial wars, but hundreds of thousands ended up on the civilian market. Major manufacturers as well as artisanal gunsmiths converted French Gras and Italian Vetterli rifles into shotguns that were cheap enough to be affordable to many rural hunters and farmers. Old British Martini-Henry rifles — the weapon that helped conquer the British Empire in the second half of the 19th century — were converted into miniature rifles for training young British boys and for use in indoor shooting galleries. The EU-GUNS project investigates the second life of military rifles and how this seemingly obsolete hardware shaped the relationship between Europeans and guns for decades.

[Image source: Imperial War Museum, Q 81771, 1914 URL: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205022520]