# First murder by firearm?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-murder-by-firearm/631497>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 14, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-murder-by-firearm/631497 "2012-08-14T20:21:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-murder-by-firearm/631497/1 "2012-08-14T20:21:53Z")

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All of the recent discussion about people shooting other people made me wonder:

What is the first recorded instance of a person deliberately killing another person with a projectile fired by a powder charge?

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**Author:** ![Capt\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@Capt\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_Kirk)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-murder-by-firearm/631497/2 "2012-08-14T20:29:00Z")

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Sources vary on this but the Battle of Crecy(1346) may be the first with Cannons and Firearms. This is highly disputed, but this is about the time Firearms came onto the battlefields of Europe. IIRC the Chinese used simple cannons and were probably the first to have committed murder by firearm so to speak.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle\_of\_Cr%C3%A9cy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cr%C3%A9cy)

**CAPT**

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**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-murder-by-firearm/631497/3 "2012-08-14T21:57:22Z")

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Heh, first you have to define exactly what you mean by “firearm”. 😃

The Chinese used a device called a “fire lance” that first appeared in the 10th century AD. This would be the very earliest ancestor to the personal firearm (the first killing of a person with it probably followed shortly after its invention).

[Fire lance - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_lance)

Interestingly, the first depiction of a handgun (of the fire-lance variety) shows it wielded by a demon threatening the Buddha:

[![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/FireLanceAndGrenade10thCenturyDunhuang.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/FireLanceAndGrenade10thCenturyDunhuang.jpg)

So the first depicted victim of gun violence was … the Buddha.