What was the Greatest Weapon in History?

        There are many contenders in the contest for the title of the greatest weapon in history. Some notable options are the nuke, the sword, and the shield but it's obvious that the true winner in combat is the gun. However, what many may not expect is that this is not referring to modern firearms but rather the earliest guns used in warfare. Now, this may shock many as the bow was a significantly stronger weapon in comparison to the early gun. It may not initially make much sense as to why the gun replaced the bow given the bow’s numerous advantages. Firstly, bows could be fired at 5 times the range that a gun could and were significantly more accurate. They also could penetrate armor at a much more consistent rate, as the gun needed to be fired up close for it to be effective. In addition to all of that, an archer could fire arrows at incredible speeds while reloading the early musket was a time-consuming endeavor. With all this in mind, how could the early gun possibly have been chosen over the bow? Well, the answer is obvious. The issue with the bow is that it took immense effort and training to use. A skilled archer would have needed to have trained for years to use a bow, but a gunman could have been trained in just a couple of weeks. Replacing a musketeer was significantly easier than replacing an archer, so it only made sense for bows to be fizzled out over time. For a weapon to have changed the way wars were fought forever, it deserves the title of the greatest weapon in history. 

Source: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/reason-bows-were-replaced-with-guns