Well, if I am shot with a certain firearm and three days, or three weeks, later I die from infection, complications, disease caused by that gunshot wound. Then I would put that in the tally of the "killed with "X" firearm.
Going with the A-bomb analogy, if those deaths were prematurely caused by cancers, radiation, or other diseases cased from contamination, then yes I would consider those people casualties of The Bomb.
Also, bringing artillery, mortars, etc. into the discussion strays from the intent of the OP. More deaths have been caused by disease, but that is not the issue here. Which is whether the M1 Garand or AK have been used to kill more people. Or taking that a small step further, which small arm has been used to end more lives.
If talking specific makes/models, we can pretty much assume that it is a military arm, issued in huge numbers, and having a long enough service life to make a significant impact on warfare.
Also we must consider the advances in medical care given to wounded soldiers, as weapons have evoled into more destructive devices, so too has there been strides made in the treatment of wounds suffered by such weapons.
Sure, there is no way to really keep score, but we can surmise many theories to discuss and make educated guesses on the answers. Then it is just a matter of deciding how specific of a description we need. Does "Mauser" quality as an answer considering all the different models, variations, copies?
I don't think so. SO if we say "Mauser 98", does that include all the different 98 models or German only? Gewehr 98 only? do we include the Kar.98s?
I earlier suggested the British Brown Bess musket as a contender, both because of it's long service, and the relatively poor medical care of the day. But this weapon too went though many iterations through it's century of service.
It's a big bag of worms indeed.
Going with the A-bomb analogy, if those deaths were prematurely caused by cancers, radiation, or other diseases cased from contamination, then yes I would consider those people casualties of The Bomb.
Also, bringing artillery, mortars, etc. into the discussion strays from the intent of the OP. More deaths have been caused by disease, but that is not the issue here. Which is whether the M1 Garand or AK have been used to kill more people. Or taking that a small step further, which small arm has been used to end more lives.
If talking specific makes/models, we can pretty much assume that it is a military arm, issued in huge numbers, and having a long enough service life to make a significant impact on warfare.
Also we must consider the advances in medical care given to wounded soldiers, as weapons have evoled into more destructive devices, so too has there been strides made in the treatment of wounds suffered by such weapons.
Sure, there is no way to really keep score, but we can surmise many theories to discuss and make educated guesses on the answers. Then it is just a matter of deciding how specific of a description we need. Does "Mauser" quality as an answer considering all the different models, variations, copies?
I don't think so. SO if we say "Mauser 98", does that include all the different 98 models or German only? Gewehr 98 only? do we include the Kar.98s?
I earlier suggested the British Brown Bess musket as a contender, both because of it's long service, and the relatively poor medical care of the day. But this weapon too went though many iterations through it's century of service.
It's a big bag of worms indeed.
