Firearms War. Conflict. Famine. Pestilence – these are the four horsemen of the Apocalypse as the men of the Middle Ages imagined them. They stormed towns and cities, leaving behind thousands of dead, injured, frightened or crying. The first two – the most merciful ones, or to be more precise, the fatal tools they use to carry out their evil deeds, are the topic of my essay. To be precise, I will talk about the types of modern firearms - those that a single man can handle and that fire projectiles - that are very simple, easy to use and deadly. Revolvers - these can be described as pistols with a revolving chamber that allows multiple shots to be fired without reloading. Revolvers were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because they were quite easy to use, reliable, and cheap, but they were soon replaced by pistols due to their limited capacity and mobility. However, policemen still use revolvers: large-caliber bullets (“Magnum” 45 or 36 millimeters) can knock out an outlaw with the first shot, even if fired on foot. Revolvers usually hold 5, 6 or 7 bullets. There are 2 main types of revolvers: with single and simultaneous extraction of fired bullets. In the first case, after finishing shooting, you need to extract each single case by pushing it through the front holes of the chamber with some sharp object. In the second case, the revolver usually opens by "breaking into two pieces" and each single cartridge case is extracted, or the chamber is moved to the left and emptied by pushing on the appropriate rod located in the front part (e.g. "Colt" or "Smith -Wesson”). Revolvers are also divided into manual and automatic. In the manual revolver you have to pull the firing lever back every time to fire a shot, in the automatic one it moves back on its own every time you press the trigger. Pistol – The main difference between revolvers and pistols is that revolvers use the shooter's muscle leverage to reload and on the other hand, pistols use the energy of gunpowder gases and do not have revolving chambers. There are many different models of guns, but the working principle is the same. Pistol bullets are usually located in the handle and are smaller in caliber than revolver bullets. The capacity of the pistol cartridge can vary from 5 to 30 bullets and the pistol fires automatically, as many times as the trigger is pressed (obviously until the bullets run out)).