It was also banned because it was considered sacriligeous to use a weapon built in the shape of the 'holy cross' to be used to kill christians. IIRC another Pope prohibited the use of square bullets against Christians because they were unnecessarily cruel but he okayed them for use against Muslims and other infidels.Bill in Oregon wrote:If they were made legal here, my only interest would be to try to build a working replica of a crossbow from the Middle Ages, just for the historical experience. This is the weapon that popes once banned as "evil" because it allowed a relatively untrained commoner (vs. an English longbowman) to threaten a horse-mounted nobleman in armor. (Bad form sir!) But then, I also have a handgonne fired with a match on a serpentine ...
Crossbows have a much slower rate of fire, a disadvantage, but they are easier to use from parapets and other defensive positions when firing through narrow slits as the used need not stand upright exposing himself to counterfire.
Crossbow use is not going to jeopardize game populations. There will be too few of them used. Why worry about the few game taken with them when we have an entire industry built on bigger, more powerful, more accurate, longer ranged, faster firing guns with multi-X scopes and rangefinders. If crossbows are a threat why are not all the other things we are selling. Why not limit everyone to single shot guns firing round balls. The game taken by archers, crossbowmen, etc. pales in comparison with the amount killed by motor vehicles. If people were truly concerned about game populations we would ban cars or at least impose a very slow speed limit.
