Guns: Finding the Lewis Gun

We're studying the aftermath of WWI and the much-maligned Treaty of Versailles in International Criminal Law, and one of the most striking legal aspects of the treaty was the (pseudo) demand for the personal criminal liability of the Kaiser. A major reason for this uproar was the unparalleled loss of human life caused by the fighting, and much of that loss was due to the rise of modern firearms.

Only a century ago, the Europeans had been fighting the Napoleonic Wars. In this latest fracas, I imagine everyone initially thought long battle lines and mass infantry maneuvers in formation might still work. After all, hadn't those same tactics been used only 50 years ago in the American Civil War?

That was until everyone got introduced to machine guns, such as the Belgian Rattlesnake. Here's a rather entertaining amateur documentary about both the Lewis gun's place in history and one family's journey to shoot it: