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Guns are hard to be considered an art because you aim and shoot with no style what so ever.
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Perhaps not an art. But cultivating
accuracy, which is key to using a firearm effectively, requires intense training itself. Not only that, but just as with a sword certain physical characteristics are useful, particularly good eyesight.
Of course, this is primarily for a rifle or other long-range weapon. And the thing is, in combat you may not have time to aim; then training and practice are essential, to instinctively shoot right to hit your target.
And then there's the whole point of the Western gunfighter. Practice, speed, and coordination - to be able to draw and shoot straight "from the hip" without having to take the time to aim. I would not be quick to dismiss gunplay as not an art. And then you have to define art... [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
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I think even as today, that swords would still be used in rare occasions, as of the fact that guns reign supreme these days....
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Oh, it happens...In the book
The Killer Angels (and the movie from it,
Gettysburg), Colonel Chamberlain is charging down a hill when an enemy officer tries to kill him. His revolver, aimed at point-blank range, refuses to fire. Chamberlain, who had his officer's sword drawn to lead his troops in the charge, held it to the other man's throat and captured him. It's pretty clear what would have happened if the man hadn't surrendered.
As for reflections upon swords, I think Keeper summed it up very well. Furthermore, the swords - and other ancient weapons - don't merely apply to their current owners. They are a tangible link with the past, with the great ones who have wielded them, with (at least for Aragorn) one's forebears. The idea of using a weapon thousands of years old - it is so venerable, so worthy of honor itself. And an old sword is a proven sword.
Then there's the advantage that a bladed weapon has above any firearm: Silence.