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This really depends on how one wishes to define the term "pistol". If one is simply referring to a gun held in the hands, operated with one or two hands, and lacking a shoulder stock; this really can't be answered as hand-held devices that use black powder to launch things are nearly as old as black powder itself.

The term "pistol" originates from old French dating back to the 1500's. So one could say the first proper pistols were made in the 1500's, but again hand-held firearms existed long before that time, and we cannot really pin down who was first to call his handgun a "pistol". So actually pinning down a name to a single individual or even a single type of pistol is not really practical.

The oldest "handgonne" dates as far back as the 1200's, and those are simply those units that are known to have survived to the modern day. So there really is no way to identify who made the first handheld gun.

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9y ago

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