Guns in space!

[CraigD]

I honestly wonder if a gun has ever been taken into space... like a just in case type thing?

At least one gun has not only been flown, but fired in space: a 23 or 30 mm autocannon, fired from Salyut 3 in 1975, one day before it was de-orbited. this Encyclopedia Astronautica article reports that a test satellite was destroyed, though others, such as this wikipedia article, state only that the gun was fired.

 

Pretty clearly, the “just in case” this gun was being test for was a shooting war in space. Hopefully, such tensions are behind us now, and also, hopefully, its controllers fired this gun in a direction that de-orbited its slugs, as I can think of few sorts of space debris I’d like less to encounter a swarm of 70 or more aircraft cannon slugs! Firing a gun like this otherwise is practically begging to trigger Kessler syndrome.

 

A 23 or 30 mm autocannon is a way bigger gun than anything we’ve been discussing in this thread! As far as a handgun or longarm, since there always a chance of a returning spacecraft landing off course, leaving its crew to fend for itself until rescued, it makes some sense for planners to have packed a handgun or better in a survival kit, to, say, defend against an angry bear. However, as best I can tell the only weapons ever carried on a manned space mission were small knives – according to this Google book excerpt, US missions through 1975 carried 2 of “the standard three-bladed all-metal knived used by the US Navy” (which are more tools than weapons).

[Moontanman]

I remember one science fiction novel that put battleship guns on a space craft to fight aliens who were invading the earth.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footfall