There is a YouTube video containing a bit of American history that should probably interest the many gun-owning readers of American Thinker. The video has to do with the little known Girandoni Air Rifle, a unique, repeating, .46 caliber rifle capable of firing up to 22 rounds before reloading. This distinctive weapon, developed by Italian inventor, Bartholomäus Girandoni in 1779, was widely used by the Austrian army for more than three decades, during a time when a weapon capable of firing repeat rounds provided its bearers with a formidable advantage

What should make this video so interesting to AT readers, however, is how a single one of these rifles, carried throughout the two year Lewis and Clark Expedition that resulted in the United States becoming a transcontinental nation and eventually a world power, contributed to the success of that endeavor. Army captain, Meriwether Lewis, obviously a practitioner of the concept of peace through superior firepower, a concept that most modern liberals still are unable to grasp, used his single Girandoni rifle and a daring bluff to intimidate the many Indian tribes encountered. If you've ever wondered how such a small American expedition could make it all the way to the Pacific and back without being massacred by vastly superior, hostile, Indian forces, here is the well-explained answer. This brief, but very informative video, produced by the National Firearms Museum, can be found below.