No guns.

What if when guns were first invented they were scrapped due to slow re-loading? What other weapons would have been invented and what weapons would we have now?
 
What if when guns were first invented they were scrapped due to slow re-loading? What other weapons would have been invented and what weapons would we have now?

What's to stop other people from experimenting until they're viable? Guns coexisted with other weapons for hundreds of years before finally displacing them (in the 17th c. no less!)...I'm pretty sure they underwent major changes before they became commonplace.

People are going to tinker with gunpowder weapons even just because explosions are always cool.
 
Slower guns

If guns are to be seen as useless, finding a way of eliminating peasant armies would help. The early guns were less effective than the longbow--but a peasant could be trained to use them quite quickly.

Without guns, gunpowder would likely see much use anyways. A trebuchet could hurl a large powder cask, or mines would be much more effective if they were packed with powder instead of just collapsed.

But, sooner or later, someone's going to make them work better..though a significant delay is, IMHO, plausible.
 
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