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[Scootaloo]

48. No, they really don't. Certainly not compared to guns.

• Arrows and bullets function very differently. A bullet is a fingernail-sized pellet of very malleable material traveling at supersonic speeds. When it hits a body, it tears through, deforming as it goes, changing trajectory according to the friction this causes. An arrow by contrast, is an arm-length shaft of fairly rigid material tipped with a blade. It cuts into its target, doesn't deform, and is self-stabilizing; where a bullet will bounce around in a body, an arrow follows the trajectory it was fired on. A bullet will leave open wounds and large internal damage, an arrow closes its own wound and causes fairly little internal damage.

• Some highly-skilled stunt shooters aside, there are no automatic or semiautomatic bows - and even those stunt shooters are working on stationary targets.

• Bows take very legitimate skill to utilize effectively. They're not "point and click" in the way guns are. Further, even compound bows require a fair bit of muscle use, further limiting their potential use as weapons of mass attacks.