History YMMV / MenAtArms

** Vimes's prejudice towards the undead along with Cuddy and Detritus quickly turning into BoomerangBigots behind the badge are largely played for laughs, but much less funny in light of current discussions about deeply ingrained racism in policing.

*** Really, the Gonne's most anachronistic feature is its repeating action. The real handicap on early firearms was the state of manufacturing technology, or the lack thereof. While a really skilled gunsmith could plausibly build something like the Gonne, it wouldn't be [[AwesomeButImpractical practical for mass production]], which is why simpler firearms like muskets remained the norm. This is even discussed by Leonard himself, who notes that while it would be possible to create another Gonne, it would be very difficult and the person copying it would need to be very clever.

** Carrot's HiddenDepths in this book help create the impression that he is just as competent a manipulator as the Patrician. This includes stopping a riot between dwarfs and trolls by talking (a feat noted to have got any other member of the watch killed) and bluffing the head of the Fool's Guild.
** Is the gonne itself somehow alive and actively corrupting its users, or is it all a product of the delusions of grandeur such a perfect killing tool puts into their heads? It seems to talk to them, and they have lucid moments that come and go... but most of them are degenerating mentally. It ''does'' fire itself at least once... but then again, that could just as easily be a product of the man in question fiddling around with something dangerous and volatile he didn't fully understand being interpreted differently by other characters later on.

** Also, the reason the gonne is portrayed as Very Bad within the story is the same reason that sourcery is Very Bad in ''Sourcery'': it's a complete game breaker ''for the Discworld''. (Whether or not, or to what extent, that reflects the real world is entirely up to the reader, and not really relevant in-story.) The point, which is explicitly brought up several times, is that all other forms of power on the Disc have built-in balancers. Magic is capricious and unreliable, and both witches and wizards are inherently resistant to forms of cooperation that don't involve highly-competitive fireball contests; melee weapons like swords require training and expertise (and can only kill from up close, giving a potential victim a chance to survive by fighting hand-to-hand); crossbows are unwieldy, and take both time and strength to wind up. The gonne, however, is instant power unlike anything else on the Disc, at one's fingertips: if allowed to exist in that world it would utterly destroy the balance of power. That's why it instantly corrupts anyone who touches it: it's the effect that kind of power has, especially in a world that runs on Narrativium. Trying to project this moral onto ''our'' world is just that: a projection, and outside the scope of the story.
*** ... An interpretation which is in itself one other fans may disagree with! Pratchett always wrote fantasy that had a strong bearing on the real world. It is by no means self-evident exactly how applicable Pratchett saw the themes of this book to the real world.