the shotguns 9 and 10 illustrated in fig1 and 2 are similar to the smith & amp ; wesson as and the remington 870 twelve gauge shotguns respectively and have similar loading and unloading features . however in each case , the feed injection port 11 has been lengthened to accept a multi - barrel cartridge 12 as illustrated in fig3 and 4 which contains sixty ( 60 ) 2 mm bore barrels 13 arranged symmetrically about a central main barrel 14 , with nine longitudinally spaced layers of streamlined directional projectiles 15 and associated propellant charges 16 therein . the main barrel 14 is provided with electrical connections controlled from electronic control means located in the butt of the shotgun and activated by the trigger 18 in a conventional manner . the electrical connections are controlled for selective ignition of the primers 19 in the respective propellant charges 16 and an array of bleed ports 20 is provided to place the corresponding propellant charges 16 in the barrels 13 in communication with the respective propellant charges in main barrel 14 . upon ignition of the leading propellant charge 16 in the main barrel 14 , the explosion front will spread through the bleed ports 20 and ignite all the propellant charges in the corresponding layer . the barrels 13 are clustered in a circular configuration about the main barrel 14 and are supported in a square sectioned housing 21 which may be introduced into the port feed end 22 first in any desired rotational attitude . the square housing 21 is used to positively locate the cartridge in the shotgun body 23 in alignment with the correspondingly clustered barrel assembly 24 extending from the body 23 . in operation of the shotgun illustrated in fig9 when its controls are set to fire single arrays of projectiles 15 at a time , the bolt may be locked for manual cocking , in which case the recoil is negated . however if three or more layers of projectiles 15 are to be fired substantially simultaneously , such as to empty the operative cartridge , the bolt may be unlocked to enable the recoil action to automatically cock the weapon for its next firing , including ejection of the fired cartridge . the shotgun illustrated in fig2 utilizes a pump action for reloading cartridges in a conventional manner . the projectiles 15 are suitably formed with a reverse wedging sealing arrangement as described in corresponding international application filed jun . 1 , 1998 of the inventor or they may utilize a forward wedging arrangement as described in the earlier filed international patent applications of the inventor set out above . fig5 and 7 herewith illustrate two pistols according to further aspects of the present invention . the illustrated pistols include a four barrel pistol 40 in which the barrel assembly 41 is removable from the hand grip assembly 42 and a two barrel pistol 50 in which the barrel assembly 51 breaks from the hand grip assembly 52 for reloading . referring firstly to the four barrel pistol 40 , it will be seen that the barrel assembly 41 which comprises four integrated barrels clustered together and provided with an integral mounting 43 which enables the barrels to be clipped into a cradle assembly 44 which extends above and forwardly of the hand grip 42 . suitable latching means 45 are provided for maintaining the barrel assembly in its operative position in the cradle assembly 44 . the process of removal of the barrel assembly 41 is illustrated sequentially in the drawings . in the first step illustrated in fig5 b , the barrel assembly 51 is withdrawn longitudinally from the end cap 47 which contains concentrically arranged electrical contacts 48 which mate with corresponding contacts in the end of the barrel assembly 41 to provide electrical ignition control of the propellant charges therein . because the barrel assembly 41 can be readily detached and attached to the cradle assembly 44 , this pistol assembly 40 offers the advantage that a user may carry alternate style barrel assemblies for firing different types of projectiles or for rapid reloading should one barrel assembly be emptied or required to be changed in use . all barrels need not contain the same projectiles . one or more could for example contain a shotgun barrel as described above if desired while the others may contain banks of single projectiles with the same or different propellant charges . selection switches would be provided to enable a user to fire selected or all barrels . alternatively they could be mounted about a main passage with bleed passages for simultaneous ignition of all rounds in each respective layer of projectiles . the barrel assemblies 41 can be of a disposable form or they may be adapted to receive reload cartridges which are inserted into the rear of the respective barrels . suitable release claws or the like are also supported on the upstanding butt portion 46 , which is integral with the hand grip 42 , catch the cartridges upon release of the barrel to effect partial withdrawal of spent or partially spent cartridges and thus facilitate their removal for replacement . if desired the barrel assembly 41 may be supported on a slide and associated with recoil or damping means to minimize the reaction upon firing . this recoil would be particularly useful in an instance where a user required to file a number of projectiles simultaneously or in quick succession . that is operation of the pistol 40 in a normal manner would provide the normal controllable reaction . however if the rapid fire facilities available to a user of handguns of the present invention are utilised , the reaction , without damping may render the handgun uncontrollable . thus a recoil mechanism for handguns programmed with a rapid fire facility , such as is illustrated in fig8 would be most desirable . the two barrel pistol 50 illustrated in fig7 has the barrel assembly 51 arranged for pivotal movement at the front end of the cradle 53 so that the barrel may be broken for reloading with cartridges . the pistol 50 receives double tap cartridges 54 of the type described in my international patent application no . pct / au96 / 00459 . this is particularly significant in relation to handguns of the present invention in that the cartridges loaded into each of the barrels may be of different configuration and be operable so that an operator may selectively fire rounds from either barrel such as rounds which have a low lethality or rounds which have a high lethality . in both pistols 40 and 50 actuation is by means of a trigger which is in effect an electronic switch . this switch could be sensitive to displacement and / or pressure to enable trained personnel to operate the weapon for selective firing of single or multiple rounds and of different types . the pistol assembly 50 has a control insert 55 which fits into a complementary recess in the pistol grip 52 , or grip 42 of pistol 40 , and which contains the electronic firing controls , a memory for storing recorded data and other required electronics , including diagnostics . the plug - in insert 55 includes a multipin connector at its inner end which engages with a complementary connector when the insert is pushed into the grip 52 to the fully home position . at the base of the insert 55 , a further multipin connector 57 is provided to enable the electronics therein to be accessed to enables programming of the electronics and display of stored data for desired functions and results on a screen . concentrically arranged contacts 58 are provided for barrel control . the insert 55 enables a user to secure the pistol against unauthorized use . if desired further security measures may be taken as is described in one of the co - pending international patent applications of the inventor . fig8 illustrates a collapsible stack 60 formed of shock absorbing material 61 and disposed at the rear end of an electronically fired round 63 . the stack 60 has sections 62 which collapse progressively upon firing the projectiles in the round . in this manner , recoil damping can be built into a fixed barrel weapon which uses replaceable cartridge assemblies . furthermore , an operator may use rounds with or without the damping means . the barrel assembly 70 illustrated in fig9 has barrels 71 clustered about a central bypass passage 72 provided with at least one bleed port 73 associated with the propellant charge 74 of each trailing projectile 75 . the ports 73 are provided with plugs as illustrated at 76 , which are discharged from the ports 73 when a predetermined pressure is exceeded locally in the barrels 71 so as to bleed the excess pressure to atmosphere through the bypass passage 72 . if desired , more than one port , as illustrated at 77 , may be utilized to provide a greater port bleed area for extreme high pressures . it will of course be realized that the above has been given only by way of illustrative example of the invention and that all such modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of the invention as is defined in the appended claims .