Gun laws in the Czech Republic in their war for religious freedom against professional well armed and trained Catholic Crusader invaders. The word used for one type of hand held firearm used by the Hussites, , later found its way through German and French into English as the term pistol. Name of a cannon used by the Hussites, the , gave rise to the English term, "howitzer". Under common law tradition, civilians could possess firearms except artillery and insidious weapons (e.g. firearms that had appearance of other objects, etc.). First gun control laws were enacted during the early 18th century and dealt with illegal use of
Witch (word) Old English also had "hægtesse" "witch, fury", whence Modern English "hag", of uncertain origin, but cognate to German "Hexe", from an Old High German "haga-zussa", Common Germanic "*haga-tusjon-" (OED), perhaps from a "*tesvian" "to mar, damage", meaning "field-damager" (the suggestion of Grimm). The element "hag-" originally means "fence, wooden enclosure", and hence also "enclosed fields, cultivated land". Other Old English synonyms of "wicca" and "wicce" include "gealdricge", "scinlæce", "hellrúne". The Old English plural form for both the masculine and feminine nouns was "wiccan" ("witches") and "wiccecræft" was "witchcraft". The earliest recorded use of the word is in the "Laws of