Can guns be rendered unusable by changing the atmosphere?
I have an idea for a story in a post-apocalyptic setting where guns and other explosive devices unusable or otherwise impractical.
Is it possible to do this by changing the atmosphere (either by adding, removing, or changing the proportions of the chemicals that make up the standard earth atmosphere)?
The resulting atmosphere must be capable of supporting life, although it would be acceptable if human life required artificial support (e.g. portable supplementary oxygen supplies). Ideally, I would like to avoid removing oxygen completely; instead I want to change the environment the minimum amount to prevent combustion.
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As other posters noted explosives often work totally independently of the atmosphere since they contain everything needed to explode.
How about making explosives much more sensitive because of some sort of radiation. If this radiation is present globally (atmosphere with radioactive particles for example) it would make really hard to create and carry explosives safely. While local radiation would prevent use of explosives in critical areas because they would explode on borders of radiated area.
Local radiation could be also from atmosphere or from some radiation generator. Radiation should be harmless to life, like electromagnetic waves that are all around us.
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