Well, if you really want to get into historical points, SA: Crossbows were invented in China about 340 BC as a weapon of war. They came into Europe about 300 years later. The Romans had a siege machine called the ballista. (If you'd like to see how powerful crossbows CAN be made, check it out.) The Normans introduced crossbows into England in 1066.

Crossbowmen have always been scorned by archers as limp wristed weaklings and cowards. In 1139, the Lateran Council of the Catholic Church ruled the crossbow was an evil weapon and banned it's use by Christians against Christians, though they were perfectly fine for killing the infidel Moslems in the Crusades. Midieval muster rolls show wages for crossbowmen were half what was paid to archers. At Crecy, in 1346, the French wiped out their own crossbowmen - Genoese mercenaries - because they turned tail and ran from the battleground.

In 1503, England passed the first laws forbidding the use and possession of crossbows except by the military after the King was assassinated with a crossbow. It became the weapon of choice for criminals, assassins and mercenaries until it was eventually replaced by the gun around the late 1500's.