Idiocy in purest form. At the time of the Hague Convention in 1899 modern weaponry was offending the sensibilities of folks. Like gun control advocates, they blamed the tools. "Let's make war more "humane" by limiting the lethality of munitions." Gee, what a great idea. Then we can fight longer with more troops.
Colin Powell put it best when he said (I'm paraphrasing) "The great inhumanity of war is the condition of war itself. The most humane thing one can do is bring the war to its swiftest possible conclusion using all available means". I say the man had a good point.
FQ13
The reason Gatling ( a doctor ) invented his gun was on the theory that if fewer men could put out more fire there would be less loss to disease, which, until fairly modern times always killed more than were killed in actual combat.
An argument in favor of automatic weapons from the Gatling till WWI was that it would make war "too ghastly to contemplate".
It is a historically verifiable fact that "brutal" direct assaults always kill fewer people than long drawn out engagements such as sieges.
It is interesting to note that the horror of the Atomic Bombs dropped on Japan killed far fewer than were killed by conventional bombing of Germany. The firebombing of Dresden killed as many as died in Hiroshima.
The Hague Conventions banning of certain types of ammo was a response to the use by England against the Boer's of a new soft point bullet made in the Arsenal at Dum Dum in India, hence the reference to dum dum bullets.