This article was inspired by Arsenous' controversial blog post, "Why Mortars are RIGHT for Minecraft" but my article is not as radical as his, in my opinion. I know many people say things along the lines of "Guns would ruin Minecraft," and I agree with them, for the most part. Although I believe that muskets MIGHT (and notice how I emphasized 'might') be a good idea for Minecraft. This is because a musket is not too modern and powerful, like a machine gun, and goes along with the "olde times" feel that Minecraft has. (No laptops, T.V.'S, cell phones, cars, trains, etc.) Not only would a musket be an improvement in PVP, but it would also be an improvement in gathering resources and defending yourself from mobs. A musket would have the ability to kill a mob with two shots. One opposition against a musket could possibly be "A musket would make a bow obsolete!" And in my defense, it would not. A musket could simply be an upgrade from a bow, much like how a diamond pickaxe is an upgrade from an iron pickaxe. If you like to play on peaceful, and can't bear switching to easy to kill some spiders, a musket would be your weapon of choice. Also, a musket would break faster than a bow, so instead of the 385 uses you can get out of a bow, the musket would break after, say, 285 uses. So, a musket would be higher in power, but a bow would be higher in durability. Another idea could be that a musket is more costly to make than a bow. Let me go into detail about that.
CRAFTING:
To craft a musket, you would need:
2 Iron Ingots
1 Wood planks
1 Gunpowder
To craft a musket ball, you would need:
2 Gunpowder
1 Iron ingot
(2 Gunpowder and 1 iron makes 4 musket balls)
Placing of musket ingredients:
1 Iron ingot in the highest right-hand square
1 Iron ingot in the middle square
1 Wood planks in the lowest left-hand square
Placing of musket ball ingredients:
1 Gunpowder in any square that is not already occupied by another ingredient.
1 Gunpowder in any square that is not already occupied by another ingredient.
1 Iron ingot in any square that is not already occupied by another ingredient.

That's all I have to say about this potentially marvelous addition to the Minecraft Universe. Would you like to challenge or praise my position? Feel free to leave feedback in the comments section below!