How are firearms connected to the humanities?

you need to narrow it down. Firearms have been in common use in the west for 700 years, and even longer than that in the east. if you narrow the focus of your paper you'll have a much easier time. a few suggestions off the top of my head: firearms in popular culture, such as in the wild west and later depictions of the wild west, firearms as depicted in the first half of the 20th century, or Firearms in revolutionary art and propaganda. or, choose a firearm and then analyze its story and impact. there have been entire books written on the Avtomat Kalashinikova, its development and its cultural impact. You can't plausibly write a "short paper" that manages to fairly encompass the total impact of firearms on human history.