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For my Money I'll go with the German 88

Surprised you didn't go with the Brown Bess Don.

So the nominees are (in order of their nominations)

1. The AK-47

2. The German 88

3. The Maxim Machine Gun

4. The Brown Bess

5. The Colt Revolver (by implication from Cesca's post).

As for each of these I'll offer few arguments.

The AK-47, in my opinion, democratized warfare and firepower in a way no other firearm did.  It is rugged, durable and amazingly easy to use and maintain.  It doesn't need special care and can literally be buried in a field and then dug up and used weeks later.  It was and is still the workhorse firearm of insurgencies around the world as it takes little to no training to use it and maintain it.  A monkey could field strip and operate an AK-47.  All an insurgency group needs is a carload of these cheap, plentiful, durable and easy to use weapons, a trunk load of ammunition and they're off and running.  This gun literally turned the average 10 year old into a soldier and gave each one of them a personal firepower capability that has authored carnage around the world for almost 100 years.  Where ever there is a fight going on the AK-47 is being used by at least one side and probably both.

The German 88 - The gold standard for artillery pieces in the history of man kind.  Versatile and deadly in many arenas it was used as an anti-aircraft gun AND an anti-tank/anti-personnel weapon.  It's stopping power and high velocity armor penetration made it king of the battlefield and feared by everyone who encountered it, be it mounted as a field piece or on a tank chassis.  The signature weapon of World War II.

The Maxim Machine Gun - A weapon designed to be so horrible that it would make war unthinkable, this gun was the author of the wholesale butcher's bill of World War I.  It literally changed military tactical thinking in that armies were literally reshaped to incorporate it as the backbone of infantry unit tactics.  Suddenly a squad of infantry soldiers was capable of violence and death on a scale that whole regiments of soldiers before it's invention could only imagine.  This gun and it's progeny would go on to evolve into the basic unit of firepower not only in the infantry, but would rapidly be adapted to tank chassis, airplanes, ships and other vehicles.  Mounting a machine gun in a Volkswagen Beetle suddenly turns it into a military weapon.  Two men and a maxim machine gun were worth entire regiments of infantry when it came to killing capacity.  This gun literally swept away every infantry tactic and previous military thinking that preceded it and can be argued to have almost single-handedly brought down the old order of European empire and politics and an entire generation of European young men were cut down by it's wrath.  Due to Hiram Maxims machine gun no one would ever again think of war as a romantic and chivalrous adventure.  Instead it would finally be laid bare as the unthinkable and horrifying slaughterhouse it truly was. 

The English Land Pattern Musket (A/K/A the "Brown Bess") - The pinnacle of infantry weapons in the muzzle loading age.  Cheap to produce, easy to use and durable in the field this weapon literally made the English Empire.  Thanks to this gun within days common farmers, school boys and the dregs found in prisons could be drafted, trained up and turned into a professional killing machine that marched across the globe.  The list of battles this gun appeared in reads like a laundry list of the great battles of Europe's age of empire.  For over a century (1722 to 1838) when the men in Red Coats landed on your shores this was the instrument they would subjugate you with and along with the image of the British Navy this gun, tipped with a bayonet, was the projection of British military power in the world.

The Colt Revolver - "God made men and Samuel Colt made them all equal."  That one sentence alone tells you the impact of this gun.  Before this gun the standard of personal defense was the sword, dagger and buckler.  After this gun personal firepower was measured in volume as one man armed with a colt revolver was worth 6 men armed with swords and assorted pointed sticks.  The ability to shoot multiple times without reloading not only revolutionized personal defense, but also military tactics and thinking and now instead of a brace of dueling pistols a man could conceal one of these weapons on his person (or not conceal it as the case might be) and be prepared to handle almost any situation that was thrown at him in the arena of personal defense.  A weapon that revolutionized and democratized gun ownership in a way that no other firearm had done or has done since.  Now everyone, men, women and children, were capable of wielding deadly force on a scale unheard of before it existed.  Skill and prowess were replaced by volume of fire thanks to Samuel Colt and his first of the repeating firearms and everything else had to change when Colt first pulled the trigger.

A few others to mention

The Browning Fifty Caliber Machine Gun - A weapon designed and manufactured in the early 1930s, "Ma Deuce" is still a standard issue heavy machine gun in many arsenals including the United States Military.  Mounted on tanks, planes, and other vehicles of every stripe this weapon provides it's wielder with anti-aircraft capability, anti-personnel capability and even anti-light armor capability.  It's low decibel chugging bark has been a scourge on battlefields since the end of World War II.

The French .75 - The first modern recoil-less, rapid fire medium artillery piece.  Artillery batteries went from firing three rounds a minute to laying a barrage of shells at the rate of sixty rounds a minute.  This gun immolated and cratered fields across Europe and set off an arms race that decimated a generation.

The Henry Repeating Rifle - Another gun that multiplied personal firepower.  Its lever action is still a staple of gun makers today.  Prior to this gun infantry tactics were designed around three aimed shots a minute per man.  Once it first appeared in the American Civil War the day of the massed fire infantry regiment was done.  Confederate troops lamented that the Yankee's could "load that gun on Sunday and shoot for a week".  Infantry maneuvers in the face of enemy fire from this beast had to be restructured wholesale as large groups of men advancing straight at a company of men armed with these weapons was mass suicide.

Chuut and I discussed this list last night and here are a few additions we agreed on.

The Napoleon Artillery piece - This was known in the US arsenal as the "Light twelve pounder" and to the French (the gun was designed by Napoleon III) as Canon obusier de 12.  It was revered for it's safety, reliability and close range killing power.  With an outside effective range of a mile this gun could throw solid shot and shell at advancing enemy units, but close range is where this artillery piece really shined.  This smooth bore cannon packed with grape shot and/or canister shot could literally disintegrate advancing enemy units.  During the American Civil War double canister volleys from a battery of four of these guns were reported to cause extreme casualty numbers from 70 percent on up to one reported case of 100 percent casualties suffered by one Confederate Unit attacking Union lines.  This gun was so effective that in 1863 Gen. Robert E. Lee of the Army of Northern Virginia sent all of his remaining 6 pound guns to the Tredegar Iron Works in Atlanta, Georgia to be melted down and recast as 12 pound Napoleons.  To date no reenactment of a Civil War battle is complete without a Napoleon cannonade.

The Uzi - Manufactured by the Israelis the Uzi sub-machine gun is the queen of the machine pistols.  This tiny terrier of a gun utilizes pistol ammunition to keep it's size and weight down enabling it's users to revolutionize small unit tactics in an urban setting.  It's short length and light weight made it a favorite for units tasked with counter-terrorism in urban and indoor environments.  Eventually it found its way to the street gangs in the Urban United States and it's rapid burping report began echoing in the minds of legislators and law enforcement officials alike.

The Thomson Sub Machine Gun - The "Tommy Gun" or "Chatter Gun" is a fixture firearm in the history of the United States from World War I to World War II.  Invented in World War I as a literal bullet hose conceived to sweep out enemy trenches this bull pup weapon loaded standard US .45 caliber pistol ammunition in either a straight or drum magazine.  It's simple design, easy maintenance and incredible rate of fire made it a reliable and valued weapon in close quarters combat.  However it was during the period between the wars where this weapon became famous.  Anyone in the United State was able to order one of these weapons through the mail and they turned out to be a favorite of the 1930s depression era gangsters and bank robbers.  To this day no gangster era movie is complete without several gunmen in white on white ties wielding this weapon.

Another for consideration. The Colt M1911, standard issue for 2 world wars and the Korean conflict.

Others for consideration.

MG 42,  1,200-1,500 rounds per minute were so feared that the U.S. Army created training films to help soldiers handle the psychological trauma of facing one in battle. Variants of "Hitler's Buzzsaw" remain in service today.

LMG 08/15, Based on the Maxim brought the power of the synchronised machine gun machine gun to aerial warfare

Yes I did consider the "Napoleon" but in the end it was a smooth bore and lacked the range an accuracy of the Parrot. If smooth bores are in contention the one in 1453 that brought down the walls of Constantinople and brought to an end  a Millenia of the Byzantines and arguably 2 millennia of Rome has to be in there as well. The original Naopleonic 12 pdr might also fit.

Small number, huge impact, gone are squares and bayonets for cavalry receipt, sheer volume of fire is now enough.

Hahhahaa, only in America....................

LOL does anybody watch movies about Lincoln, accept in the Colonies (former) Or for that matter even know who he is or care

Well this is embarrassing, I didn't know he had written such a book, which is kind of my point. I guess  he did it because he was half American.