Difference between handgun and pistol

Dictionary.com defines pistol as a short firearm intended to be held and fired with one hand.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pistol

In the 2008Taurus catalog, they separate revolvers and semi-automatic pistols.

http://www.taurususa.com/pdf/2008_Taurus_Catalog.pdf

While often the distinction is made that pistols are auto-loading handuns and revolvers are revolving handguns, I really don't think that definitions can be 100% right.

A pistol is a revolver is a handgun IMHO.

If one were to take an AR15 pistol, and affix it with a stock, would it:

1. Be a rifle?

2. Be an illegal short-barreled rifle, sans tax stamp?

Revolving/Repeating Pistol

Arfin to the rescue again.

Statutory definitions notwithstanding, "handgun" is a new, made-up term. My (toy) pirate single-shot was a pistol, my CO2 pellet gun is a pistol, and my .357 wheelgun is a pistol to me since they all are designed to be and do get fired one-handed.

Words evolve over time and your personal word usage may vary.

If one were to take an AR15 pistol, and affix it with a stock, would it:

1. Be a rifle?

2. Be an illegal short-barreled rifle, sans tax stamp?

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#2
If you take any handgun and add a shoulder stock to it, and you do so without a Form 1 and 200.00 tax stamp, you just made an illegal Short Barreled Rifle.

Please, someone answer me this. I've always wondered why an SBR is so "evil" and requires paperwork. Why is this and what was the precedent for this law? All it does is make the handgun a little easier to shoot more accurately. I don't by the "concealable" rifle angle either, because we can legally carry the exact same handgun concealed. The stock doesn't add any killing power, capacity, range, etc. Makes no sense

OK what about adding a vertical foregrip to a 1911 pistol?

Is it still a pistol by definition?

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The ATF has held that adding a foregrip to a handgun makes it an AOW and needs a 200.00 tax stamp

Language changes, especially as new inventions arrive.

Who still uses the term 'horseless-carrage'? for cars, or even automobile?

it seems clear to me that at one time Pistol or pistolle and even a few other spellings meant a handfired firearm that had the barrel and chamber as one peice.

Eventually the item we call a revolver was invented. Because it was a new item, there really wasn't a word for it, so it was termed 'revolving pistol'. Language and technology both changed. Revolving pistols became very common. The term Revolving pistol became revolver, and pistol was used to refer to those few single shot or double barreled handguns still around. Eventually, a new pistol was designed, the Automatic Pistol. Now, old single shot pistols were rare as hen's teeth. People wanted to shorten Automatic Pistol in the same way automobile was shortened to auto, and telephone was shortened to phone and bicycle was shortened to bike. Some people shortened it to Automatic, others shortened it to Pistol...because calling a revolver a 'revolving pistol' had long ago ceased.

Now, since about the end of world war 2, maybe a bit later there has been a 'scare' of the public by the media, who would paint anything as a machinegun. Hence Automatic Pistol and just the term Automatic conjured up images of gangsters blasting away with drum fed tommy guns. (Which were also often just shortened to automatic)

To combat this gunners started to use the term pistol rather than auto or automatic to refer to these devices.

so basically

Revolving Pistol was shortened to Revolver

Later, Automatic Pistol was shortened to Automatic by most and pistol by a few, but then due to bad media, was shortened to pistol by most.

Currently, we are moving again and now pistol generally refers to any handgun

LAR-15 said:

OK what about adding a vertical foregrip to a 1911 pistol?

Is it still a pistol by definition?

Click to expand...

WhisperFan said:

The ATF has held that adding a foregrip to a handgun makes it an AOW and needs a 200.00 tax stamp

Click to expand...

LAR-15 said:

A handgun or a pistol??

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I'm sure the ATF will not draw the distinction - neither with the judge, nor the jurors.

If any person puts a forward grip on a firearm designed to be fired one-handed - the ATF will consider that firearm to be an unregistered AOW (if it doesn't have the stamp)

A revolver is a repeating pistol that has a number of chambers in a *revolving* cylinder. So, revolver is a term that describes the way one particular type of pistol operates.

Pistol is a term whose origins go back hundreds of years and is generally synonymous with the modern term "handgun." Doesn't matter if it's single shot, revolver, semi-auto, or full auto. It's a pistol, or a handgun.

K

Pistol Toter's Permit in Georgia

The current Georgia CCW permit is now called a "Georgia Firearms License." Some decades ago it was called a "Pistol Toter's Permit." When I was a kid in the 40's, everyone I knew called any handgun a pistol (whether they had been in the armed forces or not).

The ATF has held that adding a foregrip to a handgun makes it an AOW and needs a 200.00 tax stamp

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I'm pretty sure an AOW (any other weapon) is only a $5 NFA tax stamp.

eruby said:

I'm pretty sure an AOW (any other weapon) is only a $5 NFA tax stamp

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Not to make it.

To make an AOW out of a firearm you already own, you file a Form 1 and pay 200.00

To transfer an already registered AOW it costs only 5.00

The best way to make and AOW out of a firearm you already own would be to find a willing 07/SOT, give them the firearm you want to be an AOW, and have them do it. Then transfer it back to you for 5.00. But my local 07/SOT won't do that for people.

Not to make it.

To make an AOW out of a firearm you already own, you file a Form 1 and pay 200.00

To transfer an already registered AOW it costs only 5.00

The best way to make and AOW out of a firearm you already own would be to find a willing 07/SOT, give them the firearm you want to be an AOW, and have them do it. Then transfer it back to you for 5.00. But my local 07/SOT won't do that for people.

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You are right. I wasn't even thinking along the lines of making, just buying (like a Serbu Shorty). Mea culpa.

Can anyone answer my question in post #31?

Difference between a pistol and a handgun...see photos...

blkbrd666 said:

Difference between a pistol and a handgun...see photos...

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And a pepperbox is:

a. a revolver since it revolves.

b. a pistol since each barrel has its own chamber.

c. who cares?

If all zoinks are groobles, and some groobles are definitely artards, then;

A) all zoinks are definitely artards
B) some zoinks are probably artards
C) all ATF agents are definitely artards

"Handgun and pistol are synonyms. Both words have the same meaning. All handguns are pistols and all pistols are handguns."

Yep; "revolvers and "semi-automatics" are sub-categories of pistol.

c. who cares?

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Right answer! Close and lock the thread..... quick!