Gun terms that are often confused...

[Hokkmike]

license - permit; magazine - clip; antlers - horns.

They DO NOT mean the same thing but are often used interchangeably.

I was thinking about what other gun related terms are in the same category and what import they might have in a practical sense.

The relationship between pistol and revolver has been one. My take is that pistols and revolvers are both handguns but that revolvers are not pistols.

I think shooters also often misapply the terms bullet, shell, and cartridge.

Certainly the deliberately biased news media refuses to differentiate between automatic and semi automatic, but we know what that is all about.

The term "high powered" also is misused to infer something used in excess of what is required. Same with "cop killer" bullets. A decidedly loaded term.

And of course, the biggest misnomer of them all - "assault rifle". It is all about looks and nothing more for the majority of the American public.

Can you think of any others?

 

[SuedePflow]

Technically, the definition of a pistol is, "a small firearm designed to be held in one hand".
Handgun/pistol, same thing. I personally do not differentiate.


"Cop killer bullets" kind of irks me. Loaded term indeed, and I just shake my head when I here it. Especially when Mel Gibson says it in Lethal Weapon.

 

[NavyLCDR]

High capacity, I feel, is misued most of the time in regards to the number of rounds that a firearm and/or magazine and/or clip is capable of accepting.


http://www.nraila.org/glossary.aspx

CLIP
A device for holding a group of cartridges. Semantic wars have been fought over the word, with some insisting it is not a synonym for "detachable magazine." For 80 years, however, it has been so used by manufacturers and the military. There is no argument that it can also mean a separate device for holding and transferring a group of cartridges to a fixed or detachable magazine or as a device inserted with cartridges into the mechanism of a firearm becoming, in effect, part of that mechanism.

ASSAULT RIFLE
By U.S. Army definition, a selective-fire rifle chambered for a cartridge of intermediate power. If applied to any semi-automatic firearm regardless of its cosmetic similarity to a true assault rifle, the term is incorrect.

ASSAULT WEAPON
Any weapon used in an assault (see WEAPON).

http://www.remington.com/product-families/accessories/gun-parts-families/magazine-clips.aspx

Model 504™ Magazine Clip:

 

[32_d3gr33s]

Ammo bullet cartridge shell

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

I think it's funny how often I hear folks refer to the hammer as the trigger.

 

[jcwit]

Frankly I think folks get way to wrapped up in being absolutely correct, even when they realize that everyone else knows what is being discussed.

 

[David E]

^^ that's not necessarily true. I've seen several threads take quite a few posts to figure out what the OP was really trying to say.

Like "Cylinder" and "Chamber." For example, a recent thread that started out with: "My cylinder is stuck...." Led to all kinds of posts suggesting remedies for a stuck cylinder. Eventually, we came to find out the "cylinder" was a particular chamber, not the round thing that turns round and round.

"I loaded all 6 cylinders..." That must be a very chunky revolver, having 6 cylinders and all.

Also, "Extractor" and "Ejector." Same story. "The extractor wasn't kicking the brass out very far..." Or, "the ejector isn't getting the brass out..."

There have been more than one thread or posts that read entirely different than the intent by misusing these terms.

 

[BluesDancer]

Technically, the definition of a pistol is, "a small firearm designed to be held in one hand". Handgun/pistol, same thing. I personally do not differentiate.

+1

A revolver is most certainly a pistol.

There are 3 types of pistols I can think of right off the bat:
1 - Autoloading pistols (a.k.a Autoloaders)
2 - Revolving pistols (a.k.a. Revolvers)
3 - Machine pistols (e.g., Glock 18, Beretta 93R)

 

[oneounceload]

You forgot single shot pistols and derringers.....

 

[MistWolf]

Pistols have been pistols long before self loading handguns came on the scene

 

[wow6599]

I get aggravated by folks who say clip instead of magazine. And the odd thing is, a lot of folks who I know and are "into" firearms say clip - even a friend who was in the Army Nation Guard.

MAGAZINE!!

 

[cfullgraf]

Take it at what ever you want but Wikipedia says:

"When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, such as a pepperbox revolver—as opposed to a standard (single-barrel) revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder.[1]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistol

 

[jcwit]

xxx

 

[jcwit]

xxx

 

[Sam1911]

I hate it when people confuse redundant with pedantic.






I'll leave this open for now.

BUT ONLY IF WE DROP CLIP-vs.-MAG. WE'VE DONE THAT ONE TOO MANY TIMES, RECENTLY.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

For guns that were never clip loading, such as Marlin's bolt action .22s, the factory has called the detachable box magazine a "clip" for literally generations, parts lists, packaging, etc.

Tennessee Handgun Carry (carry) Permit is the equivalent of the Texas Concealed Handgun (carry) License: it is the document allowing carry of a concealed handgun in public outside ones home or business.

 

[USAF_Vet]

Michigan has a concealed PISTOL license, so by some peoples definition, I could not carry a revolver.

Terminology faux pas' do not bother me as much as just flat out getting things wrong, like cocking the hammer on a striker fired pistol.


I had to walk away from an argument that started on a 'rifled barrel shotgun' and how it was actually classified. One guy was insistent that because it was not a smoothbore, it could not be a shotgun. In the course of this conversation, one guy refused to believe the 16.25" cut down rifled barrel on his shotgun was an illegal unregistered SBS because it was now a rifle, not a shotgun.

 

[jerkface11]

It bugs me when people call the safety lever the manual firing inhibitor.

 

[JohnKSa]

breech & breach If your gun has a "breach" then something's wrong with it. You should always make sure the "breech" is closed and locked before firing.

brake & break If your gun has a muzzle "break" then you should get the break repaired. A muzzle "brake" can reduce recoil but will direct more of the noise back towards the shooter.

reticle & reticule If your scope has a reticule, then you should make sure it matches your scope's shoes to avoid a fashion faux pas. A reticle is the aiming "mark" imposed by the scope on the background when you look through the scope.

aperture & aperature. Ain't no sech thing as an aperAture. There's only one 'a' in aperture.

 

[perpster]

"control"

"common sense"

 

[DoubleMag]

Personally, I always got the FTF and FTF mixed up. Is there other terms for, Failure To Feed... and.... Failure To Fire ?

Weapon vs Firearm

 

[bhk]

I am a NRA certified PISTOL instructor (as worded on my official card). I guess I can't teach anything about revolvers? I can then assume the NRA doesn't know anything about guns.

 

[buck460XVR]

I hate it when people confuse redundant with pedantic.

....or redundantly pedantic to the point of being confusing.

 

[plmitch]

Well there goes five minutes of my life I can't get back....sucked in again.

 

[ATLDave]

Take it at what ever you want but Wikipedia says:

"When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, such as a pepperbox revolver—as opposed to a standard (single-barrel) revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder.[1]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistol

Well, as is typical, you get what you pay for. Wikipedia is a free source.

Seriously, there have been many threads on this debate. Pistol has always been a term that encompasses handguns. It acquired a second meaning sometime around the introduction of the National Firearms Act, which differentiated between pistols and revolvers, in language similar to the wikipedia article. Since that time, and like a great many English words, "pistol" has had at least two definitions.

Either usage is correct. Correcting someone on either usage is the only way to be wrong.