I get tired of people getting so uppity about clip v magazine

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The idea is to set an example of being a responsible and educated gun owner. Using the description Clip or Magazine in conversation passes on incorrect information to the misinformed public. We have to deal with people who havn't a clue ("The thing on the front that goes up") enough as it is. We need to strive to always use the correct terms and explain them when possible. There is a difference between a Clip and a Magazine. Let's be clear when we discuss them so we don't have misunderstandings.
A similar problem occurs when people want to discuss "stun guns" but use the term Taser. Taser is brand name of line of electronic incapacitation device which fire probes attached to copper wires to zap a subject. They sell for anywhere from $300 for the C2 model I have and require a background check before Taser will give you the code to activate them. The little things that are about the size and shape of a pack of cigs and sell at the gunshow or flea market for $25 are not Tasers. This is another example of using the correct term to prevent misunderstandings or misinformation.
 
I agree with Yale. And it's not like it's difficult to use the correct terminology.
 
We slowly allow the knowledge to slip away and then we suddenly wonder what happened to language, or gun knowledge.
It is hard enough to filter out the teen and pre teen x box "experts" out there already.
 
yale said:
The idea is to set an example of being a responsible and educated gun owner. Using the description Clip or Magazine in conversation passes on incorrect information to the misinformed public. We have to deal with people who havn't a clue ("The thing on the front that goes up") enough as it is. We need to strive to always use the correct terms and explain them when possible. There is a difference between a Clip and a Magazine. Let's be clear when we discuss them so we don't have misunderstandings.
A similar problem occurs when people want to discuss "stun guns" but use the term Taser. Taser is brand name of line of electronic incapacitation device which fire probes attached to copper wires to zap a subject. They sell for anywhere from $300 for the C2 model I have and require a background check before Taser will give you the code to activate them. The little things that are about the size and shape of a pack of cigs and sell at the gunshow or flea market for $25 are not Tasers. This is another example of using the correct term to prevent misunderstandings or misinformation.
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Rarely do I see someone getting this uppity about .45LC, or assuming that someone's "auto pistol" either has a tax stamp or is a felony, or having a fit because someone is loading "bullets" into their gun.

I've never been yelled at by a store employee when asking for BandAids and picking up the store brand adhesive bandages.

It seems that as far as the dictionary is concerned, "clip" and "magazine" are somehow interchangeable and yet involved in the construction of the other.

Definition of CLIP 2 : a device to hold cartridges for charging the magazines of some rifles; also : a magazine from which ammunition is fed into the chamber of a firearm

Misnomers happen. If we weren't such know-it-alls, it'd be a colloquialism by now.

I've seen everyone from manufacturers to experts and authors such as Charles Askins refer to a magazine as a clip. To the shallow and argumentative, these people would be "ignorant," which I somehow find unlikely. They probably know more than any average shooter ever will about the subject.

I don't disagree that those who consider themselves informed should make an effort to understand the difference, but if the professionals are mixing the terminology, I don't see a problem with the average enthusiast mixing words. Feeling the needs to separate yourself from the "xbox experts" seems little more than pretension to me. I have nothing to prove to them, and no reason to try to make them look foolish. They have their interests, I have mine, and maybe someday their interest in these things will grow beyond casual.

The only argument I've ever heard for a real-world necessity to get make the terms correct and understood is when shouting to someone, "I need a clip!" and they toss you a bunch of cartridges held together on a strip of plastic or metal... And since you'd actually better be shouting, "I need a clip for (specific weapon, specific caliber)," that point is rather moot.

You know what they're talking about. They know what they're talking about. Find someone better to do.
 
I agree with the OP. It is a superiority wedge, with people showing how much in the know they are by pounding on it.
THere was an absurd discussion here some time ago about accuracy vs precision that smelled about the same.
 
I may correct someone now and then, but for the most part I just let it go. Kinda like calling most Semi Automatic firearms (A gun is artillery) Automatic. There are more important issues to deal with like empty guns and accidental discharges.
 
And this sounds like a common rallying cry of the uneducated.
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Another great example of "I have superior knowledge".

At least I don't refer to the chamber as "the head." As in, It holds nine in the clip and one in the head. That mutha shoot ten time.
 
Rarely do I see someone getting this uppity about .45LC, or assuming that someone's "auto pistol" either has a tax stamp or is a felony, or having a fit because someone is loading "bullets" into their gun.

I've never been yelled at by a store employee when asking for BandAids and picking up the store brand adhesive bandages.

It seems that as far as the dictionary is concerned, "clip" and "magazine" are somehow interchangeable and yet involved in the construction of the other.

Definition of CLIP 2 : a device to hold cartridges for charging the magazines of some rifles; also : a magazine from which ammunition is fed into the chamber of a firearm

Misnomers happen. If we weren't such know-it-alls, it'd be a colloquialism by now.

I've seen everyone from manufacturers to experts and authors such as Charles Askins refer to a magazine as a clip. To the shallow and argumentative, these people would be "ignorant," which I somehow find unlikely. They probably know more than any average shooter ever will about the subject.

I don't disagree that those who consider themselves informed should make an effort to understand the difference, but if the professionals are mixing the terminology, I don't see a problem with the average enthusiast mixing words. Feeling the needs to separate yourself from the "xbox experts" seems little more than pretension to me. I have nothing to prove to them, and no reason to try to make them look foolish. They have their interests, I have mine, and maybe someday their interest in these things will grow beyond casual.

The only argument I've ever heard for a real-world necessity to get the terms correct and understood is when shouting to someone, "I need a clip!" and they toss you a bunch of cartridges held together on a strip of plastic or metal... And since you'd actually better be shouting, "I need a clip for (specific weapon, specific caliber)," that point is rather moot.

You know what they're talking about. They know what they're talking about. Find someone better to do.
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Find something better to do? You realize YOU posted a thread about this, don't you?

If you call a magazine a "clip", you're using the wrong term. Same if you call a clip a "magazine." If you call cartridges "bullets," you're using the wrong term. It's that simple. It's not about being "uppity," it's about simply using the correct terminology. You said it yourself (bolded). It takes no time out of the day to just use the right term, so why is it so difficult for people to do?

Might as well call 9mm, .357 Magnum, .38 SPC, and .380 ACP all just ".357."
 
Inebriated said:
Find something better to do? You realize YOU posted a thread about this, don't you?

If you call a magazine a "clip", you're using the wrong term. Same if you call a clip a "magazine." If you call cartridges "bullets," you're using the wrong term. It's that simple. It's not about being "uppity," it's about simply using the correct terminology. You said it yourself (bolded). It takes no time out of the day to just use the right term, so why is it so difficult for people to do?

Might as well call 9mm, .357 Magnum, .38 SPC, and .380 ACP all just ".357."
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You seem to take personal offense to that last part. It was hardly directed at anyone. It was just meant to say "there are much more important things to worry about it out there."

It's not difficult. It also isn't functionally necessary. The intention is understood, and it's been clearly demonstrated that it is hardly a sign of a lack of knowledge or education. In a discussion about firearms, a slip-up is a possibility, and there are a variety of other firearm misnomers that are just as common and yet, for some reason, less hammered upon. It's hardly needed for clarity purposes because a simple look at a firearm's design will tell you which is being used, and in most cases, the former term isn't going to be the design in question, but if that term is used, it'll be understood what mechanism you're speaking of. The "clip" is where the weapon is loaded from. If someone had a clip, a magazine, a speed loader, or a full tube of shotgun shells, I'm going to know what they're talking about when they say it.

The difference between confusing calibers and confusing clips and magazines is extreme, and incredibly dangerous. If you try to put a clip in a magazine-fed firearm, it won't work; if you try to put a magazine in a firearm that uses clips, there'll be no place for it. That mistake is essentially never going to be made. If you try to put an incorrect caliber in a firearm, you could easily cause damage to or destroy your weapon, or kill someone else or yourself. Hardly comparable, and suggesting otherwise is very short of irresponsible.
 
I grow tired of a generation who's primary goal seems to be designed to continually find new ways to be offended.
 
You mean that words actually have specific meaning? English is an evolving language with the meaning of words changing and new words continually being added. Nonetheless, many misunderstandings are created when a "less than specific" term is used. In firearms nomenclature, there is a difference between "clip" and "magazine" despite the common usage of both to describe the same thing. There is also a difference between "bullet" and "cartridge" as well as "shell" despite the way modern authors use these words in their books. This kind of problem exists in many fields. Our County's Urban horticulturist (who has a Masters degree in Botany) refers to "Fir trees" when he is pointing to "Picea pungens" actually a Spruce.
 
The idea is to set an example of being a responsible and educated gun owner. Using the description Clip or Magazine in conversation passes on incorrect information to the misinformed public. We have to deal with people who havn't a clue ("The thing on the front that goes up") enough as it is. We need to strive to always use the correct terms and explain them when possible. There is a difference between a Clip and a Magazine. Let's be clear when we discuss them so we don't have misunderstandings.
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Being one of the (hopefully somewhat) misinformed public I want to disagree with yale but I know that he is right.(all right, twist my arm, 100% right) I think that the key here is to be nice about correcting people.
There is nothing wrong with using the right terminology so you might as well use it.
 
I genuinely appreciate it when a person whose knowledge in a field of mutual interest exceeds mine actually bothers to share that knowledge in an effort to help me learn. If, however, I get the sense that person is just berating my lack of knowledge, I recoil.

It's all in the delivery.

If the greater knowledge in a field happens to reside with me, hearing someone who genuinely does not know the distinction between or among terms use them in a way that's less then accurate is forgivable, and I may or may not offer to supplement the person's understanding.

I am bothered by two things:

1) misuse of terms to purposely mislead
2) misuse of particular terms, knowingly or not, for the purpose of sounding "cool" or "bad" to others
 
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All right then Ash. Since it's ok to use "clip" and "magazine interchangeably, we'll quit worrying about other phrases as well.

Folding stocks can be that "folding up thingy in the back". We can ask for "boolits for my niney". It's ok to call a snub nosed .38 a "Saturday Night N!&&%#town Special. The .500 S&W is an "Assault Weapon". We'll call rifles "guns" no matter how many time Gunny has us marching in the bay in out boxers, shouldered rifle in one hand and our gun in the other. Self loading rifles (sorry) guns are "weapons of mass destruction" and the Keltec carbine can still come with a stock that holds an extra clip.

However, I draw the line at being called a European American regardless of where my ancestors came from. Thems is insulting and still fighting words
 
I sometimes accidently refer to my Jeep as a car; it's not uppity to call a Jeep a Jeep, it's simply correct.
If I go to buy tires for the Jeep and ask if they have wheels in ___ size they will start looking for metal things in that size not rubber things.

I use to call a magazine a clip, because that's what the other uninformed people I spoke with called it.
 
I get annoyed when I tell people I have a Jeep and they say "what make?" :eek:

Over here we have some other wierd colloquilisms, for example we often call a vacuum cleaner a Hoover, regardless of the make.

But the clip magazine thing, no, calling it a clip when it's a magazine is just wrong, shows you watched too many films I reckon :)
 
http://www.marlinfirearms.com/Firearms/xt/XT17.asp
"Included are 4 and 7-shot clip magazines."

From the 1950s onward I recall "detachable box magazines" commonly referred to as "clips" because civilian gunowners rarely use clip loading magazines (I think the Remingtom Model 8 from about 1910 was the last hunting rifle that could be loaded from stripper clips). Especially with .22 rimfire rifles, "clip" implied "detachable box magazine" and "magazine" could mean either a tubular magazine or a "clip".

To people who learned about guns through military service, the distinction between a clip and a magazine is pretty important (especial if calling for an emergency air drop of ammo preloaded in clips).

I have a pistol that was factory roll-marked ".45 Caliber Automatic". Most folks know that the usual civilian "automatic pistol" is semi automatic.

I would be tempted if someone talked about "magazines" to ask if they meant tubular, fixed box, or detachable box, but I don't always feel pedantic.
 
Using correct terminology isn't the problem, getting "uppity" about it is. For those "uppities," don't ever read the late Charles Askins' books or articles. If you run across "But there's them as likes lotsa ca'tridges in the clip," your heads might explode. :D
 
Using "clip" when "magazine" is meant is a mark of wilful ignorance about guns. Either one doesn't know better (in which case he's not really a "gun person"), or he knows better but persists, as part of an anti-gun meme. (In the same way that Rep. Carolyn McCarthy uses terms like "that thing that goes up.") Things like this also come from sloppy journalists, most of whom also don't like guns.
 
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