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A firearm is a portable gun that inflicts damage on targets by launching one or more projectiles driven by rapidly expanding high-pressure gas produced chemically by exothermic combustion (deflagration) of propellant within an ammunition cartridge. If gas pressurization is achieved through mechanical gas compression rather than through chemical propellant combustion, then the gun is technically an air gun, not a firearm.
A machine pistol is typically a handgun-style machine gun, capable of fully automatic or burst fire. The term is a calque of the German word "Maschinenpistole". They were developed during World War I, and originally issued to German artillery crews who needed a self-defense weapon, lighter than a rifle but more effective than a standard pistol. Today, machine pistols are considered a special purpose weapon with limited utility, and difficult for all but the best shooters to control.
A semi-automatic rifle is a type of self-loading rifle whose action will automatically cycle a new round after each shot, but needs the shooter to manually reset the hammer/striker before the next shot can be fired, so only a single round will be discharged each time the trigger is depressed.
A squad automatic weapon, also section automatic weapon [SAW]; light support weapon [LSW]) is a fully automatic firearm used to give infantry squads or sections a man-portable source of fully automatic firepower. Weapons used in this role are often selective-fire rifles, usually fitted with a bipod and heavier barrel to perform as light machine guns. Squad automatic weapons usually fire the same cartridge as the assault rifles or battle rifles carried by other members of the unit. This reduces logistical requirements by making it only necessary to supply one type of ammunition to a unit. Squad automatic weapons are light enough to be operated by one person, as opposed to heavy machine guns such as the M2 Browning, which fire more powerful cartridges but require a crew to operate at full effectiveness.
The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifles and machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and designed by John Browning in 1917 for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe as a replacement for the French-made Chauchat and M1909 Benét–Mercié machine guns that US forces had previously been issued.
A light machine gun (LMG) is a machine gun designed to be employed by an individual soldier, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. Light machine guns are often used as squad automatic weapons.
An automatic firearm continuously fires rounds as long as the trigger is pressed or held and there is ammunition in the magazine/chamber. In contrast, a semi-automatic firearm fires one round with each individual trigger-pull.
A magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding device within or attached to a repeating firearm. Magazines can be removable (detachable) or integral (internal/fixed) to the firearm. The magazine functions by moving the cartridges stored within it into a position where they may be loaded into the barrel chamber by the action of the firearm. The detachable magazine is often colloquially referred to as a clip, although this is technically inaccurate.
"Battle rifle" is a post-World War II term for military service rifles that are fed ammunition via detachable magazines and fire a full-powered rifle cartridge.
The Stechkin automatic pistol or APS is a Soviet selective fire machine pistol. It bears the name of its developer, Igor Stechkin.
The Volkssturmgewehr is the name of several rifle designs developed by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. They share the common characteristic of being greatly simplified as an attempt to cope with severe lack of resources and industrial capacity in Germany during the final period of the war.
The SR-3 Vikhr is a Russian 9×39mm compact assault rifle. It was developed by A. D. Borisov, V. N. Levchenko and A. Tyshlykov at TsNIITochMash in the early 1990s and was manufactured in 1994. It is based on the AS Val suppressed assault rifle but lacks an integral suppressor and has a newly designed folding stock and charging handle for ease of concealed carry. The abbreviation "SR" stands for spetsialnaya razrabotka — special development.
The Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989 (AWCA) is a California, United States, law that made illegal the ownership and transfer of over fifty specific brands and models of semi-automatic firearms classified as assault weapons. While mostly rifles, some were pistols and shotguns. The law was amended in 1999 to restrict acquisition and transfer of magazines that could hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Firearms and magazines that were legally owned at the time the law was passed were grandfathered in if they were registered with the California Department of Justice DOJ.
The Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), officially the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, is a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a United States federal law, which included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms that were defined as assault weapons as well as certain ammunition magazines that were defined as "large capacity."
