A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries.
Gun safety is the study and practice of using, transporting, storing and disposing of firearms and ammunition, including the training of gun users, the design of weapons, and formal and informal regulation of gun production, distribution, and usage, for the purpose of avoiding unintentional injury, illness, or death. This includes mishaps like accidental discharge, negligent discharge, and firearm malfunctions, as well as secondary risks like hearing loss, lead poisoning from bullets, and pollution from other hazardous materials in propellants and cartridges. There were 47,000 unintentional firearm deaths worldwide in 2013.
Gun laws and policies, collectively referred to as firearms regulation or gun control, regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, and use of small arms by civilians. Laws of some countries may afford civilians a right to keep and bear arms, and have more liberal gun laws than neighboring jurisdictions. Gun control typically restricts access to certain categories of firearms and limits the categories of persons who may be granted permission to access firearms. There may be separate licenses for hunting, sport shooting, self-defense, collecting, and concealed carry, each with different sets of requirements, privileges, and responsibilities.
A shotgun is a long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small spherical projectiles called shot, or a single solid projectile called a slug. Shotguns are most commonly used as smoothbore firearms, meaning that their gun barrels have no rifling on the inner wall, but rifled barrels for shooting sabot slugs are also available.
A cartridge, also known as a round, is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition packaging a projectile, a propellant substance and an ignition device (primer) within a metallic, paper, or plastic case that is precisely made to fit within the barrel chamber of a breechloading gun, for convenient transportation and handling during shooting. Although in popular usage the term "bullet" is often used to refer to a complete cartridge, the correct usage only refers to the projectile.
A muzzleloader is any firearm in which the user loads the projectile and the propellant charge into the muzzle end of the gun. This is distinct from the modern designs of breech-loading firearms, in which user loads the ammunition into the breech end of the barrel. The term "muzzleloader" applies to both rifled and smoothbore type muzzleloaders, and may also refer to the marksman who specializes in the shooting of such firearms. The firing methods, paraphernalia and mechanism further divide both categories as do caliber.
The National Firearms Act (NFA), 73rd Congress, Sess. 2, ch. 757, 48 Stat. 1236 was enacted on June 26, 1934, and currently codified and amended as I.R.C. ch. 53. The law is an Act of Congress in the United States that, in general, imposes an excise tax on the manufacture and transfer of certain firearms and mandates the registration of those firearms. The NFA is also referred to as Title II of the federal firearms laws, with the Gun Control Act of 1968 ("GCA") as Title I.
The Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, incorporating the London Proof House, is one of the 111 livery companies of the City of London.
In the United Kingdom, access by the general public to firearms is subject to strict control measures. Members of the public may own rifles and shotguns, however, they must be properly licensed. Most handguns have been banned in Great Britain since the Dunblane school massacre in 1996. Handguns are permitted in Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man which have their own applicable laws. Scotland imposes its own additional licensing requirements for airguns.
Webley & Scott is an arms manufacturer founded in Birmingham, England. Webley produced handguns and long guns from 1834 to 1979, when the company ceased to manufacture firearms and instead turned its attention to producing air pistols and air rifles. In 2010 Webley & Scott restarted the production of shotguns for commercial sale.
The LeMat revolver was a .42 or .36 caliber cap & ball black powder revolver invented by Jean Alexandre LeMat of France, which featured an unusual secondary 16 to 20 gauge smooth-bore barrel capable of firing buckshot. It saw service with the armed forces of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War of 1861–1865 and the Army of the Government of National Defense during the Franco-Prussian War.
Firearms regulation in Switzerland allows the acquisition of semi-automatic, and – with a may-issue permit – fully automatic firearms, by Swiss citizens and foreigners with or without permanent residence. The laws pertaining to the acquisition of firearms in Switzerland are amongst the most liberal in the world. Swiss gun laws are primarily about the acquisition of arms, and not ownership. As such a license is not required to own a gun by itself, but a shall-issue permit is required to purchase most types of firearms. Bolt-action rifles do not require an acquisition permit, and can be acquired with just a background check. A reason is not required to be issued an acquisition permit for semi-automatics unless the reason is other than sport-shooting, hunting, or collecting. Permits for concealed carrying in public are issued sparingly. The acquisition of fully automatic weapons, suppressors and target lasers requires special permits issued by the cantonal firearms office. Police use of hollow point ammunition is limited to special situations.
Parker-Hale Ltd. was a British firearms, air rifle and firearms accessory manufacturer, located in the Gun Quarter of the city of Birmingham, England. It was founded by Alfred Gray Parker and Arthur Hale.
A proof test is a form of stress test to demonstrate the fitness of a load-bearing or impact-experiencing structure. An individual proof test may apply only to the unit tested, or to its design in general for mass-produced items. Such a structure is often subjected to loads above those expected in actual use, demonstrating safety and design margin. Proof testing is nominally a nondestructive test, particularly if both design margins and test levels are well-chosen. However, unit failures are by definition considered to have been destroyed for their originally-intended use and load levels.
Overpressure ammunition, commonly designated as +P or +P+, is small arms ammunition that has been loaded to produce a higher internal pressure when fired than is standard for ammunition of its caliber, but less than the pressures generated by a proof round. This is done typically to produce ammunition with higher muzzle velocity, muzzle energy, and stopping power, such as ammunition used for security, defensive, or hunting purposes. Because of this, +P ammunition is typically found in handgun calibers which might be used for paramilitary forces, armed security, and defensive purposes.
An antique firearm is a term used to describe a firearm that was designed and manufactured prior to the beginning of the 20th century. Although the exact definition of what constitutes an "antique firearm" varies between countries, the advent of smokeless powder or the start of the Boer War are often used as cut-off dates. Antique firearms are usually collected because of their historical interest and/or their monetary value.
The Commission internationale permanente pour l'épreuve des armes à feu portatives, commonly abbreviated C.I.P., is an international organisation which sets standards for safety testing of firearms. As of 2015, its members are the national governments of 14 countries, of which 11 are European Union member states. The C.I.P. safeguards that all firearms and ammunition sold to civilian purchasers in member states are safe for the users.
The following are terms related to firearms and ammunition topics.
The 6.5mm Creedmoor (6.5×48mm), designated 6.5 Creedmoor by SAAMI, 6,5 Creedmoor by the C.I.P. or 6.5 CM or 6.5 CRDMR for short, is a centerfire rifle cartridge introduced by Hornady in 2007. It was developed by Hornady senior ballistics scientist Dave Emary in partnership with Dennis DeMille, the vice-president of product development at Creedmoor Sports, hence the name. The cartridge is a necked-down modification of the .30 Thompson Center.
A silencer, also known as a sound suppressor, suppressor, or sound moderator, is a muzzle device that suppresses the blast created when a gun is discharged, thereby reducing the acoustic intensity of the muzzle report and jump, by modulating the speed and pressure of the propellant gas released from the muzzle. Like other muzzle devices, a silencer can be a detachable accessory mounted to the muzzle, or an integral part of the barrel.
