A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries.
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.
The Heckler & Koch MP5 is a submachine gun developed in the 1960s by German firearms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. It uses a similar modular design to the Heckler & Koch G3, and has over 100 variants and clones, including selective fire, semi-automatic, suppressed, compact, and even marksman variants. The MP5 is one of the most widely used submachine guns in the world, having been adopted by over forty nations and numerous militaries, police forces, intelligence agencies, security organizations, paramilitaries, and non-state actors.
The M16 rifle is a family of assault rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-round magazine.
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms. It was ratified on December 15, 1791, along with nine other articles of the Bill of Rights. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court affirmed for the first time that the right belongs to individuals, for self-defense in the home, while also including, as dicta, that the right is not unlimited and does not preclude the existence of certain long-standing prohibitions such as those forbidding "the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill" or restrictions on "the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons". In McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) the Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments are limited to the same extent as the federal government from infringing upon this right. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (2022) assured the right to carry weapons in public spaces with reasonable exceptions.
Arms trafficking or gunrunning is the illicit trade of contraband small arms, explosives, and ammunition, which constitutes part of a broad range of illegal activities often associated with transnational criminal organizations. The illegal trade of small arms, unlike other organized crime commodities, is more closely associated with exercising power in communities instead of achieving economic gain. Scholars estimate illegal arms transactions amount to over US$1 billion annually.
Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.
The AK-74 is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974 as a successor to the AKM. While primarily associated with the Soviet Union, it has been used by many countries since the 1970s. It is chambered for the 5.45×39mm cartridge, which replaced the 7.62×39mm cartridge of Kalashnikov's earlier automatic weapons for the Soviet Armed Forces.
The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service rifle of the British Armed Forces from its official adoption in 1895 until 1957.
The right to keep and bear arms is a legal right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, as well as hunting and sporting activities. Countries that guarantee a right to keep and bear arms include Albania, Czech Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, the Philippines, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United States and Yemen.
The Steyr AUG is an Austrian bullpup assault rifle chambered for the 5.56×45mm NATO intermediate cartridge, designed in the 1960s by Steyr-Daimler-Puch, and now manufactured by Steyr Arms GmbH & Co KG.
In the United Kingdom, gun ownership is considered a privilege, not a right, and access by the general public to firearms is subject to strict control measures. Members of the public may own certain firearms for the purposes of sport shooting, recreation, hunting or occupational purposes, however, they must be properly licensed.
Gun politics in the United States is characterized by two primary opposing ideologies regarding private firearm ownership.
Remington Arms Company, LLC, was an American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition. It was formerly owned by the Remington Outdoor Company, which went bankrupt in 2020 with its lines of business sold to several purchasers. Two resulting companies each bear the Remington name—the firearms manufacturer is Remington Firearms owned by RemArms, LLC., and the ammunition business is Remington Ammunition owned by Vista Outdoor Inc.
The SPP-1 underwater pistol was made in the Soviet Union for use by Soviet frogmen as an underwater firearm. It was developed in the late 1960s and accepted for use in 1975. Under water, ordinary-shaped bullets are inaccurate and very short-range. As a result, this pistol fires a round-based 4.5 millimetres (0.18 in) caliber steel dart about 115 millimetres (4.5 in) long, weighing 12.8 grams (0.45 oz), which has longer range and more penetrating power than speargun spears. The complete cartridge is 145 millimetres (5.7 in) long and weighs 17.5 grams (0.62 oz).
Gun laws in the United States regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition. State laws vary considerably, and are independent of existing federal firearms laws, although they are sometimes broader or more limited in scope than the federal laws.
United States Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company, Inc. was a privately held firearms-manufacturing firm based in Hartford, Connecticut. Until 2011, United States Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company, Inc. was known for producing single action revolvers, which were clones of the Colt Single Action Army revolver. The factory was located "Under the Blue Dome", in the East Armory building of the former Colt Armory complex, where Colt's Manufacturing Company produced many of their classic firearms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the United Kingdom police firearm policy varies by constituent countries. In Northern Ireland, all police officers carry firearms whereas in the rest of the United Kingdom, firearms are carried only by specially-trained firearms officers.
In 2018, the Small Arms Survey reported that there are over one billion small arms distributed globally, of which 857 million are in civilian hands. The survey stated that USA civilians account for an estimated 393 million of the worldwide total of civilian held firearms, or about 120.5 firearms for every 100 American residents.
