A submachine gun, abbreviated SMG, is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an automatic firearm with notably less firepower than a machine gun. As a machine gun must fire rifle cartridges to be classified as such, submachine guns are not considered machine guns.
The Pistole Parabellum—or Parabellum-Pistole, commonly known as just Luger or Luger P08—is a toggle-locked recoil-operated semi-automatic pistol. The Luger was produced in several models and by several nations from 1898 to 1948.
The Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, semi-automatic handgun available in the 9mm and .40 S&W calibers. It was based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at Fabrique Nationale (FN) of Herstal, Belgium. Browning died in 1926, several years before the design was finalized. FN Herstal initially named the design the "High Power", which alludes to the 13-round magazine capacity, almost twice that of other designs at the time, such as the Luger or Colt M1911.
The M1911, also known as the Colt 1911, or the Colt Government, is a single-action, semi-automatic, magazine-fed, recoil-operated pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The pistol's formal designation as of 1940 was Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911 for the original model of 1911 or Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911A1 for the M1911A1, which was adopted in 1924. The designation changed to Pistol, Caliber .45, Automatic, M1911A1 in the Vietnam War era.
Fabrique Nationale Herstal, self-identified as FN Herstal and often referred to as Fabrique Nationale or simply FN, is a leading firearms manufacturer located in Herstal, Belgium, owned by the holding company Herstal Group which is in turn owned by the regional government of Wallonia. It is currently the largest exporter of military small arms in Europe.
The Browning Automatic Rifle 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 semi-automatic pistol is a type of repeating single-chamber handgun (pistol) that automatically cycles its action to insert the subsequent cartridge into the chamber (self-loading), but requires manual actuation of the trigger to actually discharge the following shot. As a result, only one round of ammunition is fired each time the trigger is pulled, as the pistol's fire control group disconnects the trigger mechanism from the firing pin/striker until the trigger has been released and reset.
The Beretta 92 is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. The Beretta 92 was designed in 1975, and production began in 1976. Many variants in several different calibers continue to be used to the present.
The Beretta Model 1934 is a compact, semi-automatic pistol which was issued as a standard service firearm to the Italian armed forces beginning in 1934. It is chambered for the 9 mm Corto, more commonly known as the .380 ACP.
The Makarov pistol or PM is a Soviet semi-automatic pistol. Under the project leadership of Nikolay Fyodorovich Makarov, it became the Soviet Union's standard military and police side arm in 1951.
The Walther PP series pistols are blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols, developed by the German arms manufacturer Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen.
The FN Five-seveN is a semi-automatic pistol designed and manufactured by FN Herstal in Belgium. The pistol is named for its 5.7×28mm (.224 in) bullet diameter, and the trademark capitalization style is intended to emphasize the manufacturer's initials—FN.
The Walther P38 is a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol that was developed by Carl Walther GmbH as the service pistol of the Wehrmacht at the beginning of World War II. It was intended to replace the costly Luger P08, the production of which was scheduled to end in 1942.
The FN Browning M1900 is a single action, semi-automatic pistol designed c. 1896 by John Browning for Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FN) and produced in Belgium at the turn of the century. It was the first production handgun to use a slide.
The FN Model 1910 is a blowback-operated, semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and manufactured by Fabrique Nationale of Belgium.
The Colt Model 1900 is a short-recoil operated "self-loading", or semi-automatic .38 caliber handgun introduced by Colt's Manufacturing Company at the turn of the 20th century. It also marked the introduction of .38 ACP, the round for which it is chambered, and was the first handgun to utilize short-recoil operation.
The FN Model 1903, or Browning No.2 is a self-loading semi-automatic pistol engineered by John Browning and made by Belgian arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale (FN). It was introduced in 1903 and fired the 9×20mmSR Browning Long cartridge. It should not be confused with the US-made Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless, nor with the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer. The FN Model 1903 is based on the same mechanical design as the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless, which Browning sold to both companies, but enlarged to handle the more powerful 9mm Browning Long cartridge. Due to its reliability, accuracy, light weight, and quick reloading, the M1903 was an issued sidearm for many police forces and militaries. The pistol was initially introduced by FN as the Browning Modèle de Guerre or Browning Grand Modèle.
The Ballester–Molina is a pistol designed and built by the Argentine company Hispano Argentina Fábrica de Automóviles SA (HAFDASA). From 1938 to 1940 it bore the name Ballester–Rigaud.
A handgun is a short-barrelled firearm that can be held and used with one hand. The two most common handgun sub-types in use today are revolvers and semi-automatic pistols, although other handgun-types such as derringers and machine pistols also see infrequent usage.
The Dreyse Model 1907 is a semi-automatic pistol designed by Louis Schmeisser. The gun was named after Nikolaus von Dreyse, the designer of the Dreyse Needle Gun. The Waffenfabrik von Dreyse company was acquired by Rheinische Metallwaren & Maschinenfabrik Sömmerda in 1901, although the Dreyse Model pistols were marketed under the Dreyse name.
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