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The term gun is often used as a synonym, but technically only refers to smoothbore firearms, machine guns, and naval artillery. In other terms, a rifle is not a gun.
For handguns, long guns and historical cannon the projectile is a bullet or cannonball, fired by the burning of the propellant, but it does not generally contain explosives itself. For modern artillery the projectile is a shell, containing explosives.
Technically speaking, the projectile is the weapon and the firearm is the weapon platform. In some cases the firearm can be used as a weapon without firing a projectile, although this is generally a secondary method of attack. For example, long guns such as rifles, muskets, and assault rifles can have bayonets fixed to them, becoming in effect a spear or pike. The stock of a long gun can be used as a club. It is also possible to strike someone with the barrel of a handgun or grasp it by the barrel and strike someone with the butt. This is called "pistol whipping".
There are two basic categories of firearms: artillery and small armsThe term small arms describes any weapon that a person can easily transport and fire. It describes personal weapons such as pistols, rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, mortars and machine guns. Small arms find a variety of uses including police and mili. Small arms are generally smaller man-portable firearms, while artillery are larger firearms. Strictly speaking, not all small arms are weapons, but it is the most convenient category under which to group firearms other than artillery.
The smallest of all small arms is the handgunA handgun is a firearm small enough to be carried and used in one hand. While a two-handed aiming posture may be optimum for most firearms, including handguns, if the gun is not designed to be usable in a single hand, it is not a handgun. The two main des. Handguns with a fixed firing chamber are pistol45 Automatic A pistol is a usually small, hand held, projectile weapon, meant for personal use (used by one person) in short-range action. In the 15th century the term was used for small knives and daggers which could be concealed in a person's clothing.s. A common handgun design that lacks a fixed firing chamber is the revolverRevolver is also a rock-and-roll album by The Beatles. In the alkali industry in England in the 19th century, a revolver was a big rotating heated reaction chamber. LeMat 9-shot Revolver A revolver is a multishot firearm, usually a handgun, in which the r, which holds a number of firing chambers in a revolving cylinder.
Pistols are often single-shot, but can also be capable of holding multiple rounds. Most pistols that hold multiple rounds are semi-automaticA semi-automatic handgun is one which fires a single round every time that the trigger is pulled until its ammunition is exhausted. It is often used to refer to semi-automatic pistols but the term could arguably include revolvers although this is the subj.
A derringerA Philadelphia Deringer is a small percussion handgun designed by Henry Deringer (1786-1868) and produced from 1852 through 1968. A popular handgun of the era, this design was widely copied by competitors, sometimes down to the markings. Over time, the mi is a short barreled handgun, with one or two barrels, that must be manually reloaded after being fired. Duelling pistols exist, as do fully automatic machine pistolA machine pistol shares several properties of the semi-automatic handgun and the sub-machine gun. Machine pistols are ordinarily magazine-fed and self-cocking. Such a pistol is designed to be held and used in a single hand but almost always requires the us. However, the distinction between a machine pistol and a submachine gun is often blurred.
Handguns have a variety of purposes. Handguns are small and concealable, and are thus the first choice for personal protection. In the military, handguns are usually used by those who don't need larger firearms such as general and staff officers, and also by those for whom there is no room for a full-sized rifle, such as armored vehicle and air crews. In this role, they often compete with the carbine. Outside the military world, handguns are the usual armament for police (in those jurisdictions where the police are usually armed) and, where legal, for private citizens while in public. Private citizens who go about in public armed usually carry concealed handguns, since an unconcealed weapon would attract undue attention and would be less secure. The number of states which permit concealed carry has grown to over 35 recently, and several states have well over 100,000 permit-holders. The concept of citizens carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense is considered a political issue; see gun politics for more information.
Handguns are also used for various hunting and sporting purposes.