Guns Are Back in the News: Here's a Handy Guide

EDITOR & PUBLISHER ^ | May 14, 2007 | Chuck Klein

[Fido969]

Does a pistol necessarily contain exactly one barrel? No.

[supercat]

There might be some sinister reason for the FBI/ATF in defining a pistol separate from a revolver.

Certainly the distinction would seem important from the standpoint of defining things like barrel length. For a typical revolver, the barrel length only includes the portion forward of the bullet's starting position; for a semi-automatic, I think it extends back to the closed breach face.

I would guess that a pepperbox revolver would be considered a "pistol" by the BATF, but I'm not sure.

[Fido969]

The problem is when they try to define guns and “any other” firearm - like cane guns, cellphone guns, bullet-shooting brassieres, etc, they need to know what class those weapons would fall into, hence the tricky definitions.

For example a bullet-shooting brassiere might be an “any other weapon” and require registration and treatment as a Class III item and might require the transfer tax.

[Hugin]

a pistol is is a handgun that is not a revolver.

I don't know who came up with this stupid a$$ definition, but people need to quit repeating it. It is stupid!

IIRC I believe it started back around WWII when army manual writers decided to use the term "pistols and revolvers" to differentiate the two in simple terms for recruits. Since so many firearms experts came from the military, they insisted that using the term pistol to describe a revolver was incorrect. Historically as well as in common non-military usage though, a revolver is just another design of pistol, along with single shot, self-loading and even bolt-action.

[Myrddin]

A 458 Magnum is a popular round? I’ve never seen one in person.

I had the opportunity to shoot an LAR Grizzly 45 Winchester Magnum pistol. It is a 1911 style pistol. The backstrap was diamond stippled on the one I fired. After 10 rounds, my palm was diamond stippled too. It wasn't as stout as the Ruger .454 Casull with a 300 gr Hornady at 1500 fps, but it was quite a handful. LAR has sold the total production.

[Nailbiter]

later

[Hazcat]

That’s not the official definition anymore.

I must be gettin old. I've out lived a definition! :)

[GOP_Thug_Mom]

you just made my boys laugh, but they thought it was real! lol!!!!

[caver]

You’ll defintely shoot your eye out with that one!

[absolootezer0]

if it makes you feel better, i don’t have 13 of them.

but then, i don’t like the “popular” calibres.

[1066AD]

http://www.gunfacts.info/