Posted on 06/16/2021 3:35:54 PM PDT by TexasGurl24
Gov. Greg Abbott has signed Texas’ “constitutional carry” legislation, allowing Texans over age 21 to openly carry handguns in public without a license as of Sept. 1.
(Excerpt) Read more at houstonchronicle.com ...
The LTC also allows you to purchase a gun much faster since you do not have to clear the NCIC database...
But then how would I know, I haven’t purchased a gun in years.
No! Do not ask me to put my hand on that Bible and raise the other.
God Bless Texas.
Key point you make, reciprocity and background check when purchasing is important in my case.....
Revolvers are a subset of pistols.
Revolvers are not a subset of “pistols”.
We all recognize that popular society will create its own dictionary, which anyone and everyone feels entitled to do. I am not a prescriptivist, only a descriptivist when it comes to these things. I am a language maven first of all, sorry I cannot help it. If you are like most people these definitions and uses of these terms come from popular media and “revolver” “pistol” and “gun” are all interchangeable terms. The Oxford definition agrees with you. Webster however draws the distinction. The ATF also but they don’t count. The batmen say that a pistol has a chamber as part of the barrel. British military definitely used “pistol” as hypernym and “revolver” as hyponym agreeing with you.
I offer these thoughts in hopes of any correction or contradiction:
In training as a US Marine you learn you must never call your rifle a “gun”. The purpose for this rule, (I’m guessing) is to humiliate you and have another reason to “punish” you and/or your platoon. Once however you have become a real marine, that same physical “punishment” is not a punishment anymore, because you can now do it easily, but your esprit de corps is now associated with using the right term. I am no Marine, Dad was 3rd Amph. Corps Signal Batt. 1944-5, I have flat feet, but I simply cannot bring myself to use the word “gun” to mean rifle or handgun. Guns are mounted on ships, or caissons. Likewise I can NOT bring myself to allow my sweet wife to call my shotgun a rifle. To her everything is a gun.
“But its a handgun so it is a gun!”
Perhaps, and your car tires are rubber circles, and mothers are birthing people. Why does it matter?
People who carefully use correct terminology are showing both intelligence and membership. When being corrected, it is possible to recognize an implied compliment, as if to say that you are one of us so say it the way we do, and you are thought to be smart enough and important enough to get it right. But who says what is right (especially as the dictionaries disagree)?
(Well yes, I do of course, thank you and I am happy to help.) :-)
“You don’t ‘fire’ a crossbow.”
-Some people think etymology is the way and they commit the etymological falacy. “Usage is king,” as we say.
-Some will say clarity is king, but that goes against the history of human language and is only even possible in English which has twice as many words as needed. Actually it is context that provides the clarity.
-Connotation versus denotation can help but only if you know what that is and your listener or reader knows it too.
-Insider lingo applies here but should not rule in the larger culture.
I offer humbly this suggestion: When the revolver appeared it was such a radical advancement that it could not be called a pistol because in a combat, it was six pistols!
The spanish cavalry surprised everyone one day when they charged. They rode toward the lines like usual but instead of crashing into the line with sabres drawn, at the last moment they all turned left, held up their pistols and fired a single shot. It was devastating.
There is a famous drawing of Blackbeard wearing five pistols. A man with two revolvers was the equivalent of ten or twelve cavalry! My GGGGrandfather was a teamster under Gen’l Wade Hampton. He was armed with a pistol, a Bowie, and a shotgun but no revolver. He considered the Bowie his main weapon because he was very very good with it. He would have loved to have a revolver but no money for that. In 1860 it was ridiculous to confuse the terms
because there was no comparison in terms of effectiveness.
Browning invented the autoloader and as inventor had the right to name his innovation. He used the word pistol, I don’t know why, fine with me. All the technological advancements since have not been so dramatic as to create a new term that captures the language and causes people to tell you that you are using the wrong word. In fact though it is debated ad nauseum, the semi-automatic pistol is just as powerful in a fight as any revolver, I would expect people today to see no need for the distinction, unless they begin to see the revolver as inadequate somehow. “Why you carrying a revolver? Why don’t you get a real gun?”
Here is how I explained it to Wifey, who now, sweet thing she is, the love of my life, tries to use the right words because she thinks it delights me, which it does because she thinks it does.
Arms- because they are an extension of my arm. If you are close enough I will open a hole in you and make your blood spill out. If you are too far away, then i will have to have a longer arm.
Firearms- use gunpowder includes everything. I do not need this word to be gun instead, but that is how all movies and TV shows do it. Why can’t we call TV shows movies?
Long Arms- includes rifles and shotguns.
Handguns- includes pistols, revolvers, and derringers.
Pistols- includes single-shot black powder pistols, 1911’s, and all other semi-automatic handguns any one of which can be called by manufacturer or calibre. Wifey has not gotten to this point yet, “Honey, you left your Sig under the seat of the car; would you please go get it?” She wants so badly to say gun, but she stops and thinks. She looks at it to see what it really is and remembers to call it a pistol. What a sweetheart and so cute and beautiful too!
Revolvers- My personal preference only because I am good with it.
Please correct me K. and congratulations Texas!
What’s the purpose of it being totally open? Just to make sure open carry is holstered?
I never had to wait for my 4473 beyond a few minutes. Generally enough time to go outside, have a smoke, come back, and it’s all done.
The only one I ever had to wait was a gun store that was particularly busy and it took them about 2 hours to call the feds. Someone didn’t show up for work that day and the two women were by themselves and it slowed everything down
Well you wouldn’t want a non white to have a concealed weapon, so nobody had one.
What I love about this law is that for the first time, any Black Texan can go about armed without a white man’s permission.
Of course the Democratic Party opposed the law!
Just received my constitutional carry handbook from U.S. law shield and this is how the law reads I guess.
A long discourse and you make some good points to be sure. I am, however, a traditionalist and will go with the older definition. Webster’s has become faddish bends whichever way the wind blows. I say that when the revolver came into widespread use it was called a pistol, evidenced by terms used in the common parlance such as “pistoleros” and “pistol fighters” to describe the man armed with a revolver.
Yes. So when do you begin to see people “correcting” this use of the word pistol and why do they think it matters? Any ideas you have will be interesting.
Was I too long? Sorry I know I am so pedantic. I don’t mean to be. Just send me away when I do that. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, although the horse never seems to mind...
Revolvers, semiautomatics, or a mussel loading percussion cap or flint-wheel- match-lock pistols are all, I believe, subsets of Sidearms.
Yes thank you!
Another correct word that wifey and I don’t happen to use is small arms. Do you ever personally use the term “sidearm” for your every day handgun? I really like the sound of that. Wifey might like it too, as she wants to say what she wants to say without thinking about it.
We also use “American express” as a code word. There was an ad campaign said “Don’t leave home without it.” “Honey you got your American Express?” The deeper meaning is something like I have some fear feeling right now but you are keeping me safe aren’t you?” I not only reassure her safety but will wink or hug her or do some affectionate gesture you get the idea.
Correct me, I would also include edged weapons under side arms. Yes?
How about you? Would you think that calling a revolver was an error no matter how minor?
There seems to be a huge amount of disinformation passed around on this thread. Here is some clarity:
Appreciate your informative post.
An edged weapon is a knife or ax.
But, that is just my opinion
It’s great to have a permit for reciprocity, but then again, there’s a record of that request too, which is a red flag that you have a gun.
At one time I was very adamant about the correct usage and not confusing revolvers and pistols. This was mostly due to pop culture and the populace in general degenerating into gross ignorance about what John Ross called “The Gun Culture”. This was about the time when the Fifth Column Media first began to demonize semiautos and the clip vs magazine distinction became important. I gradually relaxed when I found there historically wasn’t a distinction between pistols and revolvers. I still cringe sometimes if I see a fiction writer switching between the two terms for no good reason. I have to mention one of my top worst things in print or on the screen, the suppressed revolver! They make a S&W 629 sound like a lady passing gas. Haha!
Sorry, now I’m the one running on when I should be running along. It’s been good chatting with you though.
I’m going to keep an eye on this, come September 2022 I want to see the crime stats and I’m betting they will be way down. Of course the media will ignore it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.