Firearm
A firearm is any type of gun that shoots projectiles using high explosive pressure generated from combustion of chemical propellant, most often black powder in antique firearms and smokeless powder in modern firearms. Small arms is a subset of light firearms that is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term "firearm" is however variably defined in both technically and legally in different countries, and can be used colloquially to refer to any type of guns.
The first firearms originated in 10th-century Song dynasty China, when bamboo tubes containing gunpowder and pellet projectiles were mounted on spears to make the portable fire lance, which was operable by a single person and was later used effectively as a shock weapon in the siege of De'an in 1132. In the 13th century, fire lance barrels were replaced with metal tubes and transformed into the metal-barreled hand cannon, and the technology gradually spread throughout Eurasia during the 14th century. Older firearms typically used black powder as a propellant, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other explosive propellants. Most modern firearms have rifled barrels to impart a stabilizing spin to the bullet for improved external ballistics.
Modern firearms can be described by their caliber. For handguns and rifles this is given in millimeters or inches ; in the case of shotguns, gauge or bore. They are also described by the type of action employed, together with the usual means of deportment. Further classification may make reference to the type of barrel bore used and to the barrel length, to the firing mechanism, to the design's primary intended use, or to the commonly accepted name for a particular variation.
Shooters aim firearms at their targets with hand-eye coordination, using either iron sights or optical sights such as scope, red dot or holographic sights. The effective range of handguns and shotguns generally does not exceed, while most rifles are accurate to using iron sights, or to longer ranges whilst using optical sights. Purpose-built sniper rifles and anti-materiel rifles are accurate to ranges of more than.
Types
A firearm is a barreled weapon that inflicts damage on targets by launching one or more projectiles driven by rapidly expanding high-pressure gas produced by exothermic combustion of a chemical propellant, historically black powder, now smokeless powder.In the military, firearms are categorized into heavy and light weapons by their portability. Light firearms are those that can be readily carried by individual foot soldier, though they might require more than one individual to achieve optimal operational capacity. Heavy firearms are those that are too large and heavy to be transported on foot, or too unstable against recoil, and thus require the support of a weapons platform to be tactically mobile or useful.
The subset of light firearms that only use kinetic projectiles and are compact enough to be operated to full capacity by a single infantryman are also referred to as small arms. Such firearms include handguns such as pistols, revolvers, and derringers; and long guns such as rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and light machine guns.
Among the world's arms manufacturers, the top firearms manufacturers are Browning, Remington, Colt, Ruger, Smith & Wesson, Savage, Mossberg, Heckler & Koch, SIG Sauer, Walther, ČZUB, Glock, Steyr Arms, FN Herstal, Beretta, Norinco, Rostec, and Kalashnikov. Former top producers included the Springfield Armory, the Royal Small Arms Factory, Mauser, Steyr-Daimler-Puch, and Rock Island Armory under Armscor.
the Small Arms Survey reported that there were over one billion firearms distributed globally, of which 857 million were in civilian hands. U.S. civilians alone account for 393 million of the worldwide total of civilian-held firearms. This amounts to "120.5 firearms for every 100 residents". The world's armed forces control about 133 million of the global total of small arms, of which over 43 percent belong to two countries: the Russian Federation and China. Law enforcement agencies control about 23 million of the global total of small arms.
Handguns
A handgun is, as defined generally and in many gun laws, a firearm that can be used with a single hand. They are the smallest of all firearms, and are common as sidearms, concealed carry weapons, or as backup weapons for self-defense.Handguns can be categorized into two broad types: pistols, which have a single fixed firing chamber machined into the rear of the barrel, and are often loaded using magazines of varying capacities; revolvers, which have a number of firing chambers or "charge holes" in a revolving cylinder, each one loaded with a single cartridge or charge; and derringers, broadly defined as any handgun that is not a traditional pistol nor a revolver.
There are various types of the aforementioned handguns designed for different mechanisms or purposes, such as single-shot, manual repeating, semi-automatic, or automatic pistols; single-action, double-action, or double-action/single-action revolvers; and small, compact handguns for concealed carry such as pocket pistols and "Saturday night specials".
Examples of pistols include Glocks, Browning Hi-Power, M1911 pistol, Makarov pistol, Walther PP, Luger pistol, Mauser C96, and Beretta 92. Examples of revolvers include the Colt Single Action Army, Smith & Wesson Model 10, Colt Official Police, Colt Python, New Nambu M60, and Mateba Autorevolver. Examples of derringers include the Remington Model 95, FP-45 Liberator, and COP.357 Derringer.
Long guns
A long gun is any firearm with a notably long barrel, typically a length of . Unlike a handgun, long guns are designed to be held and fired with both hands, while braced against either the hip or the shoulder for better stability. The receiver and trigger group is mounted into a stock made of wood, plastic, metal, or composite material, which has sections that form a foregrip, rear grip, and optionally a shoulder mount called the butt. Early long arms, from the Renaissance up to the mid-19th century, were generally smoothbore firearms that fired one or more ball shot, called muskets or arquebuses depending on caliber and firing mechanism. Since the 19th and 20th centuries, various types of long guns have been created for different purposes.Rifles
A rifle is a long gun that has riflings machined into the bore surface of its barrel, imparting a gyroscopically stabilizing spin to the bullets that it fires. A descendant of the musket, rifles produce a single point of impact with each firing with a long range and high accuracy. For this reason, as well as for their ubiquity, rifles are very popular among militaries as service rifles, police as accurate long-range alternatives to their traditional shotgun long guns, and civilians for hunting, shooting sports, and self-defense.Many types of rifles exist owing to their wide adoption and versatility, ranging from mere barrel length differences as in short-barreled rifles and carbines, to classifications per the rifle's function and purpose as in semi-automatic rifles, automatic rifles and sniper rifles, to differences in the rifle's action as in single-shot, break-action, bolt-action, and lever-action rifles.
Examples of rifles of various types include the Henry rifle, Winchester rifle, Lee–Enfield, Gewehr 98, M1 Garand, MAS-36 rifle, AKM, Ruger 10/22, Heckler & Koch G3, Remington Model 700, and Heckler & Koch HK417.
Shotguns
A shotgun is a long gun that has a predominantly smoothbore barrel—meaning it lacks rifling—designed to fire a number of shot pellets in each discharge. These shot pellet sizes commonly range between 2 mm #9 birdshot and 8.4 mm #00 buckshot, and produce a cluster of impact points with considerably less range and accuracy, since shot spreads during flight. Shotguns are also capable of firing single solid projectiles called slugs, or specialty munitions such as bean bags or tear gas to function as a riot gun or breaching rounds to function as a door breaching shotgun. Shotgun munitions, regardless of type, are packed into shotgun shells that are loaded into the shotgun for use; these shells are commonly loose and manually loaded one-by-one, though some shotguns accept magazines.Shotguns share many qualities with rifles, such as both being descendants of early long guns such as the musket; both having single-shot, break-action, bolt-action, lever-action, pump-action, semi-automatic, and automatic variants; and both being popular with militaries, police, and civilians for largely the same reasons. However, unlike rifles, shotguns are less favored in combat roles due to their low accuracy and limited effectiveness in modern warfare, with combat shotguns often only used for breaching or close-quarters combat and sometimes limited to underbarrel attachments such as the M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System. Shotguns are still popular with civilians for the suitability of their shot spread in hunting, clay pigeon shooting, and home defense.
Double-barreled shotguns are break-action shotguns with two parallel barrels, allowing two single shots that can be loaded and fired in quick succession.
Examples of shotguns include the Winchester Model 1897, Browning Auto-5, Ithaca 37, Remington Model 870, Mossberg 500, Benelli M4, Franchi SPAS-12, Atchisson AA-12, and Knight's Armament Company Masterkey.
Carbines
A carbine is a long gun, usually a rifle, that has had its barrel shortened from its original length or is of a certain size smaller than standard rifles, but is still large enough to be considered a long gun. How considerable the difference is between a rifle and a carbine varies; for example, the standard Heckler & Koch G36's barrel has a length of 480 mm, the G36K carbine variant's barrel is 318 mm, and the G36C compact variant's barrel is 228 mm. Some carbines are also redesigned compared to their rifle counterparts, such as the aforementioned G36/G36K and G36C, or the AK-74 and AKS-74U. However, some carbines, such as the M1 carbine, are not a variant of any existing design and are their own firearm model. Carbines are regardless very similar to rifles and often have the same actions. This similarity has given carbines the alternate name of short barreled rifle, though this more accurately describes a full-size rifle with a shortened carbine-style barrel for close-quarters use.The small size of a carbine provides lighter weight and better maneuverability, making them ideal for close-quarters combat and storage in compact areas. This makes them popular firearms among special forces and police tactical units alongside submachine guns, considerably so since the late 1990s due to the familiarity and better stopping power of carbines compared to submachine guns. They are also popular with military personnel in roles that are expected to engage in combat, but where a full-size rifle would be an impediment to the primary duties of that soldier, though since the turn of the millennium these have been superseded to a degree in some roles by personal defense weapons. Carbines are also common among civilian firearm owners who have size, space, and power concerns similar to military and police users.
Examples of carbines include the Winchester Model 1892, Rifle No. 5 Mk I, SKS, M1 carbine, Ruger Mini-14, M4 carbine, and Kel-Tec SUB-2000.