Pistol
From Freepedia
For the coin, see pistole
For the part of a flower, see pistil.
Image:Pistol Browning SFS.jpg Image:Pistolet-marine-19e-1.png A pistol or handgun is a usually small firearm that can be used with one hand. There are three commons types of pistols: single-shot pistols, revolvers, and automatic pistols. In the 15th century the term "pistol" was used for small knives and daggers which could be concealed in a person's clothing. By the 18th century the term came to be used exclusively to refer to small firearms, or additionally, and more recently, similar devices designed for the aimed discharge of projectiles by the force of gas pressure stored by means other than chemical ("air pistol"). Although all handguns are generally referred to as pistols, some restrict the term "pistol" to single-chamber handguns, such as semiautomatic or single-shot pistols, as opposed to multichambered revolvers or multibarreled derringers, and use handgun for the broader category.
The term may be derived from the French pistole (or pistolet), which, in turn, comes from the Czech píšťala (flute or pipe, referring to the shape of a Hussite firearm). Other suggestions have been made—that it comes from city of Pistoia, Italy, where perhaps a manufacturer was one Camillio Vettelli in the 1540s; or that early pistols were carried by cavalry in holsters hung from the pommel (or pistallo in medieval French) of a horse's saddle.
Pistols are used mainly by police officers, military personnel, civilians who want a compact self-defense weapon, or for shooting sports. Some specialized pistols are also used for hunting. Where available, semiautomatic pistols have become the weapon of choice for civilians, making them widely used outside of the police and military realms where they first became popular over the revolver.
For some military usage, the widespread introduction of body armor has rendered the pistol ineffective. Personal defense weapons are beginning to replace them in some situations.
Hunting pistols often have longer barrels than a typical police or military pistol, and are often equipped with telescopic sights. Consequently, they are generally less concealable and some cannot be carried in a holster.
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Varieties of pistol
Image:Pistolet-marine-19e-2.png Nowadays there are three main varieties of pistol: "automatic" self-loading pistols and revolvers being by far the two most common types, followed distantly by single-shot hunting or target pistols. In a pistol the "chamber," in which the cartridge is held for firing is the rearmost portion of the barrel. Thus the term "pistol" technically excludes revolvers, although this distinction is often ignored in colloquial usage, where revolvers are commonly referred to as "pistols."
Revolvers
Revolvers feed ammunition via the rotation of a cartridge-filled cylinder, in which each cartridge is contained in its own ignition chamber, and is sequentially brought into alignment with the weapon's barrel by a mechanism linked to the weapon's trigger (double-action) or its hammer (single-action). These nominally cylindrical chambers, usually numbering between five and nine depending on the size of the revolver and the size the cartridge being fired, are bored through the cylinder so that their axes are parallel to the cylinder's axis of rotation; thus, as the cylinder rotates, the chambers revolve about the cylinder's axis.
Semiautomatic pistols
"Automatic" pistols use the recoil or gas energy of each round to cycle the action, extract the spent case, and load the next cartridge. Automatic pistols are more accurately semiautomatic, in that each pull of the trigger fires a single bullet. There are a number of fully automatic pistols such as the Glock 18 and later models of the Mauser C96, but these generally available only to military or law enforcement personnel.
Semiautomatics may be either hammer or striker fired, and generally operate as double/single action, though some of the latest handguns now offer various trigger models, including double-action only or a partially pre-cocked striker.
Stopping Power
Ballistics and elementary physics easily show that small arms have no "stopping power" in terms of knocking someone back from its recoil. If it did, the recoil would break the shooter's wrists. Standing enemies logically fall when any weapon takes away their strength to stand.
One of the great myths about handguns is that they have true "stopping power." Handguns are comparatively anemic weapons due to the velocity of the bullets which cause low velocity wounding. Stopping power is the quality in a handgun projectile that forces a violent attacker to cease aggressive momentum when hit.
Advantages of Pistols
Pistols are smaller, lighter, faster to bring to bear, and sometimes have more safety features than other firearms. Being an emergency self-defense weapon for use under 10 meters, the effectiveness of the weapon is not comparable to the accuracy or firepower of long guns.
Pistols and gun control
Smaller pistols can also be easily concealed on a person—a trait that is particularly useful to people wishing to carry a handgun for self-protection or for those planning on committing crimes. Larger handguns, including many hunting pistols, are often much longer and thus less concealable. For these reasons, handguns are a particular focus of gun control advocates, and in many jurisdictions their ownership is much more heavily regulated than long arms.
Opponents of gun control sometimes argue that wide legal ownership of pistols, including the right to carry them concealed, actually deters crime rather than increases it. They also argue that gun crimes are a small minority of all violent crimes.
See the main gun control article for more details on this debate.
Other related info
In the 1780s, Alessandro Volta built a toy electric pistol ([1]) in which an electric spark caused the explosion of a mixture of air and hydrogen, firing a cork from the end of the gun.
See also
A pistol is also the mechanical components of a fuse in a bomb or torpedo responsible for firing the detonator.
