Firearm
Firearm
A firearm (/ˈfaɪərɑːrm/; from Old English fyr, "fire", and arma, "weapon") is a portable device designed to project force by discharging projectiles driven by rapidly expanding high-pressure gas produced by chemical reactions within a confined space.
Etymology
The term firearm comes from the 14th century English words fyre (fire) and arme (weapon). The word was used to differentiate these weapons from older weapons that used mechanical techniques to project missiles, such as the crossbow and catapult.
Types of Firearms
Firearms can be classified into three broad types: handgun, rifle, and shotgun.
- Handguns are small, short-barreled firearms designed for handheld use. They include revolvers and pistols.
- Rifles are long-barreled firearms designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall.
- Shotguns are a type of firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug.
Related Terms
- Ammunition: The material fired, scattered, dropped or detonated from any weapon, as bombs or rockets, and especially shot, shrapnel, bullets, or shells fired by guns.
- Ballistics: The science or study of the motion of projectiles, as bullets, shells, or bombs.
- Muzzle Velocity: The speed of a projectile with respect to the firearm at the moment it leaves the end of the firearm's barrel.
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on Firearm
- Wikipedia's article - Firearm
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