A pistol or handgun is a usually small firearm that can be used with one hand. There are three common types of pistols: single-shot pistols, revolvers, and semi-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, or civilians who want a compact defensive 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 most pistols 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.
Varieties of pistol
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.
Automatic 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. While the term automatic pistol is correctly applied to a semi-automatic pistol, the term automatic rifle almost always refers to a rifle capable of fully automatic fire. Due to the confusion this inconsistent naming convention causes, the term semi-automatic or self loading is becoming more common, to prevent confustion with machine pistols, which are pistols capable of fully automatic or burst mode fire.
Automatic pistols may be hammer, firing pin, or striker fired. Hunting and target pistols are generally single action, while defensive and military handguns made since World War II are generally double action for the first shot, single action for the rest. Some of the latest handguns now offer various trigger modes, including double-action-only or a partially pre-cocked striker or hammer, and some even offer the option of changing the mode of operation with the turn of a switch.
Machine pistols
A machine pistol is generally defined as a firearm designed to be fired with one hand, and capable of fully automatic or selective fire. While there are a number of machine pistols such as the GLOCK 18 and later models of the Mauser C96, these are rare; the light weight and small size of a machine pistol make them difficult to control, making the the larger, heavier submachine gun a better choice in cases where the small size of a machine pistol is required. Most machine pistols have the ability to attach a shoulder stock (the Heckler & Koch VP70 would only fire single rounds unless the stock was attached) while others, such as the Beretta 93R, add a foreward handgrip. Either of these additions technically create a legal non-pistol under the US National Firearms Act, as pistols are by definition designed to be fired with one hand. The addtion of a stock or forward handgrip are considered design changes that create either a short barreled rifle or an any other weapon, and therefore such additions are generally only found on legal machine guns.
Stopping Power
So-called "stopping power" is the reputed quality in a handgun projectile that forces a violent attacker to cease aggressive momentum when hit.
Police and military experience, together with ballistics information show that such a concept is too simplistic. In reality, the ability to truly stop a violent attacker varies with a number of factors, not simply the ballistics characteristics of the particular round under discussion. These factors include:
- Bullet placement
- Distance between the shooter and the assailant
- Strength of the assailant, including whether drugs or alcohol are influencing the assailant's behavior and physical strength
- Mental or emotional strength of the assailant. A soldier for example, may have a level of commitment that is not easily stopped.
Unfortunately, many people are influenced by television or movies where assailants are not only stopped by a single shot, but are propelled backward and immediately taken out of the action. Yet in real life, police can cite many examples where an aggressive person had to be shot 4, 5, or 6 times simply to stop their pursuit.
For these reasons, police and military personnel (as well as licensed individuals carrying pistols for personal protection) try to maximize as best they can the combination of factors for stopping an assailant effectively. They may:
- Train to place their shots well, even during movement
- Use calibers and loadings that increase the ballistics coefficients within their limits of good recoil control
- Train under realistic conditions (and learn from the experience of others) so that once the decision is made to use their weapon, they will indeed stop the individual, even if this means using multiple rounds and even reloading.
Advantages of Pistols
Pistols are smaller, lighter, easier to conceal, 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 argue that gun crimes are a small minority of all violent crimes, and cite the paradox that jurisdictions with the strongest gun control laws often have the highest rates of violent gun-related crime.
It is worth noting that in the United States, over 37 states allow concealed carry by citizens meeting training or other requirements.
See the main gun control article or the article on concealed carry in particular 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.