Handgun is a firearm that can be operated with one hand. Other types of guns, such as rifles and machine guns, require both hands. Many also need a support, such as a tripod (three-legged stand) or a shooting rest.
Handguns are carried primarily by the police and by the armed forces. But in the United States, private citizens own about 100 million handguns. About 1 million are owned by private citizens in Canada. Some citizens use handguns for target shooting, hunting, or protection. Others collect antique or classic handguns. Unfortunately, thousands of handgun-related deaths occur in the United States, Canada, and many other countries each year. These deaths include suicides, homicides, self-defense killings, and accidents.
Parts of a handgun
Handguns vary in appearance, size, type of ammunition used, and method of operation. But they all include the same basic parts. These parts are the frame, the grip, the barrel, the sights, and the action.
The frame is the main body of the gun that connects the other parts. The grip is the handle of the gun. The barrel is the metal tube through which the bullet is fired. The lands and rifling (grooves) are alternating raised surfaces and channels inside the barrel. They cause the bullet to spin and thus make it travel in a direct path.
The shooter uses the sights to line up the handgun with the target. Some sights can be adjusted to help aim the gun more easily. All handguns made for target shooting have adjustable sights.
The action includes the main working parts of the handgun. It consists of such parts as the trigger, the hammer, and the cartridge chamber. The type of action determines how the handgun is loaded and fired. The action of every handgun includes a safety, a mechanism that prevents the gun from being fired unintentionally. The safety ensures that the gun fires when the shooter squeezes the trigger, but not, for example, when the gun is dropped to the ground.
Types of handguns
There are five main types of handguns. They are single-action revolvers, double-action revolvers, single-action semiautomatic pistols, double-action semiautomatic pistols, and single-shot pistols. Revolvers carry ammunition in chambers in a rotating cylinder. Most pistols are loaded with a magazine containing the ammunition. The magazine is a metal holder inserted in the gun’s butt (thicker end).
Single-action revolvers
typically hold six cartridges. An arm near the hammer rotates the cylinder one-sixth of a turn when the hammer is cocked. This movement puts a cartridge into line with the barrel and the firing pin. The firing pin is the part that strikes the primer to fire the cartridge. After cocking the hammer, the shooter pulls the trigger. The hammer unlocks and falls, exploding the cartridge. The Colt single-action Army revolver is the most famous firearm of this type. It was first produced in the 1870’s.
Double-action revolvers,
like single-action revolvers, typically hold six cartridges. But, unlike single-action revolvers, double-action revolvers do not require the user to cock the hammer before firing. Instead, the gun is fired by only pulling the trigger. When the trigger is pulled, a lock that holds the cylinder in place is released. The trigger pull revolves the cylinder and cocks the hammer. When the next chamber is lined up with the barrel, the cylinder locking bolt is raised into the locking notch, securing the cylinder. The hammer then falls and fires the cartridge. The cycle is repeated for the next shot.
The main advantage of the double-action revolver over the single-action revolver is that it can be fired rapidly. The Smith & Wesson military and police revolver is one of the most popular double-action revolvers. This firearm was introduced in 1905.
Single-action semiautomatic pistols
are fired by first pulling back a device called a slide to cock the hammer or the firing pin. The firing pin is sometimes called a striker. When the slide is released, it moves forward and feeds a round from the clip into the cartridge chamber. When the shooter pulls the trigger, the hammer falls or the striker is released. The hammer or striker hits the primer and explodes the gunpowder in the cartridge. The explosion causes the slide to move backward. This recoil automatically ejects the empty cartridge and recocks the gun. When the slide moves forward again, it reloads the chamber. The most famous single-action semiautomatic is the Colt .45 automatic pistol. It served as the standard sidearm of the U.S. armed forces from 1911 until 1985.
Double-action semiautomatic pistols
operate somewhat like double-action revolvers. When the trigger is pulled, the hammer goes through the firing cycle and fires the cartridge. After the initial shot, the pistol begins to operate like a single-action semiautomatic pistol. The recoil of the first shot forces out the empty cartridge case. It also cocks the hammer and inserts a new cartridge from the clip into the cartridge chamber. Double-action semiautomatics are widely used by sports enthusiasts and police officers. In 1985, the 9-millimeter Beretta, a double-action semiautomatic pistol, became the standard sidearm of the U.S. armed forces. Other popular models include the Smith & Wesson Model 39 and the Walther PPK.
Single-shot pistols
are used chiefly in international target-shooting competitions. To load a single-shot pistol, the user moves a part called the operating lever forward and down. The lever’s action lowers the breech block and cocks the firing pin. The breech block closes the breech of the gun—that is, the part behind the barrel. After the breech block has been lowered, the cartridge chamber is exposed. The user then inserts a cartridge into the chamber. Next, the operating lever is pulled up and back. That action closes the chamber and moves the cartridge into the closed position. The pistol is then ready to fire. When the trigger is pulled, the firing pin drops, exploding the cartridge. The procedure is then repeated to remove the cartridge and reload the pistol. Famous single-shot pistols include the Hammerli Free Pistol, the Walther, and the Martini.
History
Early handguns.
Probably as early as the 1100’s, the Chinese used a type of handgun that resembled a cannon. The first gun operated with one hand was the matchlock gun. The matchlock appeared in the 1400’s. It was fired by attaching a burning cord or match to an S-shaped holder called a serpentine. In the early 1500’s, the wheel-lock gun was invented. Its metal wheel struck a spark when it revolved against a piece of pyrite. With the wheel lock, soldiers no longer had to carry flames to ignite the gunpowder.
During the mid-1500’s, snaphance pistols came into widespread use. Like the wheel lock, the snaphance created its own spark. But the snaphance was easier to operate than the wheel lock. . In the 1600’s and 1700’s, many kinds of gunlocks were developed, including the flintlock (see Flintlock ).
In 1807, Alexander Forsyth, a Scottish inventor, introduced the percussion system. Percussion-system pistols were loaded from the muzzle. The pistols had a sliding can of priming powder on the breech. Small handguns called derringers are descended from percussion-system pistols. But derringers are breech loaded rather than muzzle loaded. They are named for Henry Deringer, Jr., a U.S. pistol maker of the 1800’s.
Rapid-fire handguns.
One of the first practical revolvers was the Colt Paterson. Samuel Colt, a U.S. inventor, patented the revolver in England in 1835. In 1857, the U.S. inventors Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson began producing revolvers that used cartridges.
The Borchardt, the first self-loading semiautomatic pistol, appeared in 1893. It had an eight-cartridge clip placed in the hollow of the grip. George Luger, an Austrian-born inventor, improved the Borchardt in the early 1900’s. In 1897, John M. Browning, a U.S. inventor, patented an automatic pistol. Browning’s pistol became the basis for later automatics, including the Colt .45.
