Is a Revolver a Pistol?

Is a Revolver a Pistol?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 203 69.8%

  • No.

    Votes: 88 30.2%
  • Total voters
    291
  • Poll closed .
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question

"would anyone call a colt 1911 a revolver?"
No. That isn't the issue, though.

"consider "revolver" and "semi-automatic" as sub-classes of the family "pistol".

Kingdom: Mechanical devices
Phylum: Weapons
Class: Firearms
Order: Handgun
Family: Pistol
Genus: Revolver"

Love it.

Pete
 
A handgun is a general term meaning either other. Generally, a pistol refers to a semi auto, but I still feel that handgun and pistol are interchangable in their usage.
 
Of course a revolver is a pistol! Think about it: "revolver whipping" is kinda awkward!
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Online etymology says "pistol-whip" was first recorded in 1942. I thought the term had been employed earlier by Ned Buntline, or at least was contemporaneous with Buntline, but perhaps not.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pistol

It was never clear to me how etymologists could declare a "first recorded" with any degree of confidence. Oh well.

I guess part of why I bow up against the notion of allowing 18 U.S.C. chapter 44 to define "pistol" for us is that reliance on US Code, or ATF repeating US Code, is that those folks don't generally know what they're about.

If they picked it up from Army Ordnance it'd be different but if, like "assault weapon", they invented it from whole cloth it probably isn't in our best interests to accept it as authoritative.

Otherwise we'll start calling standard capacity autoloading handguns "machine guns" because the District defined them as such and we may eventually be calling everything that has a "shoulder thing that goes up" a "fully automatic assault weapon".

I'm going to look like a very repititious sort if these threads are merged.
;)
 
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Anyone else notice that when you read the word "pistol" over and over again, it starts to sound funny in your head....



Pistol. Pistol. Pistol....
 
It’s all semantics; however, what differentiates pistols from revolvers is the simple evolution of the Firearm. As previously stated not one of us would walk into a gun store and ask to look at revolves then say “No not that one, I want to see the other revolvers made by Glock.” My old Drill Instructor would have a cerebral hemorrhage if you called our .45’s a revolver; therefore, it holds true that revolvers are no longer pistols; a hundred plus years ago yes, but now, an empathic no.
 
It’s all semantics; however, what differentiates pistols from revolvers is the simple evolution of the Firearm. As previously stated not one of us would walk into a gun store and ask to look at revolves then say “No not that one, I want to see the other revolvers made by Glock.” My old Drill Instructor would have a cerebral hemorrhage if you called our .45’s a revolver; therefore, it holds true that revolvers are no longer pistols; a hundred plus years ago yes, but now, an empathic no.
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Bold mine.

You appear to be confusing calling a self-loader a revolver with calling a revolver a pistol.

The first is clearly incorrect. The second is not clearly incorrect.

There are plenty of conflicting sources regarding whether the term "pistol" includes "revolvers" this in only one such:
PISTOL
Synonymous with "handgun." A gun that is generally held in one hand. It may be of the single-shot, multi-barrel, repeating or semi-automatic variety and includes revolvers.
Click to expand...
http://www.nra-ila.org/Issues/FireArmsGlossary/Default.aspx

It's most definitely incorrect to call a Glock selfloader a revolver. That's not the question before the body however.
 
BillCA wrote:
Kingdom: Mechanical devices
Phylum: Weapons
Class: Firearms
Order: Handgun
Family: Pistol
Genus: Revolver

Pistol includes semi-automatic pistol, revolver, single-shot pistol (i.e. percussion pistols) Very (flare) Pistol, etc.
Click to expand...

What "genus" is a magazine-fed, semi-automatic pistol?
 
If calling a revolver a pistol is good enough for the NRA it is good enough for me. My 642 is a pocket pistol, and when I orderd new grips for it I ordered pistol grips.
 
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of Course it is... Pistols come in many types, Revolvers, Semi-auto, Single shot (Bolt or Break action). Pistol is a general term to govern them all.
 
Most revolvers are pistols....but not the revolving rifles and shotguns. I am amazed at the stupidity of people who try to negate history and common sense by perversely reversing usage into "Glock revolver" or similar references to try to deny that revolvers are pistols. Not all synonyms are synonymous with fellow synonyms. A mare IS a horse and a stallion is a horse but a mare isn't a stallion. (Except perhaps in San Francisco, by mayoral edict ,in which case I refuse to comply with such assinine abuse of verbage.)
 
BillCA wrote:

Kingdom: Mechanical devices
Phylum: Weapons
Class: Firearms
Order: Handgun
Family: Pistol
Genus: Revolver

Pistol includes semi-automatic pistol, revolver, single-shot pistol (i.e. percussion pistols) Very (flare) Pistol, etc.
Click to expand...
What "genus" is a magazine-fed, semi-automatic pistol?
Click to expand...
Pick your semantics...
* Self-loading
* Auto-loading
* Automatic
Any of these would differentiate the class of pistols we commonly call "autos" from revolvers. I excluded "semi-" automatic because there are machine pistols that could qualify as self/auto-loading guns.

Another "Genus" might be derringer, as it is neither an auto-loader nor a revolver.
 
Borchardt called his invention an automatic pistol. Why? He knew what a pistol was and his was an automatic one. Why'd he bother to throw in the modifier "automatic" if that was already implied? How could the word exist before his invention?
 
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