What gives? Pistols vs Revolvers? A rant.

PT111 wrote:
For you folks with the military definitions do you wear shirts or blouses? I have never understood the difference other that I thought only ladies wore blouses.
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The uniform jacket worn by military personnel is referred to as a blouse. Also, the top worn by sailors is referred to as a blouse. Shirts are worn beneath blouses.
 
"If we can have so many terms to describe different vehicles, why is it so hard to have 2 terms to describe different types of handguns that work so differently."

We do.

Revolver.

Semi-automatic.

Both are pistols.

Or not.

Depending on how tragically anal retentive you are... :p
 
The strict meaning of 'pistol' is a one handed ... firearm wherein the chamber is integral with the barrel.

When was that strict definition set? I suspect it was after the fact to exclude what had once been known as revolving pistols.

There is a prominent web site with discussion fora (forums?), which divides handguns into two groups: revolvers, and pistols. For some reason, it classifies Derringers as revolvers.
 
"Strict" definitions mean to me one thing, and one thing only...

Dead or dying language.

The original pistols were muzzle loaders of 400 years ago.

Does that mean that breach loaders are not pistols because we're employing STRICT definitions?
 
stargazer65 said:
That's fitting Stevie-Ray, both are deadly.
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You're right, of course.;)
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Hmmm......maybe I should rethink this twirlies and sliders angle.:D
 
A rose by any other name...

I can't wait to get my Bangsticks back out to the range. I have long ones and short ones, i have scatterguns, sliders and twirlies, i even have 2 smokepoles. But don't call my twirlies wheelguns, else we'll have a problem.
 
If we're going to use incorrect descriptors, why stop there?

Calling a revolver a pistol is only slightly better than calling it a "Roscoe", "gat", "heater", "shooting iron", "piece", "glock", "9", etc.
 
ISC, with respect, calling a revolver a 'glock' is sooo far down, it's off the chart:eek:. Sadly, there are some that ignorant (and proud of it:rolleyes:).

It's like those who call any small airplane a "Piper Cub" or any helicopter a "Huey".:mad:
 
The term that irritates me is "handgun". Don't we hold all our guns in our hands, one way or another. Some say it is a gun you can shoot with one hand. I can shoot any gun I have with one hand. The recoil may be a little stout, but it can be done. Some shotguns have a forearm and pistol grip, so are they handguns?

I was in a gun shop last Saturday and my wife asked if they had any "clips" to fit my pistol. She knows that irritates me too. They are magazines, not clips. The only people I know who call them clips are uneducated about firearms and commonly write for the biased news media.
 
The term that irritates me is "handgun".
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So what one word do you suggest using that includes both pistols and revolvers (assuming you are one of those who believe the two "handgun" types are separate entities)?
 
Perhaps that is why I don't like Glocks?

The phrase 'shootin' polymer' just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?
 
The term pistol FAR predates autoloaders so I see no reason it should be limited to auto loaders.
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That's how Jeff Cooper saw it when he said that all revolvers were pistols, but not all pistols were revolvers.

Of course, what did he know?
 
DRSmith said:
When was that strict definition set? I suspect it was after the fact to exclude what had once been known as revolving pistols.
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That's a dictionary definition. If you want the origin of the term, look it up in an unabridged Oxford Dictionary.

"Pistol" is a term that predates the founding of our country and was in common use in the early 1700's. Of course, at that time, almost every firearm had it's barrel intergral with the powder chamber (being muzzle loaders).

Mike Irwin said:
"Strict" definitions mean to me one thing, and one thing only...

Dead or dying language.

The original pistols were muzzle loaders of 400 years ago.

Does that mean that breach loaders are not pistols because we're employing STRICT definitions?
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Words have meanings and sometimes those meanings change over the generations. But claiming "strict" definitions are a "dead or dying language" is like claiming the constitution is a "living document" that can be interpreted using "modern" rules of English construction rather than those in use in 1787.

Breech-loaders don't change the definition. A breech-loading pistol, such as the 1911, still have their chamber integrated with the barrel and thus, are pistols. Revolvers lack this feature since the chamber is not part of the barrel.

Derringers and single-shot handguns like the TC-Encore should be classed as "pistols" -- as would a breech loading single-shot dueling pistol.

The fact that the population misuses the language does not make it correct. Even the misuse of language eventually gets incorporated into a dictionary, but usually with the notation that it is slang or a corruption of the language. For example, "Chuck Norris is one bad dude" contains two slang uses -- "bad", meaning tough or "good" and "dude" meaning man or person instead of a fancy-dressed city dweller.
 
"Words have meanings and sometimes those meanings change over the generations."

REALLY?

Wow! I had NO idea!

OK, since we're going to play the "strict definition based on whatever dictionary I happened to pick up off my bookshelf game," let's take a look at the "strict" definitions that happen to be in two dictionaries that I have...

Pistol - a short firearm intended to be held and fired with one hand.

That's from the Random House Dictionary, 2009 edition, found at Dictionary.com.

The other one, from my American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition (which is also on line at Dictionary.com AND sitting on my desk as I type this...)

Pistol - A firearm designed to be held and fired with one hand.


Wha???? Wait! What the hell is going on! There's nothing in there about integral breech!

THE STRICT DEFINITION APPARENTLY ISN'T SO STRICT! OH MY GOD! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD! DICTIONARIES DISAGREE!!!!!!


Even more interesting is what we find when we look at American Heritage's definition for revolver...

Revolver - A pistol having a revolving cylinder with several cartridge chambers that may be fired in succession.

Not so clear anymore, is it?

The simple fact is that there is NO STANDARDIZED, UNIVERSAL DEFINITION in the English language for what constitutes a pistol simply because, unlike French, Icelandic, and some other languages, there is no official language board whose role is to set the "official" definition for words and how they are to be used inside the language and how those words are to be defined in the dictionary.

In other words, just because you THINK you know that you THINK you know doesn't mean jack.
 
The simple fact is that there is NO STANDARDIZED, UNIVERSAL DEFINITION in the English language for what constitutes a pistol simply because, unlike French, Icelandic, and some other languages, there is no official language board whose role is to set the "official" definition for words and how they are to be used inside the language and how those words are to be defined in the dictionary.

In other words, just because you THINK you know that you THINK you know doesn't mean jack.
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And then are we surprised that the United States produces the highest ratio of lawyers to populace in the world?
 
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