Why Knowing Gun Terminologies Is Important
Guns being firearms are rarely talked about, perhaps because of the underlying fear associated with firearms. As a result, certain terminologies have been interchanged because of ignorance. The firearm industry is guarded by heavy legislations worldwide, making it the most protected besides the economy. A country’s treasury and security are the main areas that remain vulnerable to foreign attacks. Terrorist groups usually target those two areas to bring any country to its knees. Firearms are not commonly discussed in ordinary homes or schools, and any information about it remains scanty. Therefore, some terminologies related to guns are often interchanged due to public ignorance.
The magazine and clip are some words commonly used interchangeably by people when they mean different things. These errors are often committed naively since most shooters take time to learn how to use it without a particular interest in defining the firearm. Magazines and clips are not the only words innocently misused by many users who unknowingly misplace them. There are more serious misused words which can change public perception and expose them to danger. Terms like “Semi-automatic Carbine” being referred to as “Assault Rifle” can imply a completely different meaning to the shooter. In defensive attacks, any reference to the enemy’s weapons wrongly can cause an army to prepare inappropriately for an offensive.
If the enemy had automatic machine guns while the information available within the intelligence indicated they had rifles, the attacking side can prepare poorly and be exposed to defeat. Terminologies in firearms should be accurate, but some do so with malicious intent. The rectangular device that holds your cartridges before sliding it into the bottom of your pistol is not a clip but a magazine. The work of a magazine is to hold shells tightly under spring pressure in readiness for feeding into the firearm’s chamber. Some magazines are fixed to the firearm while others are removable.
While magazines feed shells to the chamber clips feed the magazine with shells. The sequence is in the order of clip feeding the magazine and in turn the chambers. A cartridge clip doesn’t possess a spring to load the cartridge directly into the chambers for firing. The magazine does that after receiving the shells from the clips. These two parts perform completely two different functions, although they are easily confused. They simply form a relay of events, one leading to the other before discharging a cartridge. Their functions are distinct, defined by their unique shapes which don’t look alike either.
The other terminologies often misused include bullets, cartridges and calibre. Why people with enough experience in guns would interchange such prominent words is hard to tell, but it happens every often. It isn’t once that a shooter walked into a gun-store and ordered for bullets when he actually meant cartridges. These words are confusing but mean completely different things. A bullet is a projectile that exits the barrel once you fire a shot, mostly made of lead, copper or any other material. A calibre is a bullet’s numerical approximation of its diameter measured in millimetres. A bullet is a mere compound of the cartridge, sealed in the cartridge case.
Using them interchangeably can cause confusion among shooters, especially when attempting to order new rounds of their ammunition. Guns are dangerous if mishandled, so any information regarding their use or parts should be accurate. In essence, correct terminologies can save an army during offensives or destroy an entire battalion if intelligence information available is inaccurate. It isn’t appropriate that shooters should be naive about their firearms since it can be harmful. Most of these case arise out of mere ignorance by shooters as well as newsagents who carry out investigations for media houses without carefully identifying the type of weapons used. Journalists are major culprits in misinformation about guns and gun-parts, which should be since they are an important segment.
Magazines are as different from clips as the east is from the west, which is why proper care should be taken in defining what guns are. Every part has a distinct function and takes a shape that corresponds to its position in your gun. Even though they do work in unison, it is because of their mechanical alignment, designed to work as a unit. Learning gun-handling is essential in understanding its processes and how each part works to execute the intended function.