h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Guns - A Brief Summary of Terms - A7207058
Author: Erik_Nelson - U1552428

Yes, I know this is a horribly formatted, roughshod piece of work. If you have some advice for how to make it more aesthetically appealing, I'd appreciate it. That aside, if there's anything else that you've ever wondered about firearms that should go in here, please, let me know and I'll look it up. In the meantime, someone check over some of my definitions, please. It was very late when I finished this and I'm almost certain I got something wrong. It's a general guide, so don't get nitpicky about exceptions to the rules.

Spelling/Grammar/Syntax Error

Muzzle Brake
A muzzle brake is designed (to to) control both the light flash of a discharged round and the direction of the gasses exiting the barrel.

1 is sufficient.

Other than that, it's a good entry.

Interesting! This is very good, and well explained.

In terms of aesthetics I wouldn't worry too much as the gML will get tidied in the editing process. You can remove the Intro title as edited entries don't use them.


If you wanted to break up the last section then 'Pieces and Parts' could be separated into two - pieces, and actions.


"harquebus" needs an explanation or footnote.


Does magazine need an explanation also?


Can you include something about shotguns?


Is 'rifling' how they can tell forensically if a bullet came from a certain gun?


You seem focussed on use of guns against humans. Was that intentional? Where I live most people would have contact with guns in a recreational context (hunting), if at all.

(Otherwise it's what's on TV and I must admit your entry is useful in that sense too).

I'd like to know how a footnote is added

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/GuideML-FOOTNOTE

Thanx

I found this Entry interesting and informative Erik (what I know about guns you could write on the back of a postage stamp )

I think the introduction paragraph could be a bit more balanced. Although guns may have originally been designed to kill other humans they are often used in sport such as clay pigeon shooting. ( only one I can think of off-hand at 1.30am)

As you missed out many of the older types of guns; such as the Baker Rifle, it may be an idea to change the Header 'Types of Firearms' to 'Modern Types of Firearms'

>"Sub-Machine Guns" Subheader - Could you put (SMG) at the end of the Subheader.

Hope you don't mind if I give you a crash course in suitable GuideML. Although it's not that important, IMO if you use the correct GuideML when you submit an Entry to Peer Review (which I'm assuming that is where you intend this Entry to go) then any comments will be focused on the content of the Entry and not on the GuideML.

Please remove the Header "Into" as your title serves as your first Header.

Please remove all s

All paragraphs should have a at the beginning and a at the end of the paragraph. Subheaders don't need a

>"Pieces and Parts" I think this section would look good in 'Buttet Points' if you'd like to do them that way I (or someone else) can advice you how.


Emmily

You mean 'bullet points', I take it, Emmily?

Yes, I meant 'bullet points' what did I put?

* back to look*

'buttet points'! my brain must've been at the end of the word, while my fingers were still in the middle.

for noticing that EMR

Emmily

Thanks for the advice. I went ahead and implemented a good chunk of them, though the formatting stuff I'm too tired to deal with tonight. I'm sticking with the 'guns are for killing' shtick because frankly, that's what they're designed for. Not to sound all wigged out, but it's true. Just because we like to watch cars go real fast around a circular track doesn't undercut the fact that they're still essentially getting us from point A to point B faster than walking.

I added in something about shotguns, too.

"Pistols are either 'automatics' (chamber-fed by a magazine) or a 'revolver'
(rounds pre-chambered in a rotating cylinder)"

The term is "semi-automatic" pistol in order to separate them from truly automatic pistols. And there are single-shot pistols. A cylinder strictly speaking is a form of magazine.
Semi-automatic pistols use what is called a "detachable magazine". Early percussion or cap and ball revolvers used
the cylinders as detachable magazines.


"fire less powerful and less accurate rounds"

Pistol rounds like the .40 S&W, .44 Magnum and the .357 Magnum, when fired in longer barrels, such as those found on semi-automatic or lever action carbines
are as equally accurate as some rifle rounds. The .22 long rifle cartridge is fired in
both pistols and rifles.

"Machine Pistols"
is an antiquated term. Submachine gun is the English term. It describes in modern
times a carbine style weapon firing pistol type ammunition. Fully automatic versions of semi-
automatic pistols are anamolies in the firearms world. They are hard to control,
even with a three shot burst facility and rarely encountered outside of movies
and elite police agencies who have no problem with "pray and spray".
The UZI has been phased out by most forces outside of Israel and the MAC 10 was
always more popular in movies than it was with the police and military. The SAS called
them "phone booth guns" because of their supreme inaccuracy.

"Assault Rifles"
Um. No. The mother of all modern "assault rifles" is the AK-47. Assault rifles are simply
described as a weapon capable of selective fire with a large capacity detachable magazine
and firing a cartridge that is either shorter or of lesser caliber than a main battle rifle.
Good examples of the "assault rifle" are the M16, the AK-74, and the Galil.



"Bridging the gap between assault rifles and machine pistols, SMGs are a hybrid of the two."
Um, sorry. No.

"They are very popular among military personnel for their light weight (5-9 lbs), their ease of use,
accuracy, and small profile. Examples of SMGs are MP-5s, P-90s, and Thompson .45s."

Um, sorry. No. An unloaded Thompson M1 .45 ACP SMG weighs more than an M16A1 rifle.
And how can you characterize the UZI as a machine pistol and the MP5 as a submachine
gun?

"Hammer
The portion of a firearm that strikes the rear of the cartridge,
causing the powder to ignite and propel the bullet out of the rifle. "

Um, sorry. No.

"Firing Pin
In assault style weapons such as SMGs, machine guns and assault rifles,
the hammer is replaced by a small pin inside the bolt of the rifle itself. When
the bolt is drawn back to the rear of the rifle and locked in place, the weapon
is considered 'charged'. Once the trigger is pulled, the bolt is released and
shoots forward, causing the pin to strike the blasting cap at the end of the
cartridge and ignite the powder within."

Um, sorry. No. Firing pins as the intermediary item between hammers and
cartridge primers have been around since the middle of the 19th century.
There are even weapons that have things called transfer bars between the hammer
and the firing pin.
The paragraph is patently false from beginning to end.

"Magazine
A magazine is an evolution from the old clips that created the first truly semi-automatic rifles. A magazine is a fully enclosed metal or heat-resistant plastic casing that holds a number of rounds stacked on top of one another. The magazine is inserted into the weapon where spring tension from the base of the magazine presses the rounds against the base of the chamber. As the chamber slides open, the rounds are automatically fed into the chamber itself each time the empty chamber is presented.

Clip
An older style of the magazine. Where magazines can hold often as many as 30 rounds at a time in a contained structure, clips held usually no more than ten rounds at a time. Clips left most of the round within exposed, being designed to only grab the 'base' of the rounds, and had to be fully inserted into a weapon, such as the M1 Garand. "

Um, sorry. No.
There are two kinds of magazines, detachable and fixed.
Both have been known to be charged with stripper clips, such as those used in the Mauser C96 Broomhandle pistol.
A clip is not a magazine, regardless of what you've read elsewhere. Nor is a magazine a "clip".
Magazines come in many differents styles, including box, tubular, and rotary.
By the way, the M1 Garand had a fixed box magazine.
And detachable magazines cannot be "fully enclosed" because they have to have a feed
aperture on top.

"Cylinder
With revolvers, there is no magazine or chamber, per se. Instead,
there is a metal cylinder between the hammer and the barrel, with
between four and twelve small holes in it. Each hole contains a round.
When the cylinder is locked in place and the hammer drawn back,
a hole in the cylinder aligns itself with both the barrel of the weapon
and the hammer. Once fired, the cylinder rotates and automatically
aligns the next chamber- and next round- with the hammer. "

Um, sorry. No. The revolver has what is known as a fixed or detachable (depending upon
the revolver) rotary magazine called a "cylinder". Each "hole" in the cylinder is known as
a "chamber" , as you admit in the last sentence.

Rifling
"When bullets pass through the barrel they are grooved according
to the rifling pattern inside the barrel."

Um, not necessarily. It depends upon the type of bullet. Softer ones become so
deformed upon impact that it's impossible to tell and harder ones are not physically modified by
the rifling. Modern trends in HK-style barrel design deform the bullet less than older style
grooved rifling.

"All rifling patterns are unique,
similar to a fingerprint"

Horse pucky. It is easier to determine which type or brand of weapon might have fired
the round than it is to exactly match rounds to a particular weapon.
Even fingerprints used in evidence require 6 to 12 points of SIMILARITY.

"For semi-auto pistols, Single Action means that the pistol must be manually cocked for the first shot (usually, this is done by pulling the 'slide' - this action cocks the hammer and feeds a cartridge into the chamber). "
Single Action semi-automatic pistols only exist as a contrast to Double-action semi-automatic pistols.
Both require working the action to load the first round. The difference is that you can lower
the hammer on the double action and thus the first shot is harder and less accurate.

"Double Action for the revolver means that the hammer for each (including the first) shot is automatically cocked by trigger pull"

Define "automatically". You said "cocking is done automatically" with regard to the Single Action semi-auto. You can't
use the same phrase for two different applications.

"Automatics
The rearward force that the bullet generates when expended is sufficient to push the slide back"

Um. Bad.

You may want to cover lever action rifles and muzzleloaders. They aren't as common, but some people still use them for battle renactments and hunting.

You may want to elaborate on the differences between assault rifles and light machine guns.

I hope to take this article out of Flea Market and get it into the Edited Guide. Please see: F48874?thread=8290116 for the Peer Review thread for the new version.

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