Rifle vs. Gun

[Stump70]

I remember having to do pushups in the Army for not saying "weapon."

To avoid this 25 years later I still say weapon.

[arado]

I prefer the term "firearm". Cannot be confused for anything else. Then you have the type. gary

[Bob Seijas]

"RIFLE - A firearm with a rifled bore, designed to be fired from the shoulder"

IMO, many of the terms we use are only intended to refine what weapon we mean under the overall word "gun." Pistol and revolver, for example, clarify what type of hand gun we are talking about, but they are still "guns." Strict definitions often have exceptions: a machine gun is rifled and a sub-machine gun is fired from the shoulder. On the other hand, the BAR is officially a machine rifle and the MP40 is a machine pistol. Oh well. I will continue to consider "rifle" proper, but occasionally use "gun" as generally accepted -- like "Garand."

[Ben Hartley]

... by the way, is the use of the term "Naval gun" by Webster an oxymoron ? )

Nope. An oxymoron is a contradiction in terms, e.g., "honest crook." "Naval gun" is a redundancy.

[mac9990]

I remember having to do pushups in the Army for not saying "weapon."

To avoid this 25 years later I still say weapon.

Did that a few times. I still refer to rifles as weapons or rifles.

[Joe W]

Nope. An oxymoron is a contradiction in terms, e.g., "honest crook." "Naval gun" is a redundancy.

Knew when I wrote that I should stay away from things I am bad at, like spelling and English. Thanks for getting me straight on that term.

[mweiler]

'Pistols' may be further subdivided into pistols and revolvers.

You were doing ok right up to this point, but fell down hard here.

This is absolutely untrue, a pistol is synonymous with a handgun, and includes a number of different types of actions. People have tried to create a differentiation between revolvers and other types of handguns (typically this involves calling a semiautomatic pistol a "pistol"...and a blank stare when you ask about a break action derringer, pepperbox, flintlock, etc), but it is a relatively new and completely wrong differentiation. Even the wording is rather bizarre "Pistols can be broken up into pistols and revolvers"...the fact that makes no sense should be an indication. If you logically parse that statement, you're saying that "pistols"="pistols and revolvers", meaning "pistols"="pistols and pistols and revolvers" which then rapidly degenerates to "pistols"="pistols and revolvers and pistols and revolvers and revolvers"...etc...etc...ad nauseum.

Since this thread is completely about definitions, it really needs to be corrected. Normally I wouldn't do so because there is a group of people in general which doesn't really understand this is wrong and they get quite militant about their misunderstanding so there's no particular need to abuse them with the truth, as it's generally harmless, and correcting them does nothing but antagonize since they are dead set in their misunderstanding.... but if you're going to jump in a thread about correct referencing of a particular type of firearm, I have to, sorry.

BTW, the reason for civilian referring (correctly) to "gun", of which rifles and pistols and cannon are subsets as pointed out above, rather than use the DI approved "weapon" is largely political. In the battle of rational thinking vs "gun control", it's politically better to just refer to a "gun" rather than a "weapon" as it creates less of a hysterical underwear soiling reaction by some people. Yes, it's silly and they shouldn't have that reaction, but they do vote and count the same as anyone here so if we can reduce their desire to go to the polls and try to make stupid laws, we probably should. It's important.

Carry on.

[Beerhunter]

In the UK military a "gun" is an artillery piece.

In civvie street it is a shotgun. Many companies in the UK refer to themselves as "Gun and Rifle Makers".

[WarPig1976]

Anything that isn't a revolver is a pistol. Sometimes a revolver is a pistol but mostly a revolver, depends on my mood. A rifle is a rifle, a shotgun a shotgun. All are weapons and can be referred to as such. Rarely I do say gun it depends on context. If you call anything a Gat, Deuce Deuce, Burner, Chopper, Four Fifth, Nine, or an Automatic, Heater, Problem solver, Toaster or any other street slang,,,rest assured I will ignore you.

[Brian Dick]

The US Army always referred to rifles as "weapon". They dished out pushups too in the early 80's if you slipped up and called your weapon a gun!

Pistols are semi automatic and revolvers are self explanatory. Lump them all together as handguns.