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In military parlance, a gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing
weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch
of service. A "gun" may be distinguised from other firearms in being a
crew served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small
arm like a rifle or pistol, but there are exceptions, such as the USAF's
GUU5/P. At one time, Land-based Artillery tubes were called Cannon and
Sea-based Naval Cannon were called Guns. The term "gun" morphed into a
generic term for any tube launched projectile firing weapon used by sailors
including boarding parties and Marines.
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In modern parlance, a gun is a projectile weapon using a hollow, tubular
barrel with a closed end—the breech—as the means for directing the projectile
as well as other purposes—an expansion chamber for propellant, stabilizing
the projectile's trajectory, aiming, etc.—and assumes a generally, flat
trajectory for the projectile.
The generic form of a trigger-initiated, hand-held, and hand-directed
tool with an extending bore has additionally been applied to implements
resembling guns in either form or concept. Examples of this application
include items such as staple guns, nail guns, and glue guns. Occasionally,
this tendency is ironically reversed, such as the case of the American
M3 submachine gun which carries the nickname "Grease Gun".
The projectile may be a simple, single-piece item like a bullet, a casing
containing a payload like a shotshell or explosive shell, or complex projectile
like a sub-caliber projectile and sabot. The propellant may be air, an
explosive solid, or an explosive liquid. Some variations like the Gyrojet
and certain other types combine the projectile and propellant into a single
item.
Most guns are described by the type of barrel used, the means of firing,
the purpose of the weapon, the caliber, or the commonly accepted name for
a particular variation.
Barrel types include rifled—a series of spiraled grooves or angles within
the barrel—when the projectile requires an induced spin to stabilize it
and smoothbore when the projectile is stabilized by other means or is undesired
or unnecessary. Typically, interior barrel diameter and the associated
projectile size is a means to identify gun variations. Barrel diameter
is reported in several ways. The more conventional measure is reporting
the interior diameter of the barrel in decimal fractions of the inch or
in millimeters. Some guns—such as shotguns—report the weapon's gauge or—as
in some British ordnance—the weight of the weapon's usual projectile.
USS Iowa (BB-61) fires a full broadside during a target exercise near
Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, 1 July 1984.Contents [hide]
1 Terminology
2 Types of guns
2.1 Military firearms
2.2 Machine guns
2.3 Autocannon
2.4 Artillery guns
2.5 Tank guns
2.6 Hunting guns
2.7 Guns for training and entertainment
3 See also
4 Citations and notes
5 References
Terminology
The use of the term "cannon" is interchangeable with "gun" as words
borrowed from the French language during the early 15th century, from Old
French canon, itself a borrowing from the Italian cannone, a "large tube"
augmentive of Latin canna "reed or cane".[1] Recent scholarship indicates
that the term "gun" may also have its origins in the Norse woman's name
"Gunnildr", which was often shortened to "Gunna".[2] The earliest recorded
use of the term "gonne" was in a Latin document circa 1339. Other names
for guns during this era were "schioppi" (Italian translation-"thunderers"),
and "donrebusse" (Dutch translation-"thunder gun") which was incorporated
into the English language as "blunderbuss".[3] Artillerymen were often
referred to as "gonners" and "artillers".[4] Early guns and the men who
used them were often associated with the devil and the gunner's craft was
considered a black art, a point reinforced by the smell of sulfur on battlefields
created from the firing of guns along with the muzzle blast and accompanying
flash.[5]
In military use, the term "gun" refers primarily to direct fire weapons
that capitalize on their velocity for penetration or range. In modern parlance,
these weapons are breech-loaded and built primarily for long range fire
with a low or almost flat ballistic arc. A variation is the howitzer or
gun-howitzer designed to offer the ability to fire both low or high-angle
ballistic arcs. In this use, example guns include naval guns. A less strict
application of the word is to identify one artillery weapon system or non-machine
gun projectile armament on aircraft.
The word cannon is retained in some cases for the actual gun tube but
not the weapon system. The title gunner is applied to the member of the
team charged with operating, aiming, and firing a gun.
Autocannon are automatic guns designed primarily to fire shells and
are mounted on a vehicle or other mount. Machine guns are similar, but
usually designed to fire simple projectiles. In some calibers and some
usages, these two definitions overlap.
A related military use of the word is in describing gun-type fission
weapon. In this instance, the "gun" is part of a nuclear weapon and contains
an explosively propelled sub-critical slug of fissile material within a
barrel to be fired into a second sub-critical mass in order to initiate
the fission reaction. Potentially confused with this usage are small nuclear
devices capable of being fired by artillery or recoilless rifle.
In civilian use, a related item used in agriculture is a captive bolt
gun. Such captive piston guns are often used to humanely stun farm animals
for slaughter.[6]
Shotguns are normally civilian weapons used primarily for hunting. These
weapons are typically smooth bored and fire a shell containing small lead
or steel balls. Variations use rifled barrels or fire other projectiles
including solid lead slugs, a Taser XREP projectile capable of stunning
a target, or other payloads. In military versions, these weapons are often
used to burst door hinges or locks in addition to antipersonnel uses. |