Terminology

Many of these definitions were taken from the NRA glossary.

assault weapon

By U.S. Army definition, a selective-fire rifle chambered for a cartridge of intermediate power. If applied to any semi-automatic firearm regardless of its cosmetic similarity to a true assault weapon, the term is incorrect.

automatic or fully automatic

A firearm designed to feed cartridges, fire them, eject their empty cases and repeat this cycle as long as the trigger is depressed and cartridges remain in the feed system. Examples: machine guns, submachine guns, selective-fire rifles, including true assault weapons.

automatic pistol

A term used often to describe what is actually a semi-automatic pistol. It is, technically, a misnomer but a near-century of use has legitimized it, and its use usually confuses only the novice.

caliber

The nominal diameter of a projectile of a rifled firearm or the diameter between lands in a rifled barrel. In this country, usually expressed in hundreds of an inch; in Great Britain in thousandths; in Europe and elsewhere in millimeters.

cartridge

A single, complete round of ammunition.

center-fire

A cartridge with its primer located in the center of the base of the case.

chamber

The rear part of the barrel that is formed to accept the cartridge to be fired. A revolver employs a multi-chambered rotating cylinder separated from the stationary barrel.

cylinder

The drum of a revolver that contains the chambers for the ammunition.

eyes and ears

Protection for your sight and hearing. Safety glasses are worn to keep flying brass out of your eyes. There are numerous different styles, even styles that are worn over prescription glasses to protect your expensive lenses from scuffs. Ear protection varies from small ear plugs inserted into your ears to electronic noise suppression ear muffs.

firearm

A rifle, shotgun or handgun using gunpowder as a propellant. By federal definition, under the 1968 Gun Control Act, antiques are excepted. Under the National Firearms Act, the word designates machine guns, etc. Airguns are not firearms.

gauge

The bore size of a shotgun determined by the number of round lead balls of bore diameter that are needed to equal a pound.

gun

The British restrict the term in portable arms to shotguns. Here it is properly used for rifles, shotguns, handguns and airguns, as well as cannon.

handgun

A small firearm designed to be held in one hand. Synonymous with “pistol”.

high-capacity magazine

An inexact, non-technical term indicating a magazine holding more rounds than might be considered “average”.

indexing

Laying the index (trigger) finger along the side of the frame to keep it off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot. Indexing is an important safety precaution.

pistol

Synonymous with “handgun”. A gun that is generally held in one hand. It may be of the single-shot, multi-barrel, repeating or semi-automatic variety and includes revolvers.

revolver

A gun, usually a handgun, with a multi-chambered cylinder that rotates to successively align each chamber with a single barrel and firing pin.

rifle

A shoulder gun with rifled bore.

rimfire

A rimmed or flanged cartridge with the priming mixture located inside the rim of the case. The most famous example is the .22 rimfire cartridge.

semi-automatic

A firearm designed to fire a single cartridge, eject the empty case and reload the chamber each time the trigger is pulled. It uses the force of recoil to eject the empty case and load a new cartridge into the chamber.

shotgun

A shoulder gun with smooth-bored barrel(s) primarily intended for firing multiple small, round projectiles, (shot, birdshot, pellets), larger shot (buck shot), single round balls (pumpkin balls) and cylindrical slugs. Some shotgun barrels have rifling to give better accuracy with slugs or greater pattern spread to birdshot.

weapon

Webster defines it as “an instrument of offensive or defensive combat”. Thus an automobile, baseball bat, bottle, chair, firearm, fist, pen knife or shovel is a “weapon”, if so used.

2^nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The 2^nd Amendment was adopted on December 17, 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. The wording came from nearly identical clauses in some of the original 13 state constitutions.

Article II, Section 6 of the New Mexico State Constitution

“No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms.”

Note that Chapter 29, Article 19 NMSA 1978, titled the “Concealed Handgun Carry Act”, adds an exception to the general prohibition against carrying concealed weapons: carrying with a concealed handgun license.