Winchster wrote:Hoi Polloi wrote:Would someone with some time on his hands please consider either finding and posting or making himself an explanation of how a gun works in a charitable and factual way with the intention of responding to the most common public misunderstandings? I'm thinking of firearms mechanics for dummies type of a thing.
-The various safeties
-Firing pin
-Explosions
-Mechanics
-Etc
Sorta like this?
http://videosuckers.com/video/yIDoUu8lD ... ction.html
or this?
http://www.m1911.org/1911desc.htm
Yes! But even more basic.
Here's the opening statement of the text you linked:
Colt's Model 1911 (and all its clones) is an autoloading pistol, firing from a closed breech. Like all pistols, its operation is based on the action of the gases produced when a cartridge is fired. These gases are used to cycle the slide of the pistol, whose recycling action will eject the spend cartridge case, cock the hammer and reload the next cartridge, in the pistol's chamber, for firing.
To the people I'm talking about targeting this to, they would read the above to be something like this:
Someone's Type 928387332 (and all its clones) is a loads-itself gun, shooting from a closed (breech? like getting through a door? no, that's breach with an A. Or like pants? Those are britches. Okay, some closed thing.) Like all guns, its operation is based on the action of the blah blah blah blah blah. These gases are used to cycle some part of the gun, whose recycling action will eject some other part of the gun case...and now my eyes are glazed over and I am lost...firing.
Here's an animation that shows something flying out the front and something else flying out the back right at you so you can flinch even when you're just watching it online! It's cool!
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I'm talking about something more like this:
Today we're going to look at how a pistol works. I am going to assume that you know nothing about a pistol, so I'll start with the most basic concepts and build from there.
In order to understand how a pistol works, you need to understand its purpose. What is it designed for? A pistol is a weapon. That means it is a tool that is used with the purpose of causing damage or harm to a living being. Almost anything can be a weapon. A newspaper becomes a weapon if it is used to hit a dog. A news article becomes a weapon if it is used to influence the opinions or behaviors of a hostile enemy, which is better known as psychological warfare. Some tools are designed with another purpose in mind but are frequently re-purposed as weapons, such as cars, ropes, knives, or your wife's foot on your shin under the kitchen table. A pistol's primary design function is to be a weapon, and in particular it is most commonly used as a self-defense weapon. I'll explain what that means because it is important to understand why something is made in order to understand how it accomplishes its job.
While there are many types of weapons, we're talking about the specific category of weapon called a firearm. What does that mean? A firearm is a type of weapon that burns a propellent, like gunpowder, inside a confined space in order to launch a projectile of some sort out of it at high speed. [Show a cannon going boom.] Different firearms throughout history have used a variety of sizes, shapes, propellants, and projectiles [show numerous old and new firearms]. Those firearms that require two or more people to transport and use them, like a cannon, are commonly referred to as
crew-served weapons. Firearms that can be carried and used by a single man are typically referred to as
small arms.
While crew-served weapons are mostly used in military settings, small arms are used for a variety of purposes. Besides the military, some of the people who routinely use small arms include the police, bodyguards, hunters, trekkers or others who will be in the wilderness, property owners or operators, sport shooters, and individuals. Those in the military or who are hunting might use their small arms offensively, meaning they initiate an attack. Property owners, trekkers, and private individuals use their small arms defensively. That means someone or something has already attacked them and they use the small arm to defend their property, family, or life.
A few examples of situations small arms manufacturers might be designing their firearms to respond to include when a coyote is attacking a rancher's sheep herd, a rabid dog that has cornered a morning jogger, a woman who is being held at knife point in an attempted rape, a man who was jumped by a neighborhood gang, a farmer who encounters a rattlesnake den while mowing, or a store owner who is being robbed at gunpoint. The use of deadly force includes any action that is likely to cause serious bodily harm or death to another person, which can mean a punch to the stomach, hitting someone with a car, or using a knife or firearm. The ethics, philosophy, and laws surrounding the use of deadly force are a fascinating topic which we could not give justice to in this short video. We do not intend to cover
when a person would legitimately use a firearm, just how a pistol works when it is used.
Among the small arms, or firearms that are intended to be transported and used by a single person, there are two general categories: long guns and hand guns. Long guns are made in a way that they require both hands to hold them, like these. [Pan across rifles and shotguns, picking one up with both hands.] We cover how and why long guns work in another episode, but one obvious downfall of the long gun is its size. While there are a number of benefits to a long gun, they are not very portable. Hand guns are made to be held in one hand. They're small, like these. [Pan across pistols and revolvers.]
This style of handgun is a revolver. [Pick up a revolver.] It has a visible cylinder [point to cylinder] which detaches from the body of the gun [open/turn the cylinder]. The other main style of handgun is a pistol. [Pick up a pistol.] The chamber on a pistol is typically shaped more like a rectangle [show chamber] and does not separate from the rest of the gun [rotate gun to show the sides of the chamber].
Let's review!
A pistol is a tool.
The primary function of this tool is to be a weapon.
A pistol is a small arm, which means it is meant to be carried and used by a single individual.
It is a type of handgun, meaning it is meant to be held in one hand.
The situation in which a pistol is primarily designed to be used is one of self-defense.
It is a firearm, meaning it burns a propellent inside the chamber in order to launch a bullet out of it.
By definition, a pistol's chamber does not detach from the rest of the gun.
Now let's find out how it works!
[Here, a similar explanation would go through all of the parts of a pistol, explaining their names, functions, mechanics, and interactions with other parts until the entire process of how a pistol is built was understood and then the concept of cartridge/bullet, deflagration, and how it all comes together to function would be explained, at least at a general level. With purpose, mechanics, and physics all covered from the ground up, a person would have a full working knowledge of how a pistol works and from there adding new knowledge like the 4 Rules, how to shoot, how to adjust for recoil, how to choose a weapon, and any other number of things are much easier to understand because the building blocks are in place and there's a framework to build on.]
That is probably the reason that most guns "go off" when dropped. That old booger hook can be dangerous.