Product Code Database
A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes containing gunpowder and Lead shot projectiles were mounted on Spear to make the portable fire lance, operable by a single person, which was later used effectively as a shock weapon in the siege of De'an in 1132. In the 13th century, fire lance barrels were replaced with metal tubes and transformed into the metal-barreled hand cannon. The technology gradually spread throughout Eurasia during the 14th century. Older firearms typically used black powder as a propellant, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other explosive propellants. Most modern firearms (with the notable exception of smoothbore ) have rifling barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability.
Modern firearms can be described by their caliber (i.e. bore diameter). For pistols and rifles this is given in millimeters or inches (e.g. 7.62mm or .308 in.); in the case of shotguns, gauge or bore (e.g. 12 ga. or .410 bore.). They are also described by the type of action employed (e.g. muzzleloader, breechloader, Lever action, bolt action, pump action, revolver, semi-automatic, fully automatic, etc.), together with the usual means of deportment (i.e. hand-held or mechanical mounting). Further classification may make reference to the type of Gun barrel used (i.e. Rifling) and to the barrel length (e.g. 24 inches), to the firing mechanism (e.g. matchlock, wheellock, flintlock, or percussion lock), to the design's primary intended use (e.g. hunting rifle), or to the commonly accepted name for a particular variation (e.g. Gatling gun).
Shooters aim firearms at their targets with hand-eye coordination, using either iron sights or Telescopic sight. The accurate range of generally does not exceed , while most are accurate to using iron sights, or to longer ranges whilst using optical sights. Purpose-built and anti-materiel rifles are accurate to ranges of more than . (Firearm rounds may be dangerous or lethal well beyond their accurate range; the minimum distance for safety is much greater than the specified range for accuracy.)
In the military, firearms are categorized into heavy and light weapons regarding their portability by infantry. Light firearms are those that can be readily carried by individual foot soldier, though they might still require more than one individual (crew-served) to achieve optimal operational capacity. Heavy firearms are those that are too large and heavy to be transported on foot, or too unstable against recoil, and thus require the support of a weapons platform (e.g. a fixed mount, Gun carriage, vehicle, aircraft or water vessel) to be tactically mobile or useful.
The subset of light firearms that only use kinetic projectiles and are compact enough to be operated to full capacity by a single infantryman (individual-served) are also referred to as small arms. Such firearms include such as , , and ; and such as (and their subtypes), , , and .
Among the world's arms manufacturers, the top firearms manufacturers are Browning Arms, Remington Arms, Colt Defense, Ruger, Smith & Wesson, Savage Arms, Mossberg (United States), Heckler & Koch, SIG Sauer, Walther (Germany), ČZUB (Czech Republic), Glock, Steyr Arms (Austria), FN Herstal (Belgium), Beretta (Italy), Norinco (China), Rostec, and Kalashnikov (Russia). Former top producers included the Springfield Armory (United States), the Royal Small Arms Factory (United Kingdom), Mauser (Germany), Steyr-Daimler-Puch (Austria), and Rock Island Armory under Armscor (Philippines).
the Small Arms Survey reported that there were over one billion firearms distributed globally, of which 857 million (about 85 percent) were in [[civilian]] hands. U.S. civilians alone account for 393 million (about 46 percent) of the worldwide total of civilian-held firearms. This amounts to "120.5 firearms for every 100 residents". The world's [[armed forces]] control about 133 million (about 13 percent) of the global total of small arms, of which over 43 percent belong to two countries: the Russian Federation (30.3 million) and [[China]] (27.5 million). Law enforcement agencies control about 23 million (about 2 percent) of the global total of small arms.
Handguns can be categorized into two broad types: , which have a single fixed firing chamber machined into the rear of the barrel, and are often loaded using magazines of varying capacities; , which have a number of firing chambers or "charge holes" in a revolving cylinder, each one loaded with a single cartridge or charge; and , broadly defined as any handgun that is not a traditional pistol nor a revolver.
There are various types of the aforementioned handguns designed for different mechanisms or purposes, such as single-shot, Lever action, semi-automatic, or Machine pistol pistols; single-action, double-action, or double-action/single-action revolvers; and small, compact handguns for concealed carry such as and "Saturday night specials".
Examples of pistols include , Browning Hi-Power, M1911 pistol, Makarov pistol, Walther PP, Luger pistol, Mauser C96, and Beretta 92. Examples of revolvers include the Colt Single Action Army, Smith & Wesson Model 10, Colt Official Police, Colt Python, New Nambu M60, and Mateba Autorevolver. Examples of derringers include the Remington Model 95, FP-45 Liberator, and COP .357 Derringer.
Many types of rifles exist owing to their wide adoption and versatility, ranging from mere barrel length differences as in short-barreled rifles and , to classifications per the rifle's function and purpose as in semi-automatic rifles, and , to differences in the rifle's action as in single-shot, break-action, bolt-action, and lever-action rifles.
Examples of rifles of various types include the Henry rifle, Winchester rifle, Lee–Enfield, Gewehr 98, M1 Garand, MAS-36 rifle, AKM, Ruger 10/22, Heckler & Koch G3, Remington Model 700, and Heckler & Koch HK417.
Shotguns share many qualities with rifles, such as both being descendants of early long guns such as the musket; both having single-shot, break-action, bolt-action, lever-action, pump-action, semi-automatic, and automatic variants; and both being popular with militaries, police, and civilians for largely the same reasons. However, unlike rifles, shotguns are less favored in combat roles due to their low accuracy and limited effectiveness in modern warfare, with often only used for breaching or close-quarters combat and sometimes limited to underbarrel attachments such as the M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System. Shotguns are still popular with civilians for the suitability of their shot spread in hunting, clay pigeon shooting, and home defense.
Double-barreled shotguns are break-action shotguns with two parallel barrels (horizontal side-by-side or vertical over-and-under), allowing two single shots that can be loaded and fired in quick succession.
Examples of shotguns include the Winchester Model 1897, Browning Auto-5, Ithaca 37, Remington Model 870, Mossberg 500, Benelli M4, Franchi SPAS-12, Atchisson AA-12, and Knight's Armament Company Masterkey.
The small size of a carbine provides lighter weight and better maneuverability, making them ideal for close-quarters combat and storage in compact areas. This makes them popular firearms among special forces and police tactical units alongside , considerably so since the late 1990s due to the familiarity and better stopping power of carbines compared to submachine guns. They are also popular with (and were originally mostly intended for) military personnel in roles that are expected to engage in combat, but where a full-size rifle would be an impediment to the primary duties of that soldier (logistical personnel, airborne forces, military engineers, officers, etc.), though since the turn of the millennium these have been superseded to a degree in some roles by personal defense weapons. Carbines are also common among civilian firearm owners who have size, space, and power concerns similar to military and police users.
Examples of carbines include the Winchester Model 1892, Rifle No. 5 Mk I, SKS, M1 carbine, Ruger Mini-14, M4 carbine, and Kel-Tec SUB-2000.
Originating with the StG 44 produced by Nazi Germany during World War II, assault rifles have since become extremely popular among militaries and other armed groups due to their universal versatility, and they have made up the vast majority of standard-issue military since the mid-20th century. Various configurations of assault rifle exist, such as the bullpup, in which the firing grip is located in front of the breech instead of behind it.
Examples of assault rifles include the Kalashnikov rifles of Soviet and Russian origin (such as the AK-47, AKM, and AK-74), as well as the American M4 carbine and M16 rifle.
Battle rifles serve similar purposes as assault rifles, as they both are usually employed by ground infantry for essentially the same purposes. However, some prefer battle rifles for their more powerful cartridge, despite the added recoil. Some designated marksman rifles are configured from battle rifles, such as the Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle and United States Marine Corps Designated Marksman Rifle, both essentially heavily modified and modernized variants of the M14 rifle.
Examples of rifles considered to be battle rifles include the FG 42, Gewehr 43, FN FAL, Howa Type 64, and Desert Tech MDR.
Related developments are anti-materiel rifles, large-caliber rifles designed to destroy enemy materiel such as vehicles, supplies, or hardware; , anti-materiel rifles that were designed specifically to combat early armoured fighting vehicles, but are now largely obsolete due to advances in vehicle armour; , a broad class of rifles generally summed up as short, lightweight, portable sniper rifles; and designated marksman rifles, semi-automatic high-precision rifles, usually chambered in intermediate or full-power cartridges, that fill the range gap between sniper rifles and regular rifles and are designed for designated marksmen in squads.
Examples of sniper and scout rifles include the M40 rifle, Heckler & Koch PSG1, Walther WA 2000, Accuracy International AWM, M24 Sniper Weapon System, Steyr Scout, Sako TRG, and CheyTac Intervention. Examples of anti-materiel and anti-tank rifles include the Mauser Tankgewehr M1918, Boys anti-tank rifle, PTRS-41, Barrett M82, Gepárd anti-materiel rifle, and McMillan TAC-50. Examples of designated marksman rifles include the SVD, SR-25, Dragunov SVU, Marine Scout Sniper Rifle, Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle, and M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System.
Though automatic rifles are sometimes considered to be their own category, they are also occasionally considered to be other types of firearms that postdated their invention, usually as light machine guns. Automatic rifles are sometimes confused with machine guns or vice versa, or are defined as such by law; the National Firearms Act and Firearm Owners Protection Act define a "machine gun" in United States Code Title 26, Subtitle E, Chapter 53, Subchapter B, Part 1, § 5845 as "... any firearm which shoots ... automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger". "Machine gun" is therefore largely synonymous with "automatic weapon" in American civilian parlance, covering all automatic firearms. In most jurisdictions, automatic rifles, as well as automatic firearms in general, are prohibited from civilian purchase or are at least heavily restricted; in the U.S. for instance, most automatic rifles are Title II weapons that require certain licenses and are greatly regulated.
Examples of automatic rifles include the Cei-Rigotti, Lewis gun, Fedorov Avtomat, and M1918 Browning automatic rifle.
Machine guns can be divided into three categories: light machine guns, individual-served machine guns of an intermediate cartridge that are usually magazine-fed; medium machine guns, belt-fed machine guns of a full-power caliber and a certain weight that can be operated by an individual but tend to work best with a crew; and heavy machine guns, machine guns that are too large and heavy to be carried and are thus Weapon mount to something (like a tripod or military vehicle), and require a crew to operate. A general-purpose machine gun combines these categories under a single flexible machine gun platform, often one that is most suitable as a light or medium machine gun but fares well as a heavy machine gun. A closely related concept is the squad automatic weapon, a portable light machine gun or even a modified rifle that is designed and fielded to provide a squad with rapid direct fire.
Examples of machine guns include the Maxim gun, M2 Browning, Bren light machine gun, MG 42, PK machine gun, FN MAG, M249 light machine gun, RPK, IWI Negev, and M134 Minigun.
Submachine guns are considered ideal for close-quarters combat and are cheap to mass-produce. They were very common in military service through much of the 20th century, but have since been superseded in most combat roles by rifles, carbines, and personal defense weapons due to their low effective range and poor penetration against most body armor developed since the late 20th century. However, they remain popular among special forces and police for their effectiveness in close-quarters and low likelihood to Overpenetrating targets.
Examples of submachine guns include the MP 18, MP 40, Thompson submachine gun, M3 submachine gun, Uzi, Heckler & Koch MP5, Spectre M4, Steyr TMP, Heckler & Koch UMP, PP-2000, KRISS Vector, and SIG MPX.
Personal defense weapons were developed to provide rear and "second-line" personnel not otherwise armed with high-caliber firearms (vehicle and weapon crews, engineers, logistical personnel, etc.) with a method of effective self-defense against and infiltrators who cannot effectively be defeated by low-powered submachine guns and handguns, often the only firearms suitable for those personnel (while they could be issued rifles or carbines, those would become unnecessary burdens in their normal duties, during which the likelihood of hostility is fairly rare regardless, making their issuance questionable). Thus, per their name, personal defense weapons allow these personnel to effectively defend themselves from enemies and repel attacks themselves or at least until support can arrive. They are not intended for civilian self-defense due to their nature as automatic firearms (which are usually prohibited from civilian purchase), though some semi-automatic PDWs exist for the civilian market, albeit often with longer barrels.
Examples of personal defense weapons include the FN P90, Heckler & Koch MP7, AAC Honey Badger, and ST Kinetics CPW.
Types of manual actions include lever action, bolt action, and pump action.
Two designs of bolt action exist: rotating bolt, where the bolt must be axially rotated to unlock and lock the receiver; and straight pull, which does not require the bolt to be rotated, simplifying the bolt action mechanism and allowing for a greater rate of fire.
Types of semi-automatic actions and modes include automatic, burst, and selective.
New recruits of the Israel Defense Forces undergo training on the safe practice of using the M16 rifle as a blunt weapon, mainly so that in close-quarter fighting, the weapon cannot be pulled away from them. Other training includes the recruit learning how to jab parts of the body with the muzzle and using the butt stock as a weapon.
Forensic medicine recognizes evidence for various types of blunt-force injuries produced by firearms. For example, "pistol-whipping" typically leaves semicircular or triangular lacerations of skin produced by the butt of a pistol."Gunshot Wounds: Practical Aspects of Firearms, Ballistics, and Forensic Techniques," Vincent J. M. DiMaio, 1999, , pp. 270-271
In armed robberies, beating the victims with firearms is a more common way to complete the robbery, rather than shooting or stabbing them.
Examples include:
The Arabs and had firearms in the late-13th century. (2025). 9781934854013, Mary Ann Liebert. ISBN 9781934854013 Europeans obtained firearms in the 14th century. The Koreans adopted firearms from the Chinese in the 14th century. The Iranians (first Aq Qoyunlu and Safavids) and Indians (first Mughal Empire) all got them no later than the 15th century, from the Ottoman Turks. The people of the Nusantara archipelago of Southeast Asia used the Java arquebus at least by the last quarter of the 15th century.
Even though the knowledge of making gunpowder-based weapons in the Nusantara archipelago had been known after the failed Mongol invasion of Java (1293), and the predecessor of firearms, the Hand cannon (bedil tombak), was recorded as being used by Java in 1413,Mayers (1876). "Chinese explorations of the Indian Ocean during the fifteenth century". The China Review. IV: p. 178. the knowledge of making "true" firearms came much later, after the middle of 15th century. It was brought by the nations of West Asia, most probably the Arabs. The precise year of introduction is unknown, but it may be safely concluded to be no earlier than 1460. Before the arrival of the Portuguese in Southeast Asia, the natives already possessed firearms, the Java arquebus.
The technology of firearms in Southeast Asia further improved after the Portuguese capture of Malacca (1511).Andaya, L. Y. 1999. Interaction with the outside world and adaptation in Southeast Asian society 1500–1800. In The Cambridge history of southeast Asia. ed. Nicholas Tarling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 345–401. Starting in the 1513, the traditions of German-Bohemian gun-making merged with Turkish gun-making traditions. The bewitched gun : the introduction of the firearm in the Far East by the Portuguese, by Rainer Daehnhardt 1994. This resulted in the Indo-Portuguese tradition of matchlocks. Indian craftsmen modified the design by introducing a very short, almost pistol-like buttstock held against the cheek, not the shoulder, when aiming. They also reduced the caliber and made the gun lighter and more balanced. This was a hit with the Portuguese who did a lot of fighting aboard ship and on river craft, and valued a more compact gun. The Malaccan gunfounders, compared as being in the same level with those of Germany, quickly adapted these new firearms, and thus a new type of arquebus, the istinggar, appeared. The Japanese did not acquire firearms until the 16th century, and then from the Portuguese rather than from the Chinese.
Developments in firearms accelerated during the 19th and 20th centuries. Breech-loading became more or less a universal standard for the reloading of most hand-held firearms and continues to be so with some notable exceptions (such as mortars). Instead of loading individual rounds into weapons, magazines holding multiple munitions were adopted—these aided rapid reloading. Automatic and semi-automatic firing mechanisms meant that a single soldier could fire many more rounds in a minute than a vintage weapon could fire over the course of a battle. Polymers and alloys in firearm construction made weaponry progressively lighter and thus easier to deploy. Ammunition changed over the centuries from simple metallic ball-shaped projectiles that rattled down the barrel to bullets and cartridges manufactured to high precision. Especially in the past century particular attention has focused on accuracy and sighting to make firearms altogether far more accurate than ever before. More than any single factor though, firearms have proliferated due to the advent of mass production—enabling arms-manufacturers to produce large quantities of weaponry to a consistent standard.
Velocities of bullets increased with the use of a "jacket" of metals such as copper or copper alloys that covered a lead core and allowed the bullet to glide down the barrel more easily than exposed lead. Such bullets are known as "full metal jacket" (FMJ). Such FMJ bullets are less likely to fragment on impact and are more likely to traverse through a target while imparting less energy. Hence, FMJ bullets impart less tissue damage than non-jacketed bullets that expand.Dougherty and Eidt, 2009. This led to their adoption for military use by countries adhering to the Hague Convention of 1899.
That said, the basic principle behind firearm operation remains unchanged to this day. A musket of several centuries ago is still similar in principle to a modern-day rifle—using the expansion of gases to propel projectiles over long distances—albeit less accurately and rapidly.
In the 1420s, gunpowder was used to propel missiles from hand-held tubes during the Hussite revolt in Bohemia.
One interesting solution to the reloading problem was the "Roman Candle Gun" with . This was a muzzleloader in which multiple charges and balls were loaded one on top of the other, with a small hole in each ball to allow the subsequent charge to be ignited after the one ahead of it was ignited. It was neither a very reliable nor popular firearm, but it enabled a form of "automatic" fire long before the advent of the machine gun.
Once struck, the flame from the cap, in turn, ignited the main charge of gunpowder, as with the flintlock, but there was no longer any need to charge the touch hole with gunpowder, and even better, the touch hole was no longer exposed to the elements. As a result, the percussion-cap mechanism was considerably safer, far more weatherproof, and vastly more reliable (cloth-bound cartridges containing a pre-measured charge of gunpowder and a ball had been in regular military service for many years, but the exposed gunpowder in the entry to the touch hole had long been a source of misfires). All manufactured since the second half of the 19th-century use percussion caps except those built as replicas of the flintlock or earlier firearms.
Cartridges represented a major innovation: firearms ammunition, previously delivered as separate bullets and powder, was combined in a single metallic (usually brass) cartridge containing a percussion cap, powder, and a bullet in one weatherproof package. The main technical advantage of the brass cartridge case was the effective and reliable sealing of high-pressure gasses at the breech, as the gas pressure forces the cartridge case to expand outward, pressing it firmly against the inside of the gun-barrel chamber. This prevents the leakage of hot gas which could injure the shooter. The brass cartridge also opened the way for modern repeating arms, by uniting the bullet, gunpowder, and primer into one assembly that could be fed reliably into the breech by mechanical action in the firearm.
Before this, a "cartridge" was simply a pre-measured quantity of gunpowder together with a ball in a small cloth bag (or rolled paper cylinder), which also acted as wadding for the charge and ball. This early form of cartridge had to be rammed into the muzzleloader's barrel, and either a small charge of gunpowder in the touch hole or an external percussion cap mounted on the touch hole ignited the gunpowder in the cartridge. Cartridges with built-in percussion caps (called "primers") continue to this day to be the standard in firearms. In cartridge-firing firearms, a hammer (or a firing pin struck by the hammer) strikes the cartridge primer, which then ignites the gunpowder within. The primer charge is at the base of the cartridge, either within the rim (a "rimfire" cartridge) or in a small percussion cap embedded in the center of the base (a "centerfire" cartridge). As a rule, centerfire cartridges are more powerful than rimfire cartridges, operating at considerably higher pressures than rimfire cartridges. Centerfire cartridges are also safer, as a dropped rimfire cartridge has the potential to discharge if its rim strikes the ground with sufficient force to ignite the primer. This is practically impossible with most centerfire cartridges.
Nearly all contemporary firearms load cartridges directly into their Breechloader. Some additionally or exclusively load from a magazine that holds multiple cartridges. A magazine is a part of the firearm which exists to store ammunition and to assist in its feeding by the action into the breech (such as through the rotation of a revolver's cylinder or by spring-loaded platforms in most pistol and rifle designs). Some magazines, such as that of most centerfire hunting rifles and all revolvers, are internal to and inseparable from the firearm, and are loaded by using a "clip". A clip (the term often mistakenly refers to a detachable "magazine") is a device that holds the ammunition by the rim of the case and is designed to assist the shooter in reloading the firearm's magazine. Examples include revolver , the stripper clip used to aid loading rifles such as the Lee–Enfield or Mauser 98, and the en-bloc clip used in loading the M1 Garand. In this sense, "magazines" and "clips", though often used synonymously, refer to different types of devices.
The first "rapid firing" firearms were usually similar to the 19th-century Gatling gun, which would fire cartridges from a magazine as fast as and as long as the operator turned a crank. Eventually, the "rapid" firing mechanism was perfected and miniaturized to the extent that either the recoil of the firearm or the gas pressure from firing could be used to operate it, thus the operator needed only to pull a trigger—this made the firing mechanisms truly "automatic". An automatic (or "fully automatic") firearm automatically re-cocks, reloads, and fires as long as the trigger is depressed. An automatic firearm is capable of firing multiple rounds with one pull of the trigger. The Gatling gun may have been the first automatic weapon, though the modern trigger-actuated machine gun was not widely introduced until the First World War (1914–1918) with the German "Spandau" (adopted in 1908) and the British Lewis gun (in service from 1914). Automatic rifles such as the Browning automatic rifle were in common use by the military during the early part of the 20th century, and automatic rifles that fired handgun rounds, known as submachine guns, also appeared at this time. Many modern military firearms have a selective fire option, which is a mechanical switch that allows the firearm to be fired either in the semi-automatic or fully automatic mode. In the current M16A2 and M16A4 variants of the U.S.-made M16, continuous fully-automatic fire is not possible, having been replaced by an automatic burst of three cartridges (this conserves ammunition and increases controllability).
In 2017, there were 39,773 gun-related deaths in the United States; over 60% were suicides from firearms. In 2001, firearms were involved in cases constituting the second leading cause of "mechanism of injury deaths" (which are deaths which occur as a direct, identifiable, and immediate consequence of an event, such as a shooting or poisoning, and do not include deaths due to "natural causes" or "indirect causes" such as chronic alcohol abuse or tobacco use) after motor vehicle accidents, which comprised the majority of deaths in this category. The most recent, complete data, from 2017, shows gunshot related homicides as having been the 31st most common cause of death in the US, while gunshot related suicides was the 21st most common cause of death. Accidental discharge of a firearm accounted for the 59th most common cause of death, with 486 deaths in 2017, while 616 individuals were killed by law enforcement, comprising the 58th most common cause of death. The total number of deaths related to firearms in 2017 was 38,882 (not including incidents of deaths resulting from lethal force when used by law enforcement), while the most common cause of death, heart disease, claimed 647,457 lives, over sixteen times that of firearms, including suicides. The most recent data from the CDC, from 2020, shows that deaths involving firearms accounted for about 0.2% of all deaths nationwide in 2020, of which about two-thirds were suicides.
In the 52 high- and middle-income countries, with a combined population of 1,400 million and not engaged in civil conflict, fatalities due to firearm injuries were estimated at 115,000 people per annum, in the 1990s.
In those 52 countries, a firearm is the first method used for homicide (two-thirds) but only the second method for suicide (20%.
To prevent unintentional injury, gun safety training includes education on proper firearm storage and firearm-handling etiquette.
A 2017 study found that attacks account for more than half (50.2%) of all nonfatal gun injuries, while unintentional injuries make up more than one-third (36.7%).
The intensity of a gunshot does vary; lower caliber guns are typically on the softer side while higher caliber guns are often louder. The intensity of a gunshot though typically ranges from 140 dB to 175 dB. Indoor shooting also causes loud reverberations which can also be as damaging as the actual gunshot itself. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, noise above 85 dB can begin to cause hearing loss. While many sounds cause damage over time, at the intensity level of a gunshot (140 dB or louder), damage to the ear can occur instantly.
Shooters use custom hearing protection such as electronic type hearing protection for hunters which can amplify soft sounds like leaves crunching while reducing the intensity of the gunshot and custom hearing protection for skeet shooting.
Even with hearing protection, due to the high intensity of the noise guns produce shooters still develop hearing loss over time.
This is the ATF definition of a title II "NFA firearm", as defined by the National Firearms Act, and not the definition of a title I firearm, which includes firearms not restricted by the NFA. ATF forms dealing with Title II weapons all state the above-mentioned information, however, the above information is only applicable for the purposes of those forms. For practical purposes, a firearm, in the U.S., is defined as the part of a weapon- designed to use expanded gas caused by the combustion of explosive material, to propel a projectile- which houses the fire control group (trigger & sear).
According to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, if gas pressurization is achieved through mechanical gas compression rather than through chemical propellant combustion, then the device is technically an air gun, not a firearm. US Federal Govt does not consider an air gun to be a firearm and does not regulate airguns as firearms
An international UN protocol on firearms considers that
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