This is a broad definition that covers everything from potato guns to fully automatic machine guns, but it provides the basic definition of what a gun is and how it works. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) defines a firearm as “any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive.” In other words: if you have a tube and a projectile, and the projectile is designed to fly out of the tube as the result of an explosion, you have a firearm.
In order to better understand firearms, we’ve created this guide to how guns work, where we look at the weapon as a tool and study its history in addition to how different types function. I’ve built several of my own rifles, enjoy shooting and tinkering with other types of guns, and have handled almost every major gun type built in the last 500 years. This leads to increased gun violence and fear. Unfortunately, it seems as more time passes, gun literacy declines.
Guns are a part of American life they’re woven into our history from the time matchlock muskets armed the earliest colonies, to the Colt revolvers and Winchester rifles of the Old West, to the Glock handgun of today.