This report is all about guns and artillery. A gun is a firearm that fires a bullet, shell, or other missile. Artillery is a gun that cannot be operated at the shoulder or hand.

The “Right to Carry” Law

The “Right to Carry” law requires that a law enforcement office issue a handgun permit to all qualified applicants. To own a gun you have to be 18 years old, have a clean criminal record, and complete a firearm safety course. With this law there was a 7% decline in assaults, an 8% decline in murders, and a 0.5% raise in firearm accidents.

Ancient Artillery
   
There were three different types of ancient artillery: a petrary, a ballista, and a catapult. Petrarys fired giant spears at attacking enemies. The ballista fired giant arrows at enemies from far distances. The catapult was used to hurl giant stones at enemy fortresses.
The History of Artillery

Artillery with gunpowder was first used in the 1300’s. The French used a small cannon against the English in 1450. The Ottomans used artillery during the final campaign to capture Constantinople. Artillery played a huge part in the battles of the middle ages. From these, guns have increased in firepower, size, and accuracy.


Field Artillery

Field artillery is used to support infantry and armored forces. Tractors or truck mostly tows this type of artillery. It also may be mounted on a vehicle so that it may be brought into battle quickly. Field artillery varies in size from guns firing 1 pound to 350-pound projectiles. Ammunition trailers and tractors now carry the field artillery ammo. These replaced the caissons (ammunition wagons).

Antiaircraft Artillery

  Antiaircraft artillery can fire rapidly at high angles. This artillery is usually aimed by electronic automatic fire control systems. When fired special fuses explode the shell in the main area of the target. These guns are usually supported by surface-to-air missiles.

There are many types of guns: a rifle, a shotgun, a handgun, or machine gun. There are also actions to a gun that allow you to load and unload. The actions are bolt, pump, semi-automatic, lever, break, and automatic (for machine guns). There are two ways to measure rifles and shot guns. For shotguns it’s called the gauge. The smaller the gauge the bigger the gun. For rifles its called caliber. The bigger the caliber the bigger the gun.

There are 7 gauges of a shotgun. The gauges are, .410, 26, 20, 16, 12, 10, and 4. The smaller the gauge the bigger the gun. The .410 is actually a caliber. It is the smallest shotgun and least powerful. The 20 gauge is a good waterfowl-hunting gun. It can hold from 3” to 31/2” shells. The ten gauge is also a good waterfowl-hunting gun. It can fire 31/2” to 4” shells. The ten gauge sometimes has two triggers. It is one of the most powerful shotguns. The four gauge is the most powerful shotgun. It was used for commercial duck hunting. It had so much recoil (kick back) that they had to mount it on a boat. The people shooting would shoot into a flock of 70 ducks and kill about 40 ducks.

There are different types of actions that can go on shotguns. There is lever action, pump action, semi-automatic, and break. With the pump action to unload the gun you must pull then push on the pump.  To unload with a semi-auto just pull the trigger and the gun will fire. After you fire the gun will unload by itself.

There are also the chokes you can put in the barrel of your shotgun. There is the modified cylinder, the full choke, and the improved cylinder. The full choke makes it so the bee bees stay together longer.

There is different ammo for different guns. For shotguns there are shotgun shells. There are different parts of a shotgun shell there’s the primer, the shot up, the charge, the shot, the wading, the propellant, the base, and the plastic tube. The primer is the thing the firing pin hit to ignite the charge. The charge is the gun powder that when it ignites fire the shot.  The wading helps keep the bee bees together. The plastic tube is the case that holds every thing together.

There are different parts to the shotgun. There’s the barrel, the stock, the plugs, the trigger, the firing pin, the safety, and the magazine. The plug is used to prevent hunters from putting in more than three shells (the military does not use plugs in their shotguns). The magazine is the part of the shotgun that holds the shells when it is loaded. The firing pin is the mechanism that hits the primer to ignite the charge to fire the shot. The safety prevents the user from accidentally firing when not wanting to (there is a safety on most firearms).
 

Riffles are classified by the type of action they have, by the producer, or by caliber. Caliber is measured by the size of the bullet or the diameter of the barrel. The caliber is measured in millimeters or fractions of an inch.


Types of Rifles

There are 4 types of rifles. There is the bolt-action, the lever-action, the pump-action, the semi-automatic, and the automatic (that is a machine gun). To unload the bolt-action you must pull back the bolt (which is located just in front of the butt of the gun). When you pull the bolt back it will also cock the hammer. To unload and load the lever-action you have to move the lever under the trigger up and down. When you push it down it cocks and throws out the old cartridge and cocks the hammer. When you pull it up it loads a new cartridge into the firing chamber. To load and unload the pump-action you have to pump the handle under the barrel back and forth. The back pull throws out the old cartridge out. The forward motion loads a new cartridge in to the firing chamber.

There are five main types of handguns or pistols. There are the single-action revolvers, the double -action revolvers, the single-action semiautomatic pistols, the double- action semiautomatic pistols, and the single-shot pistols.

Revolver ammo is loaded into a rotating cylinder in the middle of the gun. Pistols are usually loaded with a magazine filled with the pistol’s exact size of ammunition. The magazine for the pistol is a metal cartridge that is inserted into the butt of the gun.

The single-action revolvers usually hold six cartridges. When you pull back the hammer the hammer makes the cylinder rotate 1/6 of a turn. This makes a new cartridge get in line with the barrel and firing pin. After you cock the hammer, you pull the trigger and the hammer unlocks and falls, hit the firing pin and causes the firing pin to ignite the charge.

The double-action revolver like the single-action usually holds six cartridges. Unlike the single-shot revolver the double-action revolver does not have to be manually cocked. If you just pull the trigger the gun will fire.

To fire the single-action semiautomatic pistol you first have to pull back a device called the slide to cock the hammer or firing pin (some times called the striker mechanism). The slide is located above the trigger. When the side is released it feeds a round from the clip into the firing chamber. When you pull the trigger the hammer falls or the striker mechanism is released.

The double-action semiautomatic pistol operates basically like the double-action revolver. When the trigger is pulled the hammer will go through the firing cycle. After the first shot the double action starts working like the single-action pistol. The recoil will force the first empty round out, cocks the hammer, and inserts a new cartridge in the firing chamber.

The single-shot pistol is usually used in target shooting competitions. To the single-shot pistol you must move the operating lever forward and down to close the breach and cock the hammer. The breech block closes the breech. The breech is located behind the barrel. After the breech block is lowered the cartridge chamber is exposed. You then insert a new cartridge into the chamber. Then you pull the lever up and back and the gun is ready to fire.

Who I Interviewed And What I Learned I interviewed Don Manning on January 16, 2005. He works at and owns Shooters Supply. He is a retail salesman and gunsmith. He’s been a gunsmith for 35 years. Originally he was supposed to be a gunsmith in the army, but that didn’t work out. To become a gunsmith he had to go to college for two years to get an associate degree. Then he had to go through the job training. He is the best choice to interview if you are studying about gunsmiths. Don told me there is going to be a limited time span of success of the gun industry because of all the anti gun organizations. He also said that the custom gun making business is booming. He said people pay $10,000 to $20,000 a gun! He said that most gunsmiths are hunters, but frustrated hunters, because of how busy the stores are in hunting season. Sometimes they don’t go hunting for years. He thinks that’s the one flaw to the job. He also said that there are many mechanical and hand tools. He said the list was too long to list.

Bibliography Doyle, Jeffery “Handguns” The World Book Encyclopedia. 2004 Joseph E. Smith “German pistol.” Small Arms of The World Manning, Don. Personal interview. January 16, 2005 Meyerson, Joel. “Artillery” The World Book Encyclopedia. 2002 “Small Arms.” The Columbia Encyclopedia, Seventh Edition. Columbia University Press, 2002.  ProQuest.

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