Quote: “Pistols
Popular among handgun-owners, pistols are defined by their built-in barrel and short stock. They are the most commonly recovered firearm type reported by the ATF. With more than 119,000 pistols found at crime scenes in 2012, this handgun model holds an unfortunately solid first place in criminal weaponry.
One of the most popular pistols is the Glock, a short-recoil operated, semi-automatic pistol produced by Glock Ges.m.b.H. in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria. Glocks comprise 65 percent of the market share of handguns for United States law enforcement agencies and are also frequently used by international law-enforcement.”
Rolling Stones’ The 5 Most Dangerous Guns in America photoessay lists “Pistols, Revolvers, Rifles, Shotguns, and Derringers” as the five firearms “causing the most harm.” Rolling Stone journalists don’t seem to understand that Derringers and Revolvers are pistols, and they provoked a sardonic smile on my part by using a photo (above) of a Phoenix HP-22 to illustrate the pistol tirade which talks all about Glocks. I guess they don’t actually know what a Glock is either.
Good thing inanimate objects do not sue, or all those guns would be in a position to win a libel case based on being blamed for causing harm. I feel perfectly sure that not a single gun ever caused any harm absent human intervention.
Rolling Stone set a kind of new record for ignorant vapidity, and that accomplishment did not go unnoticed and unmocked. There was by last night already a Twitchy page featuring parodies.
John
As much as I disdain Rolling Stone, and its vapid politicizing, I would like to point out that as a subset of handguns pistols are distinct from revolvers; and pistols has come to mean the further sub-category of semiautomatic pistols. At least that’s what I have always know. It is easy to confirm my bias via the internet. I’m curious as to others’ views on this.
Burke
I agree with John. It is true that the simple fact of saying that “Pistols, Revolvers, Rifles, Shotguns, and Derringers are the five firearms “causing the most harm” is ridiculous (what have you got left in man-portable weapons? Bazookas?).
Nevertheless, at least in the common usage, “pistols” and “revolvers” came to mean different things.
T. Shaw
And, 25% of Americans, nearly all of them common Obama voters, think the Sun revolves around the Earth.
Darkwater
Oddly enough, they didn’t include “assault weapons” in the list.
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