GUNS

1. GUNS • gun is a normally tubular weapon or other device designed to discharge projectiles or other material. The projectile may be solid, liquid, gas or energy and may be free, as with bullets and artillery shells, or captive as with Taser probes and whaling harpoons. The means of projection varies according to design but is usually effected by the action of gas pressure, either produced through the rapid combustion of a propellant or compressed and stored by mechanical means, operating on the projectile inside an open-ended tube in the fashion of a piston. The confined gas accelerates the movable projectile down the length of the tube imparting sufficient velocity to sustain the projectile's travel once the action of the gas ceases at the end of the tube or muzzle. Alternatively, acceleration via electromagnetic field generation may be employed in which case the tube may be dispensed with and a guide rail substituted. • The first devices identified as guns appeared in China around 1000AD, and by the 12th century the technology was spreading through the rest of Asia, and into Europe by the 13th century.

2. HISTORY HAND CANNON HAND GUN • The first device identified as a gun, a bamboo tube that used gunpowder to fire a spear, appeared in China around 1000AD.The Chinese had previously invented gunpowder in the 9th century. An early type of firearm (or portable gun) is the fire lance, a black-powder–filled tube attached to the end of a spear and used as a flamethrower; shrapnel was sometimes placed in the barrel so that it would fly out together with the flames.[7][8] The earliest depiction of a gunpowder weapon is the illustration of a fire-lance on a mid-10th century silk banner from Dunhuang.The De'an Shoucheng Lu, an account of the siege of Dean in 1132, records that Song forces used fire-lances against the Jurchens. In due course, the proportion of saltpeter in the propellant was increased to maximize its explosive power. To better withstand that explosive power, the paper and bamboo of which fire-lance barrels were originally made came to be replaced by metal. And to take full advantage of that power, the shrapnel came to be replaced by projectiles whose size and shape filled the barrel more closely. With this, we have the three basic features of the gun: a barrel made of metal, high-nitrate gunpowder, and a projectile which totally occludes the muzzle so that the powder charge exerts its full potential in propellant effect.[One theory of how gunpowder came to Europe is that it made its way along the Silk Road through the Middle East; another is that it was brought to Europe during the Mongol invasion in the first half of the 13th century.[12][13] English Privy Wardrobe accounts list "ribaldis," a type of cannon, in the 1340s, and siege guns were used by the English at Calais in 1346.] The earliest surviving firearm in Europe has been found from Otepää, Estonia and it dates to at least 1396. Around the late 14th century in Europe, smaller and portable hand-held cannons were developed, creating in effect the first smooth-bore personal firearm. In the late 15th century the Ottoman empire used firearms as part of its regular infantry. • The first successful rapid-fire firearm is the Gatling Gun, invented by Richard Gatling and fielded by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s. The world's first sub-machine gun (a fully automatic firearm which fires pistol cartridges) able to be maneuvered by a single soldier is the MP18.1, invented by Theodor Bergmann. It was introduced into service in 1918 by the German Army during World War I as the primary weapon of the The Stosstruppen (assault groups specialized in trench combat). The first assault rifle was introduced during World War II by the Germans, known as the StG44. It was the first-ever firearm which bridges the gap between long range rifles, machine guns and short range sub-machine guns. Since the mid-20th century guns that fire beams of energy rather than solid projectiles have been developed, and also guns that can be fired by means other than the use of gunpowder.

3. COMPONENTS Barrel Projectile • Barrel types include rifled—a series of spiraled grooves or angles within the barrel—when the projectile requires an induced spin to stabilize it, and smoothbore when the projectile is stabilized by other means or rifling is undesired or unnecessary. Typically, interior barrel diameter and the associated projectile size is a means to identify gun variations. Bore diameter is reported in several ways. The more conventional measure is reporting the interior diameter (bore) of the barrel in decimal fractions of the inch or in millimeters. Some guns—such as shotguns—report the weapon's gauge (which is the number of shot pellets having the same diameter as the bore produced from one English pound (454g) of lead) or—as in some British ordnance—the weight of the weapon's usual projectile. • A gun projectile may be a simple, single-piece item like a bullet, a casing containing a payload like a shot shell or explosive shell, or complex projectile like a sub-caliber projectile and sabot. The propellant may be air, an explosive solid, or an explosive liquid. Some variations like the Gyrojet and certain other types combine the projectile and propellant into a single item.

4. TYPES OF GUNS MILITARY GUNS 2. MACHINE GUNS • ARQUEBUS-from Dutch haakbus, meaning "hook gun", or "hook tube", is an early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. • BLUNDERBUSS-"blunderbuss" is of Dutch origin, from the Dutch word donderbus, which is a combination of donder, meaning "thunder", and bus, meaning "Pipe" (Middle Dutch: busse, box, tube, from Late Latin, buxis, box,from Ancient Greekpyxίs (πυξίς) • MUSKET- a muzzle-loaded, smoothborefirearm, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer. • SUB MACHINE GUN-an automaticcarbine, designed to fire pistolcartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I (1914–1918). • RIFFLE-a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves ("rifling") cut into the barrel walls. GATLING GUNS-  one of the best known early rapid-fire weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun. Invented by Richard Gatling, it is known for its use by the Unionforces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat.  NORDENFELT GUNS- a multiple barrelmachine gun that had a row of up to twelve barrels. It was fired by pulling a lever back and forth. It was produced in a number of different calibers from rifle up to 25 mm (1 inch).  MITRAILLEUS- a type of volley gun with multiple barrels of rifle caliber that can fire either multiple rounds at once, or several in rapid succession. GENERAL-PURPOSE MACHINE GUN- a belt-fed weapon used in a variety of roles, from bipod- or tripod-mounted infantry support to deployment as a helicopter door gun or a vehicle-mounted support weapon. light machine gun LIGHT MACHINE GUN-a machine gun designed to be employed by an individual soldier, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. 

5. TYPES OF GUNS MACHINE GUNS SQUAD AUTOMATIC WEAPON- a weapon used to give infantry squads or sections a portable source of automatic firepower. INFRANTY AUTOMATIC RIFLE-It is intended to enhance an automatic rifleman's maneuverability and displacement speed, and it is based on the HK416.  MEDIUM MACHINE GUN-usually refers to a belt-fedautomatic firearm firing a full-power riflecartridge. HEAVY MACHINE GUN- a larger class of machine gun generally recognized to refer to two separate stages of machine gun development. HANDGUNS SERVICE PISTOL- any handgun issued to military personnel. REVLOVER-a repeating firearm that has a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. MACHINE PISTOL-a handgun-style,[1]magazine-fed, self-loading firearm, capable of fully automatic or burst fire, and chambered for pistol cartridges. SERVICE REVOLVER-any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile

6. OPERATING PRINCIPLE • Most guns use compressed gas confined by the barrel to propel the bullet up to high speed, though devices operating in other ways are sometimes called guns. In firearms that are gun the high-pressure gas is generated by combustion, usually of gunpowder. This principle is similar to that of internal combustion engines, except that the bullet leaves the barrel, while the piston transfers its motion to other parts and returns down the cylinder. As in an internal combustion engine, the combustion propagates by deflagration rather than by detonation, and the optimal gunpowder, like the optimal motor fuel, is resistant to detonation. This is because much of the energy generated in detonation is in the form of a shock wave, which can propagate from the gas to the solid structure and heat or damage the structure, rather than staying as heat to propel the piston or bullet. The shock wave at such high temperature and pressure is much faster than that of any bullet, and would leave the gun as sound either through the barrel or the bullet itself rather than contributing to the bullet's velocity.

7. ETYMOLOGY • The origin of the English word gun is presently considered to derive from the name given to a particular historical weapon. DominaGunilda was the name given to a remarkably large ballista, a mechanical bolt throwing weapon of enormous size, mounted at Windsor Castle during the 14C. This name in turn may have derived from the Old Norse woman's proper name Gunnhildr which combines two Norse words referring to battle.[3] In any case the term gonne or gunne was applied to early hand-held firearms by the late 14C. or early 15C.