1.
Remington Rand
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Remington Rand was a diversified conglomerate making other office equipment, electric shavers, etc. The Remington Rand Building at 315 Park Avenue South in New York City is a 20-floor skyscraper completed in 1911, Remington Rand was formed in 1927 by the merger of the Remington Typewriter Company and Rand Kardex Corporation. One of its earliest factories, the former Herschell–Spillman Motor Company Complex, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. Within the first year Remington Rand acquired the Dalton Adding Machine Company, the Powers Accounting Machine Company, the Baker-Vawter Company and the Kalamazoo Loose-Leaf Binder Company. From 1942 to 1945, Remington Rand was one manufacturer of the M1911A1.45 caliber semi-automatic pistol used by the United States Armed Forces during World War II, Remington Rand produced more M1911A1 pistols than any other wartime manufacturer. Remington Rand ranked 66th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts, at that time, Remington Rand had become one of the biggest computer companies in the United States. Remington Rand was acquired by Sperry Corporation in 1955 to form a company known as Sperry Rand. However the brand name of Remington Rand remained as a subdivision for many years, Sperry merged in 1986 with Burroughs to form Unisys. Initially produced by E. Remington and Sons, the Remington Typewriters were the first to use the QWERTY keyboard layout, Remington had bought the design from Christopher Sholes. The Remington No.1 was the first model released, Remington spun off Remington Typewriter Company in 1886, and after the 1927 merger, the Remington Rand Corp. continued to manufacture and sell typewriters. The UNIVAC I was the commercial computer made in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, design work was begun by their company, Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, and was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand. The first UNIVAC was delivered to the United States Census Bureau on March 31,1951, the fifth machine was used by CBS to predict the result of the 1952 U. S. presidential election. With a sample of 1% of the population it predicted Eisenhowers win. In 1949, Remington Rand designed the Remington Rand 409, a control panel programmed punched card calculator, Remington Rand also made electric razors. The Remington brand of razor was produced by a division of Remington Rand. Sperry Corporation sold the division in 1979 to Victor Kiam, who became the spokesman of the new Remington Products Company. His line, I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company one of the more memorable advertising slogans of the early 1980s
2.
Semi-automatic pistol
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One cartridge is fired each time the trigger of a semi-automatic pistol is pulled, the pistols disconnector ensures this behavior. Additional terms sometimes used as synonyms for a semi-automatic pistol are automatic pistol, self-loading pistol, autopistol, a semi-automatic pistol harnesses the energy of one shot to reload the chamber for the next. After a round is fired, the spent casing is ejected, most pistols use recoil operation to do this, but some pistols use blowback or gas operation. Most types of semi-automatic pistols rely on a magazine to store ammunition before it is fired. Typically, the first round is loaded into the chamber by pulling back. This is called racking the slide or racking the gun, after the trigger is pulled and the round is fired, the recoil operation of the handgun automatically extracts and ejects the shell casing and reloads the chamber. This mode of operation allows for faster reloading and storing a larger number of cartridges than a revolver. Each pull of the trigger on a DAO semi-automatic pistol requires the amount of pressure. The Kel-Tec P-32 is an example of a DAO action, DAO semi-automatic pistols are most generally recommended only in the smaller, self-defense, concealable pistols, rather than in target or hunting pistols. A notable exception is Glock-brand pistols which optimize preset triggers, and this allows for significantly shorter trigger pulls than DAO. The trigger spring can be replaced with a one and paired with a low-strength sear connector resulting in lightened trigger pulls to improve a shooters accuracy. Standard modern semi-automatic pistols are double action, also sometimes known as double-action/single-action. In this design, the hammer or striker may be either thumb-cocked or activated by pulling the trigger when firing the first shot, the hammer or striker is recocked automatically during each firing cycle. In double-action pistols, the first pull of the trigger requires roughly twice as much pressure as subsequent firings, the Beretta 92F/FS, a full-sized, service, semi-automatic pistol is an example of this style of action. A common mode of carry for DA semi-automatic pistols is with the full, a round chambered. In contrast, a single-action semi-automatic pistol must be cocked by first operating the slide or bolt, or, if a round is already chambered, the famed Colt M1911 is an example of this style of action. All SA semi-automatic pistols exhibit this feature, and automatically cock the hammer when the slide is first racked to chamber a round, a round can also be manually inserted in the chamber with the slide locked back. Then the safety can be applied, the normal mode of carrying an SA semi-automatic pistol is condition 1, popularly known as cocked and locked
3.
Service pistol
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A service pistol is any handgun issued to military personnel or law enforcement officers. Pistols are not typically issued to front-line infantry, before firearms were commonplace, officers typically carried swords instead. Traditionally, soldiers and officers had carried swords for both protection and use in combat. Training was also a factor—it took a long time to train new recruits in the use of longbows. As a result, swords were retained only by officers and by cavalry, the invention of the revolver in 1836 finally made a service pistol practical, as prior to this pistols had largely been single-shot weapons usually of no particular standardized pattern. Although officers traditionally had been obligated to buy their own weapons, non-commissioned officers, service pistols, on the other hand, were generally issued to officers, NCO, and others who needed to carry personal weapons as part of their duties. Hence, it was common for officers to carry government-issued service pistols in combat. Special operations soldiers often carry a handgun as a weapon to serve in a supplementary capacity to their primary weapon. Soldiers who do not serve in a combat role are often issued a pistol. Service pistols are issued to police and other soldiers acting in a law enforcement capacity as part of their duties. The tradition of issuing pistols to officers as a weapon is being phased out by many nations. The United States Marine Corps, for example, recently began requiring all enlisted personnel and all officers below the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to carry the M4 Carbine as their primary weapon
4.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
5.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
6.
Korean War
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The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance. Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, U. S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments, both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union, on that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83, Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation, twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing 88% of the UNs military personnel. After the first two months of war, South Korean forces were on the point of defeat, forced back to the Pusan Perimeter, in September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Inchon, and cut off many North Korean troops. Those who escaped envelopment and capture were rapidly forced back north all the way to the border with China at the Yalu River, at this point, in October 1950, Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war. Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces which continued until mid-1951, after these reversals of fortune, which saw Seoul change hands four times, the last two years of fighting became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate, North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in combat for the first time in history. The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when an armistice was signed, the agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war. Periodic clashes, many of which are deadly, continue to the present, in the U. S. the war was initially described by President Harry S. Truman as a police action as it was an undeclared military action, conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. In South Korea, the war is referred to as 625 or the 6–2–5 Upheaval. In North Korea, the war is referred to as the Fatherland Liberation War or alternatively the Chosǒn War. In China, the war is called the War to Resist U. S
7.
Vietnam War
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It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war. As the war continued, the actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role. U. S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, in the course of the war, the U. S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam and they viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States. The U. S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and this was part the domino theory of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina, U. S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. Regular U. S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965, despite the Paris Peace Accord, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued. In the U. S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture, the war changed the dynamics between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and altered North–South relations. Direct U. S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973, the capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3.8 million. Some 240, 000–300,000 Cambodians,20, 000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U. S. service members died in the conflict. Various names have applied to the conflict. Vietnam War is the most commonly used name in English and it has also been called the Second Indochina War and the Vietnam Conflict. As there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this conflict is known by the names of its primary protagonists to distinguish it from others. In Vietnamese, the war is known as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ. It is also called Chiến tranh Việt Nam, France began its conquest of Indochina in the late 1850s, and completed pacification by 1893. The 1884 Treaty of Huế formed the basis for French colonial rule in Vietnam for the seven decades
8.
Irish War of Independence
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The Irish War of Independence or Anglo-Irish War or the Tan War was a guerrilla war fought from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army and the British security forces in Ireland. It was an escalation of the Irish revolutionary period into armed conflict, in the December 1918 election, the Irish republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory in Ireland. On 21 January 1919 they formed a government and declared independence from Britain. Later that day, two members of the British-organized armed police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary, were dead in County Tipperary by IRA members acting on their own initiative. This is often seen as the beginning of the conflict, for much of 1919, IRA activity primarily involved capturing weapons and freeing republican prisoners. In September that year the British government outlawed the Dáil and Sinn Féin, the IRA began ambushing RIC and British Army patrols, attacking their barracks and forcing isolated barracks to be abandoned. The British government bolstered the RIC with recruits from Britain—the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries—who became notorious for ill-discipline, the conflict as a result is often referred to as the Black and Tan War or simply the Tan War. While around 300 people had killed in the conflict up to late 1920. A week later, seventeen Auxiliaries were killed by the IRA in an ambush at Kilmichael in County Cork, the British government declared martial law in much of southern Ireland. The centre of Cork City was burnt out by British forces in December 1920, violence continued to escalate over the next seven months, when 1,000 people were killed and 4,500 republicans were interned. The fighting was concentrated in Munster, Dublin and Belfast. These three locations saw over 75% of the conflicts fatalities, violence in Ulster, especially Belfast, was notable for its sectarian character and its high number of Catholic civilian victims. Both sides agreed to a truce on 11 July 1921, the post-ceasefire talks led to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921. However, six counties remained within the United Kingdom. After the ceasefire, political and sectarian violence between republicans and loyalists continued in Northern Ireland for many months, in June 1922, disagreement among republicans over the Anglo-Irish Treaty led to an eleven-month civil war. The Irish Free State awarded 62,868 medals for service during the War of Independence, since the 1880s, Irish nationalists in the Irish Parliamentary Party had been demanding Home Rule, or self-government, from Britain. Fringe organisations, such as Arthur Griffiths Sinn Féin instead argued for some form of Irish independence, in turn, nationalists formed their own paramilitary organisation, the Irish Volunteers. But a significant minority of the Irish Volunteers opposed Irelands involvement in the war, the Volunteer movement split, a majority leaving to form the National Volunteers under Redmond
9.
Indonesian National Revolution
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It took place between Indonesias declaration of independence in 1945 and the Dutch recognition of Indonesias independence at the end of 1949. The Indonesian independence movement began in May 1908, which is commemorated as the Year of National Awakening, the struggle lasted for over four years and involved sporadic but bloody armed conflict, internal Indonesian political and communal upheavals, and two major international diplomatic interventions. Dutch military forces were able to control the towns, cities and industrial assets in Republican heartlands on Java and Sumatra. In 1949 international pressure on the Netherlands became such that, together with the existing partial military stalemate, the revolution marked the end of the colonial administration of the Dutch East Indies, except for Netherlands New Guinea. It also significantly changed ethnic castes, as well as reducing the power of many of the local rulers and it did not significantly improve the economic or political fortune of the majority of the population, although a few Indonesians were able to gain a larger role in commerce. Budi Utomo, Sarekat Islam and others pursued strategies of co-operation by joining the Dutch initiated Volksraad in the hope that Indonesia would be granted self-rule, others chose a non-cooperative strategy demanding the freedom of self-government from the Dutch East Indies colony. The most notable of these leaders were Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, the occupation of Indonesia by Japan for three and a half years during World War II was a crucial factor in the subsequent revolution. The Netherlands had little ability to defend its colony against the Japanese army, in Java, and to a lesser extent in Sumatra, the Japanese spread and encouraged nationalist sentiment. Just as significantly for the subsequent revolution, the Japanese destroyed and replaced much of the Dutch-created economic, administrative, on 7 September 1944, with the war going badly for the Japanese, Prime Minister Koiso promised independence for Indonesia, but no date was set. For supporters of Sukarno, this announcement was seen as vindication for his collaboration with the Japanese, under pressure from radical and politicised pemuda groups, Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed Indonesian independence, on 17 August 1945, two days after the Japanese Emperor’s surrender in the Pacific. The following day, the Central Indonesian National Committee elected Sukarno as President, PROCLAMATION We, the people of Indonesia, hereby declare the independence of Indonesia. Matters which concern the transfer of power and other things will be executed by careful means, as the news spread, most Indonesians came to regard themselves as pro-Republican, and a mood of revolution swept across the country. External power had shifted, it would be weeks before Allied Forces entered Indonesia, the resulting power vacuums in the weeks following the Japanese surrender, created an atmosphere of uncertainty, but also one of opportunity for the Republicans. Many pemuda joined pro-Republic struggle groups, the most disciplined were soldiers from the Japanese-formed but disbanded Giyugun and Heiho groups. Many groups were undisciplined, due to both the circumstances of their formation and what they perceived as revolutionary spirit, in the first weeks, Japanese troops often withdrew from urban areas to avoid confrontations. To spread the message, pemuda set up their own radio stations and newspapers. On most islands, struggle committees and militia were set up, Republican leaders struggled to come to terms with popular sentiment, some wanted passionate armed struggle, others a more reasoned approach. Some leaders, such as the leftist Tan Malaka, spread the idea that this was a struggle to be led
10.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
11.
Iraq War
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The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces. An estimated 151,000 to 600,000 or more Iraqis were killed in the first 3–4 years of conflict and it became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition, the insurgency and many dimensions of the civil armed conflict continue. The invasion began on 20 March 2003, with the U. S. joined by the United Kingdom and several allies, launching a shock. Iraqi forces were overwhelmed as U. S. forces swept through the country. The invasion led to the collapse of the Baathist government, President Hussein was captured during Operation Red Dawn in December of that same year, the United States responded with a troop surge in 2007. The winding down of U. S. involvement in Iraq accelerated under President Barack Obama, the U. S. formally withdrew all combat troops from Iraq by December 2011. Select U. S. officials accused Saddam of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda, while others cited the desire to end a repressive dictatorship, after the invasion, no substantial evidence was found to verify the initial claims about WMDs. The rationale and misrepresentation of pre-war intelligence faced heavy criticism within the U. S. in the aftermath of the invasion, Iraq held multi-party elections in 2005. Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister in 2006 and remained in office until 2014, the al-Maliki government enacted policies that were widely seen as having the effect of alienating the countrys Sunni minority and worsening sectarian tensions. The Iraq War caused hundreds of thousands of civilian, and thousands of military casualties, the majority of casualties occurred as a result of the insurgency and civil conflicts between 2004 and 2007. A1990 Frontline report on The arming of Iraq said, Officially, most Western nations participated in an arms embargo against Iraq during the 1980s. Western companies, primarily in Germany and Great Britain, but also in the United States, sold Iraq the key technology for its chemical, missile, any Western governments seemed remarkably indifferent, if not enthusiastic, about those deals. N Washington, the government consistently followed a policy which allowed and perhaps encouraged the growth of Saddam Husseins arsenal. The Western arming of Iraq took place in the context of the Iran-Iraq War, prior to September 2002, the CIA was the George W. Bush administrations main provider of intelligence on Iraq. The agency was out to disprove linkage between Iraq and terrorism the Pentagon adviser told me, the U. N. had prohibited Iraq from developing or possessing such weapons after the Gulf War and required Iraq to permit inspections confirming compliance. This was confirmed by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, during 2002, Bush repeatedly warned of military action against Iraq unless inspections were allowed to progress unfettered. In accordance with U. N. Security Council Resolution 1441, Iraq agreed to new inspections under United Nations Monitoring, as part of its weapons inspection obligations, Iraq was required to supply a full declaration of its current weapons capabilities and manufacturing
12.
Syrian Civil War
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The Syrian Civil War is an armed conflict taking place in Syria. Syrian opposition groups formed the Free Syrian Army and seized control of the area surrounding Aleppo, over time, some factions of the Syrian opposition split from their original moderate position to pursue an Islamist vision for Syria, joining groups such as al-Nusra Front and ISIL. In 2015, the Yekîneyên Parastina Gel joined forces with Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Russia and Hezbollah militarily engaged in support of the Syrian government, while beginning in 2014, a coalition of NATO countries began launching airstrikes against ISIL. International organizations have accused the Syrian government, ISIL, and some groups of severe human rights violations. The conflict has caused a major refugee crisis, over the course of the war a number of peace initiatives have been launched, including the March 2017 Geneva peace talks on Syria led by the United Nations, but fighting continues. Syria became an independent republic in 1946, although democratic rule ended with a coup in March 1949, a popular uprising against military rule in 1954 saw the army transfer power to civilians. From 1958 to 1961, a union with Egypt replaced Syrias parliamentary system with a highly centralized presidential government. The secular Baath Syrian Regional Branch government came to power through a successful coup détat in 1963, for the next several years Syria went through additional coups and changes in leadership. In March 1971, Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite, declared himself President, on 31 January 1973, Hafez al-Assad implemented a new constitution, which led to a national crisis. They labeled Assad the enemy of Allah and called for a jihad against his rule, the government survived a series of armed revolts by Sunni Islamists, mainly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, from 1976 until 1982. Upon Hafez al-Assads death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad was elected as President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma, a Sunni Muslim born and educated in Britain, initially inspired hopes for democratic reforms. The Damascus Spring, a period of social and political debate, the Damascus Spring largely ended in August 2001 with the arrest and imprisonment of ten leading activists who had called for democratic elections and a campaign of civil disobedience. In the opinion of his critics, Bashar al-Assad had failed to deliver on promised reforms, Syrian Arabs, together with some 600,000 Palestinian Arabs, make up roughly 74 percent of the population. Syria Muslims are 74 percent Sunnis, and 13 percent Shias,3 percent were Druze, not all of the Sunnis are Arabs. Bashar is married to a Sunni, with whom he has several children and he is affiliated with the sect that his parents belong to, the minority Alawite sect which comprises an estimated 8-12 percent of the total population. Assyrians, an indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking Christian Semitic people, numbering approximately 500,000, are mainly in northeast Syria. A larger population lives over the border in northern Iraq, other ethnic groups include Armenians, Circassians, Turkmens, Greeks, Mhallami, Kawliya, Yezidi, Shabaks, and Mandeans. Socioeconomic inequality increased significantly after free market policies were initiated by Hafez al-Assad in his later years, the country also faced particularly high youth unemployment rates
13.
John Browning
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He is regarded as one of the most successful firearms designers of the 20th century, in the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms, and is credited with 128 gun patents. He made his first firearm at age 13 in his fathers gun shop, Browning influenced nearly all categories of firearms design. He invented or made significant improvements to single-shot, lever-action, and slide-action, rifles and his most significant contributions were arguably in the area of autoloading firearms. He developed the first autoloading pistols that were reliable and compact by inventing the telescoping bolt, integrating the bolt and barrel shroud into what is known as the pistol slide. Brownings telescoping bolt design is now found on every modern semi-automatic pistol. Browning also made significant contributions to automatic cannon development, some of these arms are still manufactured, often with only minor changes in detail and cosmetics to those assembled by Browning or his licensees. His guns are some of the most copied guns in the world, Browning was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a two-year mission in Georgia beginning on March 28,1887. His father Jonathan Browning, who was among the thousands of Mormon pioneers in the exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah. John Moses worked in his fathers Ogden shop from the age of seven, where he was taught basic engineering and manufacturing principles, production examples of the Model 1885 Single Shot Rifle caught the attention of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, who dispatched a representative to evaluate the competition. Winchester bought the design for $8,000 and moved production to their Connecticut factory, Winchester manufactured several popular small arms designed by John M. Browning. For decades in the late 19th Century-early 20th Century, Browning designs and Winchester firearms were synonymous, as was the custom of the time, Brownings earlier designs had been licensed exclusively to Winchester for a single fee payment. With this new product, Browning introduced in his negotiations a continuous royalty fee based upon unit sales, if the new shotgun became highly successful, Browning stood to make substantially more fee income over the prior license fee arrangements. Winchester management was displeased with the change in their relationship. Remington Arms was also approached, however the president of Remington died of an attack as Browning waited to offer them the gun. This forced Browning to look overseas to produce the shotgun, however, Remington would later produce a copy of the Auto-5 as the Model 11 which was used by the US Military and was also sold to the civilian market. The Browning Auto-5 was continuously manufactured as a highly popular throughout the 20th century. This shift marked the end of an era of Winchester-Browning collaboration, John Browning was known as a dedicated and tireless innovator and experimenter who sought breakthrough consumer-oriented features and performance and reliability improvements in small arms designs. He did not retire from his career in his elder years, but dedicated his entire adult life—literally to his last day—to these pursuits
14.
Colt's Manufacturing Company
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Colts Manufacturing Company is an American firearms manufacturer, founded in 1855 by Samuel Colt. It is the corporation to Colts earlier firearms-making efforts, which started in 1836. Colts earliest designs played a role in the popularization of the revolver. Although Samuel Colt did not invent the concept, his designs resulted in the first very successful ones. The most famous Colt products include the Colt Walker, made 1847 in the facilities of Eli Whitney Jr. Though they did not develop it, for a long time Colt was also responsible for all AR-15 and M16 rifle production. The most successful and famous of these are numerous M16 carbines, including the Colt Commando family, in 2002, Colt Defense was split off from Colts Manufacturing Company. Colts Manufacturing Company now serves the market, while Colt Defense serves the law enforcement, military. The two companies remained in the same West Hartford, Connecticut location cross-licensing certain merchandise before reuniting in 2013, following the loss of its M4 contract in 2013, Colt was briefly in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, starting in 2015. Samuel Colt received a British patent on his design for a revolver in 1835. That same year, he founded his first corporation for its manufacture, the first firearm manufactured at the new Paterson plant, however, was the Colt First Model Ring Lever rifle beginning in 1837. This was followed thereafter in late 1837 by the introduction of the Colt Paterson. This corporation suffered quality problems in production, making firearms with interchangeable parts was still rather new, and it was not yet easy to replicate across different factories. Interchangeability was not complete in the Paterson works, and traditional gunsmithing techniques did not fill the gap entirely there, the Colt Paterson revolver found patchy success and failure, some worked well, while others had problems. The United States Marine Corps and United States Army reported quality problems with these earliest Colt revolvers, production had ended at the New Jersey corporation by 1842. Colt made another attempt at revolver production in 1846 and submitted a prototype to the US government, during the Mexican–American War, this prototype was seen by Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker who made some suggestions to Colt about making it in a larger caliber. Having no factory or machinery to produce the pistols, Samuel Colt collaborated with the Whitney armory of Whitneyville and this armory was run by the family of Eli Whitney. Eli Whitney Jr, the son of the patriarch, was the head of the family armory
15.
M15 pistol
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The pistol was issued to United States Army general officers as a personal weapon. The M15 is quite similar to the Colt Commander and is similar to the M1911A1. Formally adopted in 1972, it is no longer produced but can still be seen in service with officers who have long service careers, originally intended for high-ranking military personnel, the M15 was built from an existing stock of Colt M1911 pistols. It is similar to the Colt Commander, but has internal differences, Colt later released a similar pistol called the Colt Officers ACP. This model is referred to as the Officer. It was adopted to give officers a weapon with greater stopping power, there is some disagreement in sources over its formal designation, possibly either Pistol, General Officers, Caliber.45, M15 or Pistol, Cal.45, Semi-automatic, M1911A1, General Officers. The M9 9mm has replaced the M1911 as the General Officer Pistol, functionally, the M15 operates the same as a basic M1911 Colt pistol. The shorter barrel is reported to have a muzzle blast, yet even with the abbreviated barrel. The pistols sights are larger than the standard M1911A1s, including a front sight. Magazines remain interchangeable between the two models, a lanyard may be attached to the mainspring housing. The M15 is made to a standard of finish to distinguish it as a general officers pistol. The finish on the guns was a blue on portions of the slide. The exposed metal parts such as the safety and slide lock have a blued finish. It has select-grade walnut grips with a placard on the left grip, with the owners name engraved in it. The slide is engraved, General Officers Model and the abbreviation RIA for Rock Island Arsenal. The pistol came with a leather belt, black leather holster, black leather two-pocket magazine pouch, cleaning kit. The belts buckle and any metal parts were either in gold for the Army or silver for the Air Force. The M15 pistol was issued from 1972 to 1981, after which it was replaced in Army, a total of 1,004 were made and issued
16.
Pound (mass)
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The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement. The international standard symbol for the pound is lb. The unit is descended from the Roman libra, the English word pound is cognate with, among others, German Pfund, Dutch pond, and Swedish pund. All ultimately derive from a borrowing into Proto-Germanic of the Latin expression lībra pondō, usage of the unqualified term pound reflects the historical conflation of mass and weight. This accounts for the modern distinguishing terms pound-mass and pound-force, the United States and countries of the Commonwealth of Nations agreed upon common definitions for the pound and the yard. Since 1 July 1959, the avoirdupois pound has been defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg. In the United Kingdom, the use of the pound was implemented in the Weights and Measures Act 1963.9144 metre exactly. An avoirdupois pound is equal to 16 avoirdupois ounces and to exactly 7,000 grains, the conversion factor between the kilogram and the international pound was therefore chosen to be divisible by 7, and an grain is thus equal to exactly 64.79891 milligrams. The US has not adopted the system despite many efforts to do so. Historically, in different parts of the world, at different points in time, and for different applications, the libra is an ancient Roman unit of mass that was equivalent to approximately 328.9 grams. It was divided into 12 unciae, or ounces, the libra is the origin of the abbreviation for pound, lb. A number of different definitions of the pound have historically used in Britain. Amongst these were the avoirdupois pound and the tower, merchants. Historically, the sterling was a tower pound of silver. In 1528, the standard was changed to the Troy pound, the avoirdupois pound, also known as the wool pound, first came into general use c. It was initially equal to 6992 troy grains, the pound avoirdupois was divided into 16 ounces. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the pound was redefined as 7,000 troy grains. Since then, the grain has often been a part of the avoirdupois system
17.
Kilogram
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The kilogram or kilogramme is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype of the Kilogram. The avoirdupois pound, used in both the imperial and US customary systems, is defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg, making one kilogram approximately equal to 2.2046 avoirdupois pounds. Other traditional units of weight and mass around the world are also defined in terms of the kilogram, the gram, 1/1000 of a kilogram, was provisionally defined in 1795 as the mass of one cubic centimeter of water at the melting point of ice. The final kilogram, manufactured as a prototype in 1799 and from which the IPK was derived in 1875, had an equal to the mass of 1 dm3 of water at its maximum density. The kilogram is the only SI base unit with an SI prefix as part of its name and it is also the only SI unit that is still directly defined by an artifact rather than a fundamental physical property that can be reproduced in different laboratories. Three other base units and 17 derived units in the SI system are defined relative to the kilogram, only 8 other units do not require the kilogram in their definition, temperature, time and frequency, length, and angle. At its 2011 meeting, the CGPM agreed in principle that the kilogram should be redefined in terms of the Planck constant, the decision was originally deferred until 2014, in 2014 it was deferred again until the next meeting. There are currently several different proposals for the redefinition, these are described in the Proposed Future Definitions section below, the International Prototype Kilogram is rarely used or handled. In the decree of 1795, the term gramme thus replaced gravet, the French spelling was adopted in the United Kingdom when the word was used for the first time in English in 1797, with the spelling kilogram being adopted in the United States. In the United Kingdom both spellings are used, with kilogram having become by far the more common, UK law regulating the units to be used when trading by weight or measure does not prevent the use of either spelling. In the 19th century the French word kilo, a shortening of kilogramme, was imported into the English language where it has used to mean both kilogram and kilometer. In 1935 this was adopted by the IEC as the Giorgi system, now known as MKS system. In 1948 the CGPM commissioned the CIPM to make recommendations for a practical system of units of measurement. This led to the launch of SI in 1960 and the subsequent publication of the SI Brochure, the kilogram is a unit of mass, a property which corresponds to the common perception of how heavy an object is. Mass is a property, that is, it is related to the tendency of an object at rest to remain at rest, or if in motion to remain in motion at a constant velocity. Accordingly, for astronauts in microgravity, no effort is required to hold objects off the cabin floor, they are weightless. However, since objects in microgravity still retain their mass and inertia, the ratio of the force of gravity on the two objects, measured by the scale, is equal to the ratio of their masses. On April 7,1795, the gram was decreed in France to be the weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of the metre
18.
Gun barrel
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A gun barrel is a part of firearms and artillery pieces. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, a gun barrel must be able to hold in the expanding gas produced by the propellants to ensure that optimum muzzle velocity is attained by the projectile as it is being pushed out by the expanding gas. Modern small arms barrels are made of known and tested to withstand the pressures involved. Artillery pieces are made by various techniques providing reliably sufficient strength, early firearms were muzzle-loading, with powder, and then shot loaded from the muzzle, capable of only a low rate of fire. During the 19th century effective mechanical locks were invented that sealed a breech-loading weapon against the escape of propellant gases, the early Chinese, the inventors of gunpowder, used bamboo, a naturally tubular stalk, as the first barrels in gunpowder projectile weapons. Early European guns were made of iron, usually with several strengthening bands of the metal wrapped around circular wrought iron rings. The Chinese were the first to master cast-iron cannon barrels, early cannon barrels were very thick for their caliber. Bore evacuator Bore snake Cannon Muzzle Polygonal rifling Rifling Slug barrel Smoothbore
19.
Cartridge (firearms)
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Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition. A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank, One that is completely inert is called a dummy. Some artillery ammunition uses the same concept as found in small arms. In other cases, the shell is separate from the propellant charge. In popular use, the bullet is often misused to refer to a complete cartridge. The cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions excepting the bore, a firing pin strikes the primer and ignites it. The primer compound deflagrates, it does not detonate, a jet of burning gas from the primer ignites the propellant. Gases from the burning powder pressurize and expand the case to seal it against the chamber wall and these propellant gases push on the bullet base. In response to pressure, the bullet will move in the path of least resistance which is down the bore of the barrel. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the pressure drops to atmospheric pressure. The case, which had been expanded by chamber pressure. This eases removal of the case from the chamber, brass is a commonly used case material because it is resistant to corrosion. A brass case head can be work-hardened to withstand the pressures of cartridges. The neck and body portion of a case is easily annealed to make the case ductile enough to allow reforming so that it can be reloaded many times. Steel is used in some plinking ammunition, as well as in military ammunition. Steel is less expensive than brass, but it is not feasible to reload, Military forces typically consider small arms cartridge cases to be disposable, one-time-use devices. However, case weight affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry, conversely, steel is more susceptible to contamination and damage so all such cases are varnished or otherwise sealed against the elements. One downside caused by the strength of steel in the neck of these cases is that propellant gas can blow back past the neck
20.
.45 ACP
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The.45 ACP, or.45 Auto is a handgun cartridge designed by John Browning in 1905, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After successful military trials it was adopted along with the Browning.45 Colt handgun as the.45 M1911 cartridge, the handgun was designated M1911 handgun. The U. S. Cavalry had been buying and testing various handguns in the late 1890s, the.45 Colt Single Action Army had largely been replaced, even by some double-action versions of the same caliber. The Army had fielded some double-action revolvers in.38 Long Colt and they determined the.38 caliber round was significantly less effective than the.45 Colt against determined opponents such as the Moro juramentado warriors encountered in the Moro Rebellion. This experience, and the Thompson–LaGarde Tests of 1904 led the Army and they noted, however, training was critical to make sure a soldier could score a hit in a vulnerable part of the body. The result from Colt was the Model 1905 and the new.45 ACP cartridge. The resulting. 45-caliber cartridge, named the.45 ACP, was similar in performance to the.45 Schofield cartridge, by 1906, bids from six makers were submitted, among them Brownings design, submitted by Colt. Only DWM, Savage, and Colt made the first cut, DWM, which submitted two Parabellum P08s chambered in.45 ACP, withdrew from testing after the first round of tests, for unspecified reasons. In the second round of evaluations in 1910, the Colt design passed the testing with no failures. The Colt pistol was adopted as the Model 1911, the cartridge/pistol combination was quite successful but not satisfactory for U. S. military purposes. The very first production, at Frankford Arsenal, was marked F A811, the cartridge was designed by John Browning for Colt, but the most influential person in selecting the cartridge was Army Ordnance member Gen. John T. Thompson. Thompson insisted on a real man stopper pistol, following the showing of the Armys.38 Long Colt pistols during the Philippine–American War. The.45 ACP has 1.62 ml cartridge case capacity.45 ACP maximum C. I. P. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 406 mm,6 grooves, Ø lands =11.23 mm, Ø grooves =11.43 mm, land width =3.73 mm and the primer type is large pistol. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case at the L3 datum reference, according to Commission Internationale Permanente pour lEpreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives rulings, the.45 ACP cartridge case can handle up to 131.000 MPa Pmax piezo pressure. In CIP-regulated countries every pistol cartridge combination has to be proofed at 130% of this maximum CIP pressure to certify for sale to consumers and this means that.45 ACP chambered arms in C. I. P. Regulated countries are proof tested at 170.30 MPa PE piezo pressure. The SAAMI pressure limit for the.45 ACP is set at 21,000 psi piezo pressure, while the SAAMI pressure limit for the.45 ACP +P is set at 23,000 psi, piezo pressure
21.
Action (firearms)
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In firearms terminology, an action is the mechanism that handles the ammunition or the method by which that mechanism works. Breech-loading weapons have actions, actions are not present on muzzleloaders. The mechanism that fires a muzzle-loader is called the lock, actions can be categorized in several ways, including single action versus double action, break action versus bolt action, and others. The term action can also short, long, and magnum if it is in reference to the length of the rifle’s receiver. The short action rifle usually can accommodate a cartridge length of 2.8 in or smaller, the long action rifle can accommodate a cartridge of 3.34 in, and the magnum action rifle can accommodate cartridges of 3.6 in, or longer in length. Manual operation is a term describing any type of firearm action that is loaded one shot at a time by the user rather than automatically. For example, break action is a form of operation using a simple hinge mechanism that is manually unlatched by the operator. These are actions wherein the breechblock lowers or drops into the receiver to open the breech, there are two principal types of dropping block, the tilting block and the falling block. In a tilting or pivoting block action, the breechblock is hinged on a pin mounted at the rear, when the lever is operated, the block tilts down and forward, exposing the chamber. The best-known pivoting block designs are the Peabody, the Peabody–Martini, the original Peabody rifles, manufactured by the Providence Tool Company, used a manually cocked side-hammer. The 1871 Martini–Henry which replaced the trapdoor Snider–Enfield was the standard British Army rifle of the later Victorian era, charles H. Ballards self-cocking tilting-block action was produced by the Marlin Firearms Company from 1875, and earned a superlative reputation among long-range Creedmoor target shooters. Surviving Marlin Ballards are today highly prized by collectors, especially those mounted in the elaborate Swiss-style Schützen stocks of the day. A falling-block action is a firearm action in which a solid metal breechblock slides vertically in grooves cut into the breech of the weapon. Examples of firearms using the falling block action are the Sharps rifle, in a rolling block action the breechblock takes the form of a part-cylinder, with a pivot pin through its axis. The operator rotates or rolls the block to open and close the breech, it is a simple, rugged, a break action is a type of firearm where the barrel are hinged and can be broken open to expose the breech. The earliest metallic-cartridge breechloaders designed for military issue began as conversions of muzzle-loading rifle-muskets. The upper rear portion of the barrel was filed or milled away, an internal angled firing pin allowed the re-use of the rifles existing side-hammer. The Allin action made by Springfield Arsenal in the US hinged forward, france countered in 1866 with its superior Chassepot rifle, also a paper-cartridge bolt action
22.
Recoil operation
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Recoil operation is an operating mechanism used to implement locked-breech, autoloading firearms. Recoil operated firearms use the energy of recoil to cycle the action, the same forces that cause the ejecta of a firearm to move down the barrel also cause all or a portion of the firearm to move in the opposite direction. The moving and the masses are coupled by a spring that absorbs the recoil energy as it is compressed by the movement. Since there is a minimum required to operate a recoil-operated firearms action. Therefore, recoil-operated firearms work best with a cartridge that yields an approximately equal to that for which the mechanism was optimized. For example, the M1911 design with factory springs is optimized for a 230-grain bullet at factory velocity, changes in caliber or drastic changes in bullet weight and/or velocity require modifications to spring weight or slide mass to compensate. Recoil-operated designs are categorized by how the parts move under recoil. Long recoil operation is primarily in shotguns, particularly ones based on John Brownings Auto-5 action. In a long recoil action the barrel and bolt remain locked together during recoil, following this rearward movement, the bolt locks to the rear and the barrel is forced forward by its spring. The bolt is held in position until the barrel returns completely forward during which time the spent cartridge has been extracted and ejected, the bolt is released and forced closed by its recoil spring, chambering a fresh round. The long recoil system was invented in the late 19th century, bolt is locked to barrel, both are fully forward. Recoil of firing forces bolt and barrel fully to the rear, bolt is held to rear, while barrel unlocks and returns to battery under spring force. Bolt returns under spring force, loads new round, barrel locks in place as it returns to battery. The short recoil action dominates the world of centerfire semi-automatic pistols, short recoil operation differs from long recoil operation in that the barrel and bolt recoil together only a short distance before they unlock and separate. The barrel stops quickly, and the bolt continues rearward, compressing the spring and performing the automated extraction. During the last portion of its travel, the bolt locks into the barrel. The method of locking and unlocking the barrel differentiates the wide array of short recoil designs. Most common are the John Browning tilting barrel designs based on either the swinging link and locking lugs as used in the M1911 pistol or the linkless cam design used in the Hi Power and CZ75
23.
Magazine (firearms)
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A magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding device within or attached to a repeating firearm. Magazines can be removable or integral to the firearm, the magazine functions by moving the cartridges stored in the magazine into a position where they may be loaded into the chamber by the action of the firearm. The detachable magazine is often referred to as a clip, although this is technically inaccurate, magazines come in many shapes and sizes, from those of bolt-action express rifles that hold only a few rounds to drum magazines for self-loading rifles that can hold one hundred rounds or more. Various jurisdictions ban what they define as high-capacity magazines, with the increased use of semi-automatic and automatic firearms, the detachable box magazine became increasingly common. Soon after the adoption of the M1911 pistol, the magazine was settled on by the military and firearms experts. The defining difference between clips and magazines is the presence of a mechanism in a magazine, typically a spring-loaded follower. Use of the clip to refer to detachable magazines is a point of strong disagreement. The first mass-produced repeater was the Volcanic Rifle which used a bullet with the base filled with powder and primer fed into the chamber from a spring-loaded tube called a magazine. It was named after a building or room used to store ammunition, the anemic power of the Rocket Ball ammunition used in the Volcanic doomed it to limited popularity. The Henry repeating rifle is a lever-action, breech-loading, tubular magazine fed rifle, designed by Benjamin Tyler Henry in 1860, it was one of the first firearms to use self-contained metallic cartridges. The Henry was introduced in the early 1860s and produced through 1866 in the United States by the New Haven Arms Company and it was adopted in small quantities by the Union in the Civil War and favored for its greater firepower than the standard issue carbine. Many later found their way West and was famed both for its use at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and being the basis for the iconic Winchester rifle which are made to this day. The Henry and Winchester rifles would go on to see service with a number of militaries including Turkey, switzerland and Italy adopted similar designs. The first magazine-fed firearm to achieve success was the Spencer repeating rifle. The Spencer used a magazine located in the butt of the gun instead of under the barrel. The Spencer was successful, but the rimfire ammunition did occasionally ignite in the magazine tube and it could also injure the user. The new bolt-action rifles began to favor with militaries in the 1880s and were often equipped with tubular magazines. The Mauser Model 1871 was originally a single-shot action that added a magazine in its 1884 update
24.
Trigger (firearms)
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A trigger is a mechanism that actuates the firing sequence of a firearm or crossbow, a trigger may also start another mechanism such as a trap or a quick release. A small amount of energy applied to the causes the release of much more energy. In double action firearm designs, the trigger is used to cock the firearm -. Firearms use triggers to initiate the firing of a cartridge in the chamber of the weapon. This is accomplished by actuating a striking device through a combination of spring and kinetic energy operating through a pin to strike. There are two types of striking mechanisms, hammers and strikers. Hammers are spring-tensioned masses of metal that pivot on a pin when released, strikers are, essentially, spring-loaded firing pins that travel on an axis in-line with the cartridge eliminating the need for a separate hammer. The connection between the trigger and the hammer is generally referred to as the sear surface, variable mechanisms will have this surface directly on the trigger and hammer or have separate sears or other connecting parts. There are numerous types of action, where action refers to the mechanism or to the logic of how it is built and they are categorized according to which functions the trigger is to perform. Most modern firearms use the trigger to deactivate passive safeties but this does not change how they are identified, a single-action trigger is the earliest and mechanically simplest of trigger types. Almost all rifles and shotguns use this type of trigger, the term single-action wasnt in use until weapons with double-action triggers were invented, which didnt occur until the mid-19th century, before that, all triggers were single-action. Although these weapons dont require the user to physically cock the hammer, manually cocked hammers lasted a while longer in some break-action shotguns, and in dangerous game rifles, where the hunter didnt want to rely on an unnecessarily complex or fragile weapon. In modern usage, the terms single-action and double-action almost always refer to handguns, while a single-action revolver or semi-automatic must always be cocked prior to firing, most double-action handguns are capable of firing in both single- and double-action modes. Only double-action only weapons are incapable of firing from a cocked hammer. Thereafter, every time a round is fired, the hammer is recocked by the cycling slide, after the first shot, they would fire as single-actions. These double action, or double action, pistols rapidly gained popularity. A double-action/single-action firearm combines the features of both mechanisms, and is called traditional double-action. In simple terms, double-action refers to a gun trigger mechanism that both cocks the hammer and then releases the sear, thus performing two actions, hence double action
25.
Pistol
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A pistol is a type of handgun. In some usage, the term refers to a subset of handguns. In other usage, the term is interchangeable with handgun, some handgun experts and dictionaries make a technical distinction that views pistols as a subset of handguns, others use the terms interchangeably. But UK/rest of Commonwealth usage does not always make this distinction, for example, the official designation of the Webley Mk VI revolver was Pistol, Revolver, Webley, No.1 Mk VI. The English word was introduced in ca.1570 from the Middle French pistolet, the etymology of the French word pistolet is disputed. The first suggestion derives the word from Czech píšťala, a type of hand-cannon used in the Hussite Wars during the 1420s, the Czech word was adopted in German as pitschale, pitschole, petsole, and variants. The second suggestion is less likely, the use of the word as a designation of a gun is not documented before 1605 in Italy, long after it was used in French, the Czech word is well documented since the Hussite wars in 1420s. Other suggestions include from Middle High German pischulle or from Middle French pistole, also it is suggested that early pistols were carried by cavalry in holsters hung from the pommel of a horses saddle. The most common types of pistol are the shot. Single shot handguns were mainly seen during the era of flintlock and musket weaponry where the pistol was loaded with a ball and fired by a flint striker. However, as technology improved, so did the single shot pistol, new operating mechanisms were created, and due to this, they are still made today. It is the oldest type of pistol, and is used to hunt wild game. Multi-barreled pistols were common during the time as single shot pistols. As designers looked for ways to increase fire rates, multiple barrels were added to all guns including pistols, one example of a multi-barreled pistol is the Ducks foot pistol, which generally had either four or eight barrels, although some 20th century models had three barrels. Around 1850, pistols such as the Jarre harmonica gun were produced that had a sliding magazine, the sliding magazine contained pinfire cartridges or speedloaders. The magazine needed to be moved manually in many designs, hence distinguishing them from semi-automatic pistols, with the development of the revolver in the 19th century, gunsmiths had finally achieved the goal of a practical capability for delivering multiple loads to one handgun barrel in quick succession. The semi-automatic pistol was the step in the development of the pistol. By avoiding multiple chambers—which need to be individually reloaded—semi-automatic pistols delivered faster rates of fire, an example of a modern blow back action semi-automatic pistol is the HK VP70
26.
Side arm
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A side arm or sidearm is a weapon, usually a handgun but sometimes a dagger, knife or other mêlée weapon, which is worn on the body in a holster or sheath to permit immediate access and use. A sidearm is typically required equipment for officers and is usually carried by law enforcement personnel. Usually, uniformed personnel of these services wear their weapons openly, a sidearm may be carried alone, or as a back-up to a primary weapon such as a rifle or carbine. In the protocol of courtesy, the surrender of a commanders sidearm is the act in the general surrender of a unit. Similarly, many commanders on a level have been anecdotally cited as having used the threat of their side arms to motivate troops. An important purpose of the arm is to be used if the primary weapon is not available. Many Special Forces soldiers armed with a rifle or carbine like the M16 or M4 may also have a semi-automatic pistol as a side arm. The term may refer to swords and other mêlée weapons
27.
United States Armed Forces
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The United States Armed Forces are the federal armed forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, from the time of its inception, the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States. A sense of unity and identity was forged as a result of victory in the First Barbary War. Even so, the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force and it played an important role in the American Civil War, where leading generals on both sides were picked from members of the United States military. Not until the outbreak of World War II did a standing army become officially established. The National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II and during the Cold Wars onset, the U. S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. It draws its personnel from a pool of paid volunteers. As of 2016, the United States spends about $580.3 billion annually to fund its military forces, put together, the United States constitutes roughly 40 percent of the worlds military expenditures. For the period 2010–14, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that the United States was the worlds largest exporter of major arms, the United States was also the worlds eighth largest importer of major weapons for the same period. The history of the U. S. military dates to 1775 and these forces demobilized in 1784 after the Treaty of Paris ended the War for Independence. All three services trace their origins to the founding of the Continental Army, the Continental Navy, the United States President is the U. S. militarys commander-in-chief. Rising tensions at various times with Britain and France and the ensuing Quasi-War and War of 1812 quickened the development of the U. S. Navy, the reserve branches formed a military strategic reserve during the Cold War, to be called into service in case of war. Time magazines Mark Thompson has suggested that with the War on Terror, Command over the armed forces is established in the United States Constitution. The sole power of command is vested in the President by Article II as Commander-in-Chief, the Constitution also allows for the creation of executive Departments headed principal officers whose opinion the President can require. This allowance in the Constitution formed the basis for creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 by the National Security Act, the Defense Department is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is a civilian and member of the Cabinet. The Defense Secretary is second in the chain of command, just below the President. Together, the President and the Secretary of Defense comprise the National Command Authority, to coordinate military strategy with political affairs, the President has a National Security Council headed by the National Security Advisor. The collective body has only power to the President
28.
Beretta M9
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The Beretta M9, officially the Pistol, Semiautomatic, 9mm, M9, is a 9×19mm Parabellum pistol adopted by the United States Armed Forces in 1985. It is essentially a military specification Beretta 92FS, the M9 won a competition in the 1980s to replace the M1911A1 as the primary sidearm of the U. S. military, beating many other contenders, and only narrowly defeating the SIG P226 for cost reasons. It officially entered service in 1990, some other models have been adopted to a lesser extent, namely the M11 pistol, and other models remain in use in certain niches. The M9 was scheduled to be replaced under a United States Army program, the Future Handgun System, the JCP was renamed Combat Pistol, and the number of pistols to be bought was drastically cut back. The U. S. Army and Air Force are seeking to replace their M9s through the Modular Handgun System program, in the 1970s every branch of the U. S. Armed Forces except the U. S. Air Force carried the.45 ACP M1911 pistol, the Department of Defense then decided to synchronize the weapons of all five branches of U. S. forces. In 1980, the Beretta 92S-1 design was chosen over entries from Colt, Smith & Wesson, Walther, the Star M28, the result, however, was challenged by the US Army, and new tests were done by the Army. In 1984, the trials started again with updated entries from Smith & Wesson, Beretta, SIG Sauer, Heckler & Koch, Walther, Steyr, Beretta won this competition, but there was a new trial, the XM10 competition, in 1988. This resulted in two different trials that were limited but resulted in the Beretta being chosen, albeit with an updated design. This holster – designed by John Bianchi and Richard Nichols – has served the U. S, Armed Forces well for decades designated the M12, was adopted simultaneously with the adoption of the Beretta 92F in 1985. The Beretta 92F survived exposure to temperatures from −40 to 140 °F, being soaked in water, being dropped repeatedly on concrete. Additionally, the 92F proved a MRBF of 35,000 rounds and that number is often touted as the equivalent to five or six times the pistols service life. While this is true in European militaries, armed forces of the United States normally subject sidearms to much more extensive use. The Iraq War, which featured frequent urban and room-to-room combat, has required American soldiers to more heavily on their pistols. The M9 is used with the Bianchi M12 Holster, though other holsters are often used, the specific modifications made from the Beretta 92 includes, Design of all the parts to make them 100% interchangeable to simplify maintenance for large government organizations. Modified the front of the guard so that one could use finger support for easier aiming. Recurved the forward base of the grip to aid aiming, hard chromed the barrel bore to protect it from corrosion and to reduce wear. New surface coating on the slide called Bruniton, which provides better corrosion resistance than the previous plain blued finish
29.
Special Forces (United States Army)
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The first two emphasize language, cultural, and training skills in working with foreign troops. S. government activities may also specialize in these secondary areas. Many of their techniques are classified, but some nonfiction works. As special operations units, Special Forces are not necessarily under the authority of the ground commanders in those countries. Instead, while in theater, SF units may report directly to a geographic combatant command, USSOCOM, the Central Intelligence Agencys highly secretive Special Activities Division and more specifically its Special Operations Group recruits from the Armys Special Forces. Joint CIA–Army Special Forces operations go back to the MACV-SOG branch during the Vietnam War, the cooperation still exists today and is seen in the War in Afghanistan. The primary mission of the Army Special Forces is to train and lead unconventional warfare forces, the 10th Special Forces Group was the first deployed SF unit, intended to train and lead UW forces behind enemy lines in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe. Special Forces personnel qualify both in advanced military skills and the languages and cultures of defined parts of the world. As strategic resources, they report either to USSOCOM or to a regional Unified Combatant Command, to enhance their DA capability, specific Commanders In-Extremis Force teams were created with a focus on the direct action side of special operations. SF team members work together and rely on one another under isolated circumstances for long periods of time. Because of this, they develop clannish relationships and long-standing personal ties and they are then required to move to staff positions or to higher command echelons. With the creation of USSOCOM, SF commanders have risen to the highest ranks of U. S. Army command, including command of USSOCOM, the Armys Chief of Staff, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Although the OSS was not an Army organization, many Army personnel were assigned to the OSS, in 1951, Major General Robert A. McClure chose former OSS member Colonel Aaron Bank as Operations Branch Chief of the Special Operations Division of the Psychological Warfare Staff in the Pentagon. The 10th Special Forces Group was split, with the cadre that kept the designation 10th SFG deployed to Bad Tölz, Germany, the remaining cadre at Fort Bragg formed the 77th Special Forces Group, which in May 1960 was reorganized and designated as today’s 7th Special Forces Group. 1st Special Forces Command In 1957 the two special forces groups were joined by the 1st, stationed in the Far East. Additional groups were formed in 1961 and 1962 after President John F. Kennedy visited the Special Forces at Fort Bragg in 1961, nine groups were organized for the reserve components in 1961. Among them were the 16th and 17th Special Forces Groups, however, 17th Special Forces Group, a National Guard formation with elements in Washington, was disestablished on 31 January 1966. In the early twenty-first century, Special Forces are divided into five active duty, each Special Forces Group has a specific regional focus. The Special Forces soldiers assigned to these groups receive intensive language, a Special Forces group is historically assigned to a Unified Combatant Command or a theater of operations
30.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
31.
International Practical Shooting Confederation
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The International Practical Shooting Confederation is the worlds second largest shooting sport association and the largest and oldest within practical shooting. Founded in 1976, the IPSC as of 2016 affiliates 100 regions from Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, competitions are held with pistol, revolver, rifle and shotgun, and competitors are divided into different divisions based on firearm and equipment features. While everyone in a division competes in the Overall category, there are also own separate awards for the categories Lady, Junior, Senior, IPSC organizes the World Championships called the Handgun World Shoot, Rifle World Shoot and Shotgun World Shoot with three year intervals for each discipline. The sport soon expanded to Europe, Australia, South America and Africa, jeff Cooper served as the first IPSC President. Today there are over 100 active IPSC regions, making shooting an major international sport which emphasizes firearms safety highly. Only full caliber firearms are used, i. e. for handguns 9x19 mm is the smallest caliber, accuracy and speed is reflected by the comstock scoring method, while power is reflected by the minimum power factor requirement. Competitors fire the stages one at a time, and the system is based on achieving most possible points in the shortest time. The method used is called comstock, named after its inventor Walt Comstock, the time is measured from the start signal until the last shot fired using special shot timers with microphones, and this way the competitor can influence the total stage time. Since the number of rounds is unlimited, the competitor can re-engage the same target in order to get more points, usually the two best scoring hits count for each target. Competitors are ranked for each stage by their hit factor, which is the ratio of points per second, the hit factor is calculated by summing the points and dividing by the time used. If a competitor scores 115 points and uses 25.00 seconds he will get a hit factor for that stage of 115 points⁄23.00 s =4.6. For the overall score, stage points are added for all stages. The scoring method allows for a precise gradation of performances across the match, the power factor is the momentum of the fired bullet as its moving through the air, which contribute to the recoil of the firearm. Thus, the factor in a way reflects recoil. In for instance handgun competitions the ammunition must exceed 125 kgr·ft/s for minor scoring, extra scoring is not given for exceeding the threshold. A competitor declaring major, but who fails the threshold, have their score re-calculated at minor, a competitor who fails the threshold of minor is given a score of zero for the match. Minimum power factors To achieve a varied, challenging and exciting sport there are no fixed target arrangements, distances or shooting programs, making every match unique. Paper and steel targets can be mixed in the same stage, paper targets have the three scoring zones A, C and D with points per hit varying slightly depending on power factor
32.
NRA Precision Pistol
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Bullseye, also known as precision pistol, formerly known as conventional pistol, is a shooting sport in which participants shoot handguns at paper targets at fixed distances and time limits. A number of organizations, including the NRA and Civilian Marksmanship Program in the United States, have established rules, emphasis is on accuracy and precision. The sport is popular in United States and Canada. Bullseye specifies three classes of pistol, a.22 caliber rimfire, a handgun of.32 caliber or greater. Since the format includes a fire stage, a semi-automatic pistol or revolver with a capacity of at least 5 rounds is needed. Any type of sight can be used, except laser sights, many competitors use iron sights, but the recent trend has been towards red dot sights, which many shooters find easier to use. Telescopic sights, while legal, are rare, as magnification is not considered an advantage, iron sights are usually adjustable Patridge type sights, carefully treated to reduce glare that might impact sight alignment. The most common centerfire pistol is the M1911 design, usually built, while many shooters use the M1911 for the centerfire stages of competition, some shooters prefer a third gun. One advantage of.45 caliber over.38 caliber is that the larger diameter hole made will be able cut a higher scoring ring over the smaller caliber given the point of impact near the higher ring. Smith & Wesson revolvers are most common among shooters who prefer revolvers, S&W makes revolvers in.22 Long Rifle.38 Special, custom gunsmithing is common here as well to increase reliability and usability all leading to improved accuracy. Relatively low velocity ammunition is preferred for precision Bullseye target shooting in both the slow and sustained fire disciplines because the.22 bullet can travel at or near the speed of sound. If a bullet transitions between supersonic speed and subsonic speed before striking the target, its path is slightly disturbed. To avoid this phenomenon, strictly subsonic ammunition is preferred, centerfire ammunition is often handloaded, with very careful selection of components so maximum precision can be obtained. Lighter weight bullets and lower velocities are often selected to minimize recoil, handloading must always be done following the manufacturers recommendations. For any given handgun or rifle there is a combination that delivers the peak or maximum possible accuracy. All courses of fire are from a position using a one-handed grip at two different targets depending on the distance and type of match. The slow-fire targets have the 8–10 rings inside the bullseye and the rapid fire targets have only the 9 and 10 rings inside the black, depending on the match format, the competitor may be required to shoot as many as 90 rounds from each of three handguns. Each shot scores a maximum of 10 points, hence, a one-gun competition is often referred to as a 900 whereas a three-gun competition is a 2700
33.
Concealed carry
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Concealed carry, or CCW, refers to the practice of carrying a handgun or other weapon in public in a concealed or hidden manner, either on ones person or in close proximity. While most law enforcement officers carry their duty pistol in a holster, some officers, such as plainclothes detectives or undercover agents. In some countries and jurisdictions, some civilians are legally able or obliged to carry concealed handguns, the practice of CCW is generally prohibited in Canada. Section 90 of the Criminal Code prohibits carrying a concealed weapon unless authorized under the Firearms Act, section 20 of the Firearms Act allows issuance of an Authorization to Carry in limited circumstances. Concealment of the firearm is permitted if it is specifically stipulated in the conditions of the ATC. Provincial chief firearm officers may issue an authorization in accordance with the regulations. Specifically, SOR 98-207 section 2 requires, for an ATC for protection of life, for an individual to be in imminent danger, as such, if the relevant police agency determines its protection is sufficient, the CFO would have difficulty in issuing the ATC over police objections. For issuance of an ATC under 98-207 for lawful occupations, provision is made for armored car personnel under subsection a), for protection and trapping under subsections b). Unless hunting or other activity is occupational, it would not be possible to issue an ATC under the section, as noted, a CFO can exercise some discretion but must follow the law in considering applications for an ATC. To carry a firearm, a person must obtain a D category or an E category gun license, subject to fulfilling the legal requirements, the license is shall issue. Firearms must be carried in concealed manner with the exception of hunters, Open carry may be permitted for special occasions if shooting takes place, such as filming or festivities. 240.000 out of 300.000 gun owners have E type license, concealed-carry licenses are hard to obtain in Mexico. Concealed-carry licenses authorize possession of pistols of up to.380 Automatic Colt Pistol caliber, in the face of rising crime, private citizens arm themselves despite the difficulty of obtaining a proper permit. Concealed carry is legal in most jurisdictions of the United States, a handful of states and jurisdictions severely restrict or ban it, but all jurisdictions make provision for legal concealed carry via a permit or license, or via constitutional carry. Illinois was the last state to pass a law allowing for concealed carry, most states that require a permit have shall-issue statutes, and if a person meets the requirements to obtain a permit, the issuing authority must issue one, with no discretionary power given. However, in Massachusetts, New York, and California, the issuance of the permit is dependent on county, States with may-issue statutes typically allow authorities to issue permits based upon a demonstrated need, such as a job requiring the transport of large sums of money. Retired police officers, judges, and federal agents also may cite a need based on personal security, in practice, the subjective element means that rural jurisdictions typically award many more carry permits than urban ones, including states such as Illinois and California. Further complicating the status of concealed carry is recognition of state permits under the laws of other states
34.
Stopping power
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Stopping power is the ability of a firearm or other weapon to cause enough ballistic trauma to a target to immediately incapacitate the target. This contrasts with lethality in that stopping power only to a weapons ability to incapacitate quickly. Stopping power is related to the properties of the bullet. Critics contend that the importance of one-shot stop statistics is overstated, pointing out that most gun encounters do not involve a shoot once and see how the target reacts situation. Stopping power is caused not by the force of the bullet but by the damaging effects of the bullet, which are typically a loss of blood. This is why in many instances a single wound, with slow blood loss. More immediate effects can result when a bullet damages parts of the nervous system, such as the spine or brain. The importance of hydrostatic shock and of transfer in determining stopping power has long been controversial among gun users. Some have ascribed great importance to hydrostatic shock, some have tried to entirely discount it, in response to addressing stopping power issues, the Mozambique Drill was developed to maximize the likelihood of a targets quick incapacitation. Manstopper is a term used to refer to any combination of firearm and ammunition that can reliably incapacitate, or stop. For example, the.45 ACP pistol round and the.357 Magnum revolver round both have firm reputations as manstoppers, historically, one type of ammunition has had the specific tradename Manstopper. Officially known as the Mk III cartridge, these were made to suit the British Webley.455 service revolver in the early 20th century, the ammunition used a 220-grain cylindrical bullet with hemispherical depressions at both ends. The front acted as a hollow point deforming on impact while the base opened to seal the round in the barrel, some sporting arms are also referred to as stoppers or stopping rifles. These powerful arms are used by game hunters for stopping a suddenly charging animal. The concept of stopping power appeared in the 19th Century when colonial troops at close quarters found that their pistols were not able to stop charging native tribesmen and this led to the introduction or reintroduction of larger caliber weapons capable of stopping opponents with a single round. During the Seymour Expedition in China, at one of the battles at Langfang, Chinese Boxers, armed with swords and spears, charged the British and Americans, who were armed with guns. At point-blank range, one British soldier had to fire four.303 Lee-Metford bullets into a Boxer before he ceased to be a threat, the American Captain Bowman McCalla reported that single rifle shots were not enough, multiple rifle shots were needed to halt a Boxer. Only machine guns were effective in stopping the Boxers
35.
M1895 Navy Lee
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The Lee Model 1895 was a straight-pull, cam-action magazine rifle adopted in limited numbers by the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps in 1895 as a first-line infantry rifle. It fired a 6mm cartridge, which used a smokeless powder, was semi-rimless. The 6mm U. S. N. or Lee Navy Cartridge was also used in the version of the Colt–Browning Model 1895 machinegun. By 1894, the U. S. Navy desired to adopt a modern small-bore, Naval authorities decided that the new cartridge should be adaptable to both rifles and machine guns. On August 1,1894 a naval test board was convened at the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, per the terms of the Notice to Inventors, the new government-designed 6mm U. S. N a. k. a. Ball Cartridge, 6mm was the only permitted for rifles tested before the Naval Small Arms Board. The rifle action was required to withstand the firing of five overpressure cartridges with a pressure of 60,000 psi. In a second set of trials the Model 1893/94 Luger 6-mm Rifle, the Durst prototype fractured the receiver in firing and was withdrawn from the test, while the Luger Rifle performed excellently. Lugers submission had only one major disadvantage, it failed to meet government specifications, the Lee turning bolt design was considered to be a good one, but marred by its magazine system, which the Small Arms Board found to be problematic. The Board thought so highly of the Luger Rifle that it recommended purchase of either a prototype or an option to purchase the rights to manufacture. Apparently this never came to pass, as Luger not only declined to submit its design in the Navys government 6mm chambering, the first naval contract for the M1895 was let to Winchester for 10,000 rifles in January 1896. However, deliveries of the shipment of 10,000 rifles were not completed until 1897, owing to delays caused by manufacturing issues. The latter included a significant change in specification, which required extensive test firings followed by recalibration of the sights. Of the 10,000 rifles produced under the first contract,1,800 were issued to the U. S. Marine Corps, rifles with a serial number below 13390 were made prior to December 31,1898. The additional small quantity purchases by the Navy as well as all sporting models fall into the 10000–15000 serial range, military rifles have 28-inch barrels and navy anchor stamp, while rifles made for civilian sale have 24-inch barrels and no anchor. A second contract was let on February 7,1898 for an additional 5,000 rifles at $18.75 each and this second contract began delivery in August 1898 and was completed in December 1898. Overall, the Lee had a reputation for reliability in the field, beginning in 1898, during the Marine expeditionary campaign in Cuba, reports emerged from the field criticizing the floating extractor design. Designed by inventor James Paris Lee, the rifle weighed 8.3 pounds and was about 48 in long
36.
Smith & Wesson
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Smith & Wesson is a manufacturer of firearms in the United States. The corporate headquarters are based in Springfield, Massachusetts, founded in 1852, Smith & Wessons pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world, in addition to their popularity among sport shooters. Apart from firearms, Smith & Wesson has been known for the types of ammunition it has introduced over the years. Wesson founded the Smith & Wesson Company in Norwich, Connecticut in 1852 to develop the Volcanic rifle, Smith developed a new Volcanic Cartridge, which he patented in 1854. The Smith & Wesson Company was renamed Volcanic Repeating Arms in 1855, Smith left the company and returned to his native Springfield, Massachusetts, Wesson stayed on as plant manager with Volcanic Repeating Arms. As Samuel Colts patent on the revolver was set to expire in 1856 and his research pointed out that a former Colt employee named Rollin White held the patent for a Bored-through cylinder, a component he would need for his invention. Wesson reconnected with Smith and the two partners approached White to manufacture a newly designed revolver-and-cartridge combination, rather than make White a partner in their company, Smith and Wesson paid him a royalty of $0.25 on every revolver that they made. It would become Whites responsibility to defend his patent in any court cases which led to his financial ruin. The orders for the Smith & Wesson Model 1 revolver outpaced the production capabilities. In 1860 demand was so great that Smith & Wesson expanded into a new facility, at the same time, the companys design was being infringed upon by other manufacturers which led to numerous lawsuits filed by Rollin White. In many of these part of the restitution came in the form of the offender being forced to stamp Manufactured for Smith & Wesson on the revolvers in question. Whites vigorous defense of his patent caused a problem for armsmakers in the United States at the time as they could not manufacture cartridge revolvers, at the end of the war the US Government charged White with causing the retardation of arms development in America. Demand for revolvers declined at the close of the Civil War, in 1870 the company introduced a large frame revolver in heavier calibers than the pocket sized revolvers it had been making. The design was known as the Smith & Wesson Model 3, after an organized campaign by the NRA and NSSF, thousands of retailers and tens of thousands of firearms consumers boycotted Smith & Wesson. On 11 May 2001, Saf-T-Hammer Corporation acquired Smith & Wesson Corp. from Tomkins plc for US$15 million, Saf-T-Hammer assumed US$30 million in debt, bringing the total purchase price to US$45 million. The acquisition of Smith & Wesson was chiefly brokered by Saf-T-Hammer President Bob Scott, after the purchase, Scott became the president of Smith & Wesson to guide the 157-year-old company back to its former standing in the market. On 15 February 2002, the name of the newly formed entity was changed to Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation, about 2006 Smith & Wesson refocused its marketing on big box retailers, according to Smith & Wesson CEO Mike Golden in a 2008 conference call with investors. In December 2014, Smith & Wesson Holding announced it was paying $130.5 million for Battenfeld Technologies, the company made the acquisition with the eventual intent to merge all its existing Smith & Wesson, M&P and Thompson Center Arms accessories into a single division
37.
Hiram Maxim
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Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim was an American-born British inventor who moved from the United States to the United Kingdom at the age of 41. He remained an American citizen until he became a naturalised British subject in 1900 and he was the inventor of the Maxim Gun – the first portable, fully automatic machine gun – and held patents on mechanical devices such as a mousetrap, hair-curling irons, and steam pumps. He laid claim to inventing the lightbulb, and even experimented with powered flight, however, his Captive Flying Machine amusement ride, designed as a means by which to fund his research while generating public interest in flight, was highly successful. Maxim was born in Sangerville, Maine, in the United States in 1840 and he became an apprentice coachbuilder at the age of 14 and ten years later, took up a job at the machine works of his uncle, Levi Stephens, at Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He subsequently worked as an instrument-maker and as a draughtsman and his brother, Hudson Maxim, was also a military inventor, specialising in explosives. They worked quite closely together until later in life, when there was a disagreement on a patent for smokeless powder. The patent, Hiram claimed, had been issued under the name H. Maxim, Hudson was a skilled and knowledgeable man, and sold arms in the US, while Hiram worked mainly in Europe. Hudson had success in the States, which caused jealousy from Hiram, the jealousy and disagreements caused a rift between the brothers that would last the rest of their lives. Hiram Maxim married his first wife, Jane Budden, in 1867 and their children were, Hiram Percy Maxim, Florence Maxim, who married George Albert Cutter, and Adelaide Maxim, who married Eldon Joubert, Ignacy Jan Paderewskis piano tuner. His invention of the Maxim Silencer for noise suppression came too late to save his fathers hearing, Hiram Percy would later author a biography on his father entitled A Genius in the Family, which contained about 60 anecdotes of Hiram Percys experiences with his father throughout his early life. A film, based on his sons book, was released in 1946, called So Goes My Love, starring Don Ameche and he married his second wife, Sarah, daughter of Charles Hayes of Boston, in 1881. It is not clear if he was divorced from his first wife at this time. There is also a case with a woman called Helen Leighton. She claimed that Maxim had married her in 1878 and that he was knowingly committing bigamy against his current wife, in this marriage, she claimed that Maxim had fathered a child by her. The case was dropped, at a settlement under $1,000. Later in life though he did leave 4,000 pounds sterling to a Romaine Dennison who may in fact have been the Romaine that Leighton claimed he had fathered and it is an unsolved mystery of Maxims life. In 1881, Maxim arrived in England to reorganise the London offices of the US Electric Lighting Company, by 1900, his visits back to the United States became infrequent and in that same year, Maxim became a naturalised British subject. In the following year, Queen Victoria bestowed a knighthood upon him, Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901 and the actual knighting was done by Maxims friend and new king, Edward VII
38.
Rifle
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A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called lands, which contact with the projectile. When the projectile leaves the barrel, this spin lends gyroscopic stability to the projectile and prevents tumbling and this allows the use of aerodynamically-efficient bullets and thus improves range and accuracy. The word rifle originally referred to the grooving, and a rifle was called a rifled gun, the word rifle is now used for any long hand-held aimed device activated by a trigger, such as Air rifles and the Personnel halting and stimulation response rifle. Rifles are used in warfare, hunting and shooting sports, formerly, rifles only fired a single projectile with each squeeze of the trigger. Modern rifles are capable of firing more than one round per trigger squeeze, some fire in an automatic mode. Thus, modern automatic rifles overlap to some extent in design, in fact, many light machine guns are adaptations of existing automatic rifle designs. A militarys light machine guns are chambered for the same caliber ammunition as its service rifles. Generally, the difference between a rifle and a machine gun comes down to weight, cooling system. Modern military rifles are fed by magazines, while machine guns are generally belt-fed, many machine guns allow the operator to quickly exchange barrels in order to prevent overheating, whereas rifles generally do not. Most machine guns fire from a bolt in order to reduce the danger of cook-off. Machine guns are often crewed by more than one soldier, the rifle is an individual weapon, the term rifle is sometimes used to describe larger crew-served rifled weapons firing explosive shells, for example, recoilless rifles. In many works of fiction a rifle refers to any weapon that has a stock and is shouldered before firing, the origins of rifling are difficult to trace, but some of the earliest practical experiments seem to have occurred in Europe during the 15th century. Archers had long realized that a twist added to the feathers of their arrows gave them greater accuracy. This might also have led to a increase in accuracy. Rifles were created as an improvement in the accuracy of smooth bore muskets, the black powder used in early muzzle-loading rifles quickly fouled the barrel, making loading slower and more difficult. Since musketeers could not afford to take the time to stop and clean their barrels in the middle of a battle, rifles were limited to use by sharpshooters, muskets were smoothbore, large caliber weapons using ball-shaped ammunition fired at relatively low velocity. Due to the high cost and great difficulty of manufacturing, and the need to load readily from the muzzle
39.
Machine gun
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A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm designed to fire bullets in quick succession from an ammunition belt or magazine, typically at a rate of 300 to 1800 rounds per minute. Note that not all fully automatic firearms are machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, assault rifles, shotguns, pistols or cannons may be capable of fully automatic fire, but are not designed for sustained fire. Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation, unlike semi-automatic firearms, which require one trigger pull per round fired, a machine gun is designed to fire for as long as the trigger is held down. Nowadays the term is restricted to heavy weapons, able to provide continuous or frequent bursts of automatic fire for as long as ammunition lasts. Machine guns are used against personnel, aircraft and light vehicles, or to provide suppressive fire. Some machine guns have in practice sustained fire almost continuously for hours, because they become very hot, practically all machine guns fire from an open bolt, to permit air cooling from the breech between bursts. They also usually have either a barrel cooling system, slow-heating heavyweight barrel, although subdivided into light, medium, heavy or general-purpose, even the lightest machine guns tend to be substantially larger and heavier than standard infantry arms. Medium and heavy guns are either mounted on a tripod or on a vehicle, when carried on foot. Medium machine guns use full-sized rifle rounds and are designed to be used from fixed positions mounted on a tripod. 50in, the M249 automatic rifle is operated by an automatic rifleman, but its ammunition may be carried by other Soldiers within the squad or unit. The M249 machine gun is a crew-served weapon, Machine guns usually have simple iron sights, though the use of optics is becoming more common. Many heavy machine guns, such as the Browning M2.50 caliber machine gun, are enough to engage targets at great distances. During the Vietnam War, Carlos Hathcock set the record for a shot at 7382 ft with a.50 caliber heavy machine gun he had equipped with a telescopic sight. This led to the introduction of.50 caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles, selective fire rifles firing a full-power rifle cartridge from a closed bolt are called automatic rifles or battle rifles, while rifles that fire an intermediate cartridge are called assault rifles. Unlocking and removing the spent case from the chamber and ejecting it out of the weapon as bolt is moving rearward Loading the next round into the firing chamber. Usually the recoil spring tension pushes bolt back into battery and a cam strips the new round from a feeding device, cycle is repeated as long as the trigger is activated by operator. Releasing the trigger resets the trigger mechanism by engaging a sear so the weapon stops firing with bolt carrier fully at the rear, the operation is basically the same for all autoloading firearms, regardless of the means of activating these mechanisms. Most modern machine guns use gas-operated reloading, a recoil actuated machine gun uses the recoil to first unlock and then operate the action. Machine guns such as the M2 Browning and MG42, are of this type, a cam, lever or actuator demultiplicates the energy of the recoil to operate the bolt
40.
Mauser
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Mauser, begun as Königliche Waffen Schmieden, is a German arms manufacturer. Their line of rifles and semi-automatic pistols have been produced since the 1870s for the German armed forces. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mauser designs were also exported and licensed to a number of countries which adopted them as military. The Mauser Model 98 in particular was adopted and copied. Founded as Königliche Waffen Schmieden on July 31,1811 by Frederick I, originally located partly at Ludwigsburg and partly in Christophsthal, the factory was transferred to Oberndorf in the former Augustine Cloister. Andreas Mauser was the master gunsmith there, of his seven sons who worked with him there Peter Paul Mauser showed an outstanding ability to develop methods of operation that were faster and more efficient. His older brother Wilhelm assumed many of his fathers duties as he became ill, Peter Paul Mauser, often referred to as Paul Mauser, was born on 27 June 1838, in Oberndorf am Neckar, Württemberg. His brother Wilhelm was four years older, a brother, Franz Mauser, traveled to America in 1853 with his sister and worked at E. Remington & Sons. Peter Paul was conscripted in 1859 as an artilleryman at the Ludwigsburg arsenal, by December of 1859 he has so impressed his superiors that he was placed on inactive military service and assigned to the royal factory at Oberndorf. Paul engaged his older brother Wilhelm in working on a new gun system in their time after work. Paul was the engineer and designer but Wilhelm took on the task of manager for their interests with the Oberndorf factory, Pauls first invention was a cannon and its ammunition. His ability to both the gun and the ammunition for it was followed during his entire career and made him unique in this ability. Following the success of the Dreyse needle gun Paul turned his energies to improving on that design, Paul and Wilhelm had separated due to differences during this time. After Paul developed a new turning bolt design Wilhelm was impressed enough to rejoin the business and succeeded in obtaining the financing to purchase machinery, locally the Dreyse Needle gun had just been adopted so the brother turned to the Austrian Ambassador to try and sell their gun. He forwarded their new gun to Vienna for testing and it was here that American Norris of the Remington company saw the new Mauser rifle design. In 1867 Norris hired the Mauser brother to go to Luttich to work on a new design and he also stipulated that patents were to be taken out in his name and that a royalty would be paid to the Mauser brothers for rifles sold. Norris was convinced that he could sell the design to the French to convert their Chassepot rifles, the Norris-Mauser patent was taken out in the United States. Remington was outraged at the behavior of Norris and never made an effort to sell the new rifle, based on the Dreyse needle gun, he developed a rifle with a turn-bolt mechanism that cocked the gun as it was manipulated by the user
41.
Mauser C96
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The Mauser C96 is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937. Unlicensed copies of the gun were also manufactured in Spain and China in the first half of the 20th century, within a year of its introduction in 1896, the C96 had been sold to governments and commercially to civilians and individual military officers. The Mauser C96 pistol was extremely popular with British officers at the time, Mauser supplied the C96 to Westley Richards in the UK for resale. By the onset of World War I, the C96s popularity with the British military had waned, the C96 also became a staple of Bolshevik Commissars and various warlords and gang leaders in the Russian Civil War, known simply as the Mauser. Communist revolutionaries Yakov Yurovsky and Peter Ermakov used Mausers to murder the Russian imperial family in July 1918, indian Revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil and his partymen used these Mauser Pistols in the historic Kakori train robbery in August 1925. Chinese Communist General Zhu De carried a Mauser C96 during his Nanchang Uprising and later conflicts, besides the standard 7. 63×25 mm chambering, C96 pistols were also commonly chambered for 9×19mm Parabellum with a small number also being produced in 9 mm Mauser Export. Lastly, there was a Chinese-manufactured model chambered for.45 ACP, despite the pistols worldwide popularity and fame, China was the only nation to use the C96 as the primary service pistol of its military and police. Mausers first military contract was with the Ottoman Turkish government in 1897 and they ordered 1,000 pistols, they had their own serial number range, running from 1 to 1000. Markings include a star on both sides of the chamber and the crest of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the Muslim year 1314 on the square left rear frame panel. In 1899, the Italian government ordered Mausers first major military contract and they differ in that their receivers were slab-sided. They also have a hammer instead of the early cone hammer. These guns had their own serial number range, running from 1 to 5000, the Persian government ordered 1,000 pistols. They have the Persian governments Lion and Sun insignia on the rectangular milled panel on the side of the receiver. It is often confused with the Turkish Contract Mauser, austria-Hungary ordered 50,000 Mausers in the standard 7. 63×25mm. A small number were rebarreled to 8mm Gasser for an unknown reason, during World War I, the Imperial German Army contracted with Mauser for 150,000 C96 pistols chambered in 9mm Parabellum to offset the slow production of the standard-issue Luger P08 pistol. This variant of the C96 was named the Red 9, after a large number 9 burned and painted in red into the grip panels, of the 150,000 pistols commissioned, approximately 137,000 were delivered before the war ended. Because the army delegated the branding to unit armourers, not all 9 mm pistols carry the nine, the French government set up an order for 1,000 pistols with 99 millimetres barrels for the Gendarmerie Nationale. The pistol had black ebonite grips rather than wooden ones, the German government purchased 7,800 commercial M30 pistols in 1940 for use by the Luftwaffe
42.
Mannlicher M1894
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The Mannlicher M1894 was an early blow-forward semi-automatic pistol. The earliest Ferdinand Mannlicher pistol, manufactured by Fabrique DArmes de Neuhausen, Switzerland, was designed to be self-loading, the design represented an entirely new utilization of mechanical principles in automatic action called blow-forward action. A special barrel housing which carries the sight covers the length of the barrel when the arm is closed. A heavy recoil spring is mounted concentrically around the barrel within this housing and is compressed between a shoulder at the end of the casing and a shoulder at the rear of the barrel. An unusual element in this design is a three-armed barrel-holding lever and it is pivoted above the trigger as shown in the drawing from page 188, Mannlicher Rifles and Pistols, Smith,1947. Its bottom arm engages with the trigger, the forward arm holds the barrel forward for loading. The rear arm serves as a hammer catch, to load this weapon the hammer is cocked. As the hammer rotates on its axis pin, it acts upon the trigger, the hammer axis pin also supports the center arm of the barrel holding lever, which arm emerges and is raised high enough by its spring to press into a slot under the barrel. The rising thumbpiece on top of the barrel over the breech is then pushed forward, the barrel moves forward until its muzzle emerges from the barrel housing, compressing the recoil spring. The stripper clip is inserted in the guide of the receiver. The cartridges are stripped off the clip and pressed into the magazine-well in the body of the pistol, a lip at the top prevents the cartridges from emerging. The friction of forward motion of the projectile against the inside of the barrel causes the bullet to act as a quasi-plug in the barrel. Forward motion of the barrel is arrested by the increasing tension of the recoil spring. It is no worse, however, than a revolver of equivalent power, the extractor is mounted on the left side of the barrel extension. As the barrel moves forward the extractor draws the empty case from the face of the breech to eject it. The barrel holding lever arm moves up by action of the trigger, the magazine spring, pushing against the follower, forces the cartridges up to present the next cartridge for loading. As the trigger is released and moves forward it acts on the arm of the barrel holding lever causing it to pivot. The barrel is then driven back by the spring to load the next cartridge
43.
Colt M1900
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The Colt Model 1900 was a short-recoil operated self-loading, or semi-automatic.38 caliber handgun introduced by Colts Manufacturing Company at the turn of the 20th century. It also marked the introduction of.38 ACP, the round for which it is chambered and it was developed from John M. Brownings earlier prototypes in the late 1890s. The United States military tested the design against other semiautomatic pistols by European makers, the M1900 and variants were also offered commercially. Variants included the Model 1902 Sporting, Model 1902 Military, Model 1903 Pocket, and the Model 1905, the designs of 1909 and later did away with the front barrel link, replaced with a simple bushing, and would become the related, and famed, M1911 pistol. In the Browning design, the slide fitted into rails in the frame, the barrel rode in locking grooves machined into the interior of the slide, but attached to swinging links secured to the frame, one at the front and one at the rear. When the slide is forward, the length of the holds the barrel up. The barrel then stops moving, while the slide continues rearwards, extracting and ejecting the fired case and then returns forward. The barrel is caught, and moved forward with the slide, the M1911, and most other pistols since, found that it was only necessary to use a single rear link and locking grooves in the rear. This approach was found to work well, and saved in complexity, cost of manufacture. The new design featured a new cartridge, the.38 Automatic Colt Pistol. This was a larger caliber bullet than used by other contemporary designs, the.38 ACP was also a much faster cartridge than the.38 Long Colt revolver cartridge in service at the time, which fired a 130 grain bullet at 770 ft/s. Colt was also experimenting with a.41 caliber cartridge for use in the Model 1900, like the.41 Long Colt, this probably used a.400 inch bullet. The prototype.41 caliber Colt automatic cartridge was never produced in production quantity, Colt did produce a few Model 1903.41 cal. pistols, conversions of Model 1902 Military Models, for the cartridge before the development of the cartridge ended. When pushed down the safety blocked the firing pin, when pushed up it performed as the rear sight and this gave an immediate visual indicator of whether the safety was on or off when one went to aim the pistol, without resorting to feeling for the safety lever. The first 1900s were equipped with rear milled slide grooves but when it was found that this could interfere with the safety the milled slide grooves were moved to the front. This safety was used in about the first 3,000 production pistols, Colt then installed a conventional rear sight and eliminated the sight safety although the cut in the slide remained but was plugged. The grooves, remained in the front of the slide, there are earlier sight safety M1900s that were factory retrofitted with the new fixed sight. Although Colt considered a new firing pin safety mounted on the side of the slide with one prototype
44.
Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken
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In 1896 Loewe founded Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken with a munitions plant in Karlsruhe, formerly Deutsche Metallpatronenfabrik Lorenz, and the weapons plant in Berlin. Shares that Loewe had in other gun- and ammunition plants were transferred to DWM and this included Waffenfabrik Mauser, Fabrique Nationale dArmes de Guerre in Belgium and Waffen- und Munitionsfabrik A. G. in Budapest. The DWM was orchestrated by Isidor Loewe, as his brother Ludwig had died in 1886, karl Maybach was employed by the Loewe company in 1901. DWM introduced the Pistol Parabellum in the early 1900s and it was worked on by Georg Luger and Hugo Borchardt. DWM manufactured the Maschinengewehr 01 and Maschinengewehr 08, licensed version/clone of the Maxim machine gun, the MG08 would be the main German machine gun of the First World War, alongside the somewhat different, air cooled Parabellum MG 14/17 for aviation use. Along with being one of the arms suppliers of Imperial Germany. They also supplied the world with the Mauser rifle system, becoming one of the worlds largest arms manufacturers, due the fact that the Mauser rifle was one of Germanys main exports before the First World War, DWM proved to be an important part of the pre-war German economy. Many of their weapons were used by German troops up through the Second World War. DWM had its own system of codes, and the DWM three digit-code still is important in differentiating vintage ammunitions. Furthermore, the DWM cases got no caliber names, so one did not get misleading caliber designations in reformed cartridges, DWM was taken over by the Quandt Group in 1929. At this point the involvement of the Loewe company came to an end, the original Ludwig Loewe & Company merged with the Gesellschaft für Elektrische Unternehmungen in 1929. DWM underwent a number of changes following World War I. DWM was no longer allowed to produce military equipment after World War I, after the national-socialist takeover of power in Germany, the company added vormals Deutsche -Waffen und Munitionsfabriken to the company name in 1933. In 1936 DWM reverted to its old name, a recent film, The Silence of the Quandts, took a critical look at their wartime activities. After denazification hearings in 1948, no repercussions followed, in the 1950s the Berlin branch of the company started using the name Deutsche Waggon- und Maschinenfabriken GmbH, but still using the original DWM logo. The new name reflected the fact that the Berlin branch had switched to the renovation and building of railroad, the Berlin branch became Waggon Union, a manufacturer of rail vehicles and bus bodies. The Karlsruhe branch changed its name into IWK or Industriewerke Karlsruhe, in 2007 the Karlsruhe-Augsburg company moved its seat to Augsburg and reverted to the name KUKA, the original name of the Augsburg company, short for Keller und Knappich Augsburg. Following the takeover by the Quandt Group in 1929 the manager of DWM, Paul von Gontard had married Clara Busch, daughter of American brewer of German origin Adolphus Busch in 1895 and joined his wife in the USA, becoming involved in the Anheuser-Busch company
Argentina[10]
Bangladesh: Rapid Action Battalion[49]
Brazil: The Brazilian Army uses a version of the M1911 developed by IMBEL chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum and designated M973.[50][51]
Bolivia[52][53]
Canada: In both World Wars, Canadian officers had the option of privately purchasing their own sidearm and the M1911/M1911A1 was a popular choice. The joint Canadian-US First Special Service Force (aka "The Devil's Brigade") also used American infantry weapons, including the M1911A1.[54]
People's Republic of China: Norinco exports a clone of the M1911A1 for civilian purchase. The Chinese arms company also manufactured conversion kits to chamber the 7.62×25mm Tokarev round after the Korean War.[34][52][53]
Colombia[52][53]
Costa Rica[52][53]
Dominican Republic[52][53]
East Timor[55]
Egypt[53] used by Unit 777
Ecuador[53]
Fiji[52]
France[56] Known in French service as Pistolet automatique 11 mm 4 (C.45) (Automatic pistol 11.4mm (calibre .45)). Both M1911 and M1911A1 pistols were used.[57]
Georgia: Used by Police Special Forces.[58]
Greece[37]
Guatemala[53][59]
Haiti[52][53]
Indonesia[59]
Iran[52][59]
Liberia[52]
Lithuania: Lithuanian Armed Forces[60]
Luxembourg: In service with 1st Artillery Battalion 1963–1967.[61]
Malaysia: In service with Grup Gerak Khas special forces of the Malaysian Army[62]
Mexico[52][53][59]
Nicaragua[52][53]
North Korea: Local copies used by North Korean Special forces and Presidential Guard.[63]
Philippines[52]
Papua New Guinea[64]
Poland: Polish Armed Forces in the West used pistols during World War II.[65]
Republic of China (Taiwan)[52]
Spain[66]
South Korea: Made under license by S&T Daewoo and used by Republic of Korea Air Force as officers' sidearms.[10]
Thailand: Made under license. Known as the "Type 86" pistol.[34]
Turkey[67]
United Kingdom[10]
United States: Former standard-issue service pistol of the U.S. Armed forces, the pistol remains in service with various law enforcement agencies across the U.S, such as the FBI, along with some US Special Operations soldiers.[66]
Vietnam: Used both Crude copies chambered in 7.62×25mm Tokarev & Captured US M1911A1s in .45 ACP by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army during Vietnam War.[68]
Zimbabwe[52]
Finland: About 51,000 bought by Russian military from United States in years 1915–1917. But only relatively small number of these captured pistols ended up to hands of authorities after Finnish Civil War. Finnish military had about 120 pistols during World War 2, most of them were issued to field army.[69]
Democratic Republic of Georgia[70]
Nazi Germany: Used captured pistols during World War II.[10]
Japan: After World War II Japan Self-Defense Forces and Police were provided the M1911A1 from US and were used until 1980s.[71]
Norway[10]
South Vietnam[10]
Soviet Union: Used by communist revolutionaries to murder the Russian imperial family in July 1918.[72] Thousands of pistols were received as military assistance during World War II.[66]
