Gun

The term "gun" is often used synonymously with "firearm," but this is common only for civilian usage. In military usage, the term "gun" refers to heavy and light artillery that fires projectiles at high velocity, such as naval guns (which are never referred to as cannons) or tank guns. By military terms, mortars and all hand-held firearms are excluded from the definition of guns.^{[citation needed]} Two exceptions to this include: the shotgun, which is a smoothbore hand-held gun that fires a load of shot or a single projectile known as a slug, and the machine gun, which is a fully-automatic weapon mounted on a tripod or bipod and is almost always operated by a crew.

The word "gun" is also applied to some more or less vaguely gun-like or gun-shaped tools such as staple guns, nail guns, and glue guns.

A gun is any of several types of object that propels another object or projectile. The projectile is generally fired through a hollow tube known as the gun's barrel. The barrel's diameter, or caliber, determines the size of projectile used, which is usually designated in fractions of an inch or in millimeters. Differing from the musket, most modern guns are rifled, with a series of grooves spiraling along the barrel; exceptions include smoothbores on tanks, AFVs and some artillery.

Gun culture

The gun culture is a culture shared by people in the gun politics debate, generally those who advocate preserving gun rights and who are against more gun control. In the United States, the term is used solely to identify gun advocates who are legitimate and legal owners and users of guns, using guns for self defense, sporting uses (hunting), and recreational uses (target shooting). By contrast, the term is used differently in the UK and Australia, where it refers to a growing use and ownership of guns by criminals.