With the sin of terminology.
yesterday I posted Smith and Wesson's recall due to defective parts of their M&P Shield line of handguns. I used the word "Automatic" before the word "handgun". Rather than discuss the problem with S&W's design that use of the trigger can damage the safety mechanism that prevents discharge if the weapon is dropped, there were about 20 comments complaining about the words handgun, automatic, and gun.
More after the fold.
Lets start with the word "gun". In the military "gun" is used to describe large-calibre, direct-fire, high-velocity, flat-trajectory artillery piece weapons. However, in the rest of the world (the 99.5%) not in the military the term "gun" means any firearm used by a person. Which is why we have a political fight over "gun control" and everyone knows you're not talking about 120mm main guns on tanks.
Now, Handgun. Really, of all the things to be upset about. Yes, pistol would be accurate, but still handgun is clearly the same thing. But the Gun Nuts like to show off their "gotchya" ness by pointing out that a rifle is a "handgun" compared to a 20mm chain gun.
The "Automatic" part really pissed of the GN's. It is a SEMI-automatic they cry. Sorry, but no. Handguns come in two basic flavors (in general today, not through history): Revolver and Automatic. Which is referring to the method of reloading, not action. (Action is the process of how the hammer falls on the firing pin with a trigger pull)
The .45 AUTOMATIC pistol is the classic example of this. It is an automatic reloading pistol. Even the great Massad Ayoob - former police officer and expert on firearms (having testified as an expert in over 500 trials) refers to Automatics as, well, Automatics.
Now I did make a mistake. ACP most of the time refers to Automatic COLT Pistol. I wrote Automatic Centerfire Pistol. This is due to fat finger writing on an iPhone while posted waiting for the next 911 call. An ACP round is a Centerfire Pistol round. Some imported ammo has come to the US with Automatic Centerfire Pistol printed on it due to bad translation which has added to the confusion. But with the recent restrictions on flooding the US with ammo, this is less common. Either way, it changes nothing, the A stands for Automatic, as in Automatic Pistol/Handgun/firearm/gun/weapon.
But hey, don't worry about a "gun" going off if you drop it. As the GN's say over and over on GunFAIL "guns don't go off if you drop them they have safety systems"...at least one has a system that use of the trigger can damage the system.
Having the GN's rant and rave about how you used the wrong word (words that everyone understands) is the same as saying "LA LA LA I CANT HEAR YOU".