Articles with introduction to firearms

Learn the Basics of Ammunition with Winchester® Educational Infographics

By using retail surveys, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF®) estimates records were surpassed when nearly 14 million Americans purchased a firearm for the first time in the two years of 2020 and 2021, when a total of about 40 million firearms were sold. Gallup research suggests 44% of US adults—114 million people—report living in a gun household.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 4 Basic Rules of Gun Safety ]

With so many first-time gun owners needing to learn the basics of responsible firearm ownership, Winchester®—the largest small caliber ammunition enterprise in the world—has created “Introduction to Ammunition-Ammo 101” easy-to-understand infographics illustrating the ammunition categories of

  • rimfire,
  • pistol,
  • centerfire, and
  • shotshell,

and showcasing

  • ammunition construction,
  • components,
  • calibers, and
  • common usage

for each.

Click each image below to enlarge it on your screen. Also, click here to download the pdf document of the following images.

Image of the inner working of pistol ammunition
Handgun calibers are determined by the inside diameter of the barrel they’re shot from. These sizes range from as small as .22 to as large as .50 caliber. Popular cartridges are .22 LR, .380 Auto, 9 MM, .38 Special, 40 S&W, and 45 Auto.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Checklist: Matters to Consider When Deciding on a Handgun which includes links to web articles that are glossaries of gun terms ]

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Why Do You Carry a Gun for Self-Defense?

If a family member, friend, or stranger asks why you carry a gun for self-defense, tell them:

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Concealed Carry Daily Prayer ]

I exercise my US Constitutional right to concealed carry a firearm and I diligently train in the civil right of self-defense because I’m pro-life and pro-social justice, since malicious and violent criminals and terrorists don’t have the right to steal a person’s life, liberty, and happiness.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, USA State Constitutions Providing for Armed Self-Defense ]

The civil right of the US Constitution’s 2nd Amendment does not grant me the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense, it precludes the government from infringing on my natural right to do so.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Worldviews and Emotional Assumptions in the Gun Civil Rights Debate ]

Criminals, terrorists, and the dangerously mentally ill act suddenly and make our nation more violent. Law-abiding, responsibly prepared gun owners save and protect lives.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, 15 Truths About Defensive Gun Use ]

Invite SemperVerus® to present its 5 life-changing success-generating components—prepare, aware, be, know, do—to your organization to inspire and motivate your members.

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Why Use and How to Choose Pepper Spray

If you carry a gun for self-defense, you should also carry pepper spray.* Even if you don’t carry a gun, you should carry pepper spray, also known as oleoresin capsicum (“OC”).

Using a firearm for self-defense is always the very last option in a lethal attack situation. But you shouldn’t rely solely on a gun as your only means of self-defense. FBI/DOJ crime statistics tell us we’re 5 times more likely to be faced with a non-deadly threat, against which only non-deadly defensive force is legally appropriate, than we are a deadly threat.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 5 Elements of Self-Defense Law ]

Under what circumstances is the use of pepper spray as a defensive tool lawful and advisable? What conditions have to be met before you can use pepper spray in self-defense? Pepper spray is a non-deadly form of self-defense and can be used to stop any reasonably perceived threat of non-deadly harm, which means almost any degree of harm. So long as you use it defensively and not offensively, generally speaking you should be within your rights.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Checklist: Categories and Their Items for Every Day Carry (EDC) ]

In the following video, Chris Baker of Lucky Gunner says, “OC gives you a force option that’s somewhere between harsh language and shooting somebody. We all know that statistically, we are very unlikely to end up in a situation where we need to use our firearm to defend our life. Much more common are situations that call for some kind of intervention that’s less than deadly force. Maybe someone is behaving in a threatening way, but they don’t have a weapon and they have not done anything yet that would warrant using deadly force. That might be a good time to deploy some OC.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Video: Always Carry Pepper (OC) Spray for Non-Lethal Force Self-Defense ]

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15 Truths About Defensive Gun Use

While Gun Murders Are Unlawful, Gun Homicides Are Not Necessarily Unlawful.
Don’t be fooled into misreading homicide statistics reported in the media. Not all homicides are social ills. Some homicides are justified lawful killings in self-defense or defense of others. For example, the intended rape victim who manages to kill her rapist in the act has committed a homicide. Would we prefer that she had been raped? The potential homicide victim who kills their attacker, rather than get killed themselves, has committed a homicide: lawful self-defense. Would we prefer that the victim of the attack have been killed?

According to attorney Andrew Branca, author of The Law of Self Defense, “a homicide (the killing of one person by another) can be

  • unlawful and intentional—what is traditionally referred to as murder—or
  • unlawful and unintentional—what is traditionally referred to as manslaughter or criminally reckless homicide—or
  • lawful and intentional—usually self-defense or defense of others—or
  • lawful and unintentional—accident or misadventure.”

Don’t be deceived when people talk in generalities that the number of gun deaths or homicides have increased and therefore more laws are needed to infringe on the civil right to keep and bear arms. Maybe the homicides being reported are of criminal aggressors attempting to murder and maim and rape innocent people, and they were killed by their victims or by people stepping up to defend those victims.

A murder is a homicide that’s unlawful; a self-defense killing is a homicide that’s lawful.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 5 Elements of Self-Defense Law ]

Here are 14 more points everyone should understand about guns. Read about them in depth at TheFederalist.com:

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